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1. Gwendolyn Brooks and Amiri Baraka were both significant voices in the Black Arts Movement that touched on an array of subjects ranging from identity, society, and martyrdom. Perhaps the leading participants of the Movement, their poetry—though written in their own respective styles—share many comparisons that honor the legacy of fallen heroes such Malcolm X, and that critique mid-century America’s cultural norms. In Brooks’s poem “For Malcom” she writes, “He had the hawk-man’s eye. We gasped. We saw the maleness. The maleness raking out and making guttural the air and pushing us to walls.” The word choice in this stanza is incredibly revealing because for Brooks, Malcolm and his maleness were inseparable. His forwarding-thought mind and …show more content…
Pulitzer-Prize winning poets Rita Dove and Yusef Komunyakaa explore issues broader than rural black America. In “Parsley”, Dove canvasses the issues of inequality and oppression in Haiti; whereas in “Facing It”, Komunyakaa examines the Vietnam War from the perspective of a black solider and the post-traumatic stress he endures. What unites the two poets is their utilization of lyricism and rhythms to articulate personal narratives and create complex images of life through observations and experiences. Both Dove and Komunyakaa stress their individuality in their poetry by using words like “we” or “I” and employ imagery to express the emotions of the speakers in their poems. In “Parsley”, Dove writes, “we lie down screaming as rain punches through and we come up green. We cannot speak an R…” Though Dove has is not recounting personal experiences in the “Parsley”, her individuality in the poem illustrates her broad scope on the subject of racial inequality (for her, the discrimination and terrorization of Blacks in America and Haiti are intersectional); and ultimately it is racial inequality she seeks to destroy. Further touching on the theme of individuality, Komunyakaa’s “Facing It” is about the terrible traumatic experiences of Vietnam Veteran. The speaker is for some reason repressing his emotions when recounting on memories of the war at the Vietnam War Memorial. Komunyakaa writes, “I said I wouldn’t, dammit: No tears. I’m stone. I’m flesh.” These lines deepen the sense …show more content…
Additionally, the absence of rhyme and the writing form of free verse create a more personable feel to the poems. In “Daystar”, Dove writes of a woman who plays the role of both a wife and a mother. Her day to day existence depends on caring for her children, yet she strives to move past this life and embark on a more exciting life. Her tiresome life is expressed in the third line where Dove writes, “A doll slumped behind the door.” This imagery paints a picture of a woman/mother that has lost the will to carry on with her day-to-day routine; one that has lost the sense of purpose and meaning—a mere individual sagging on a closed door. The free verse of the poem allows for any mother or wife to connect with the character in the poem, given that many mothers have similar situations. Imagery in Komunyakaa’s “Baking Potatoes” is seen immediately in the title and eventually in lines 11-12, where the speaker says, “Like flesh-colored stones along a riverbed/Or diminished souls beside a mass grave.” Here, Komunyakaa uses the light-heated imagery to highlight a very disturbing memory the speaker remembers. The similarities between both poets can be seen through their individualist poetic voices that are primarily concerned with identity, crippling emotions, and individualistic sensibilities relating to the African-American
113-117. Modern Critical Views: Toni Morrison. New York: Chelsea House Publishing, 1990. Malcolm X. "On Afro-American History" - "The History of American History" Audubon Ballroom, Harlem, MA. 24 Jan 1965.
First of all, Brooks is an African-American individual. She was born in 1917 and would have been discriminated against in Topeka where she was born, and even in Chicago where she grew up and went to school. She lived to see the effects of the ever-increasing freedom of the African-American people, and experienced it firsthand. After Brown vs. The Board Of Education of Topeka Kansas and the end of World War Two, Blacks were embarking on a new journey. They had come from slavery to separate-but-equal, but now the new problem for blacks was identity. What is an ideal black man? What does an African American stand for--or against for that matter? We are, but who are we? These are only a sample of the questions expressed through the action of the poem, and its exposition in t...
As one of America’s leading contemporary poet’s, Sharon Olds is known for the intense personal and emotional poetry that she writes. Her ability to intimately and graphically divulge details of her personal life allows readers to delve into the deepest parts of not only her mind, but of their own as well. Sharon Olds uses her writing to allow readers to experience the good and bad of life through her eyes, yet allows readers the interpretive freedom to define her works as they fit into their own lives. Olds’ ability to depict both wonderful and tragic events in stories such as “First Thanksgiving” and “Still Life in Landscape”with beautifully gruesome clarity allow readers a gritty real-life experience unlike any other.
Gwendolyn Brooks is the female poet who has been most responsive to changes in the black community, particularly in the community’s vision of itself. The first African American to be awarded a Pulitzer Prize; she was considered one of America’s most distinguished poets well before the age of fifty. Known for her technical artistry, she has succeeded in forms as disparate as Italian terza rima and the blues. She has been praised for her wisdom and insight into the African Experience in America. Her works reflect both the paradises and the hells of the black people of the world. Her writing is objective, but her characters speak for themselves. Although the idiom is local, the message is universal. Brooks uses ordinary speech, only words that will strengthen, and richness of sound to create effective poetry.
The contradiction of being both black and American was a great one for Hughes. Although this disparity was troublesome, his situation as such granted him an almost begged status; due to his place as a “black American” poet, his work was all the more accessible. Hughes’ black experience was sensationalized. Using his “black experience” as a façade, however, Hughes was able to obscure his own torments and insecurities regarding his ambiguous sexuality, his parents and their relationship, and his status as a public figure.
African-Americans’/ Affrilachians’ Suffering Mirrored: How do Nikky Finney’s “Red Velvet” and “Left” Capture events from the Past in order to Reshape the Present? Abstract Nikky Finney (1957- ) has always been involved in the struggle of southern black people interweaving the personal and the public in her depiction of social issues such as family, birth, death, sex, violence and relationships. Her poems cover a wide range of examples: a terrified woman on a roof, Rosa Parks, a Civil Rights symbol, and Condoleezza Rice, former Secretary of State, to name just a few. The dialogue is basic to this volume, where historical allusions to prominent figures touch upon important sociopolitical issues. I argue that “Red Velvet” and “Left”, from Head off & Split, crystallize African-Americans’ /African-Americans’ suffering and struggle against slavery, by capturing events and recalling historical figures from the past.
Malcolm X. “Nightmare.” Intersections: An Introduction to the Liberal Arts. Ed. Peggy Fitch. Littleton, MA: Tapestry, 2011. 90-99. Print.
W.E.B. Dubois was one of the most prolific and pioneering leaders during the early Civil Rights era. Throughout his life, he produced numerous works as a commentary on the social construct that existed between whites and blacks, including the groundbreaking collection of essays The Souls of Black Folk published in 1903. These essays detailed the historical, political and sociological plight of African Americans in society after the Civil War. In addition, the essays introduced the concept of double consciousness which referred to the challenge blacks faced in reconciling an African heritage with an American identity, a theory that would disseminate into his later works. Accordingly, his poem “The Song of the Smoke” published in 1907 is an extension of his earlier work in double consciousness, but with an emphasis on the celebration of black heritage. Embedded in these affirmations of blackness; however, is a sense of longing for the unity and equality of all races. In the poem, “The Song of the Smoke”, DuBois reflects on the past, finding grief and courage in the legacy of his slave ancestry and toward the future, hoping a new strength and dignity is formed amongst all Americans.
For the purpose of this chapter, these words by Stephen Vincent Benet in his foreword to Margaret Walker’s first volume of poetry, For My People (1942) are really important. They give an idea about the richness of the literary heritage from which Walker started to write and to which she later added. This chapter is up to explore those “anonymous voices” in Walker’s poetry, the cultural and literary heritages that influenced her writings. Margaret Walker’s cultural heritage, like her biological inheritance, extends back to her ancestors in Africa and the Caribbean. It is quite genetic, something she got by birth; which is quite there just by being African American. Echoes of ancient myths, lost history, mixed bloods, and complex identities are brought about along with the skin colour and the racial origins.
Hoyt, Charles Alva. “The Five Faces of Malcolm X.” Negro American Literature Forum 4 (1970): 107-112.
Smith, David Lionel. “The Black Arts Movement and Its Critics.” American Literary History. 3.1 (Spring 1991): 94-109.
Most struggles are silent, they go into our bank of memories and are used to shape each of us, voicing your most painful memories is more than laying your past for others to look at and examine. Voicing your most painful memories is opening yourself entirely, letting others look in. Natasha Trethewey uses her confusion and hurt that she experienced as pieces for an artwork that has yet to be painted. By writing Native Guard, Trethewey recreates herself like a disjointed collage. Using gut-wrenching poetry as her medium, she uses her words to represent a self portrait of her struggles, giving the reader a chance to realize Trethewey’s emotions during a time in which she had a difficulty realizing them for herself, thus helping the audience
Over the course of the century chronicling the helm of slavery, the emancipation, and the push for civil, equal, and human rights, black literary scholars have pressed to have their voice heard in the midst a country that would dare classify a black as a second class citizen. Often, literary modes of communication were employed to accomplish just that. Black scholars used the often little education they received to produce a body of works that would seek to beckon the cause of freedom and help blacks tarry through the cruelties, inadequacies, and inconveniences of their oppressed condition. To capture the black experience in America was one of the sole aims of black literature. However, we as scholars of these bodies of works today are often unsure as to whether or not we can indeed coin the phrase “Black Literature” or, in this case, “Black poetry”. Is there such a thing? If so, how do we define the term, and what body of writing can we use to determine the validity of the definition. Such is the aim of this essay because we can indeed call a poem “Black”. We can define “Black poetry” as a body of writing written by an African-American in the United States that formulates a concentrated imaginative awareness of an experience or set of experiences inextricably linked to black people, characterizes a furious call or pursuit of freedom, and attempts to capture the black condition in a language chosen and arranged to create a specific emotional response through meaning, sound, and rhythm. An examination of several works of poetry by various Black scholars should suffice to prove that the definition does hold and that “Black Poetry” is a term that we can use.
Margolies, Edward. “History as Blues: Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man.” Native Sons: A Critical Study of Twentieth-Century Negro American Authors. J.B. Lippincott Company, 1968. 127-148. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Daniel G. Marowski and Roger Matuz. Vol. 54. Detroit: Gale, 1989. 115-119. Print.
In all of her poems Grace Nichols explores a variety of themes such as immigration and emigration in her poem “Icons”. However in “Black” she also explores several other themes such as race and perception. In this essay I aim to determine whether or not “Black” is mainly a poem about skin colour or of it can simply be perceived as such.