African American Films and Directors in the 1990s Many of the African-American films of the 1980s depicted the community as violent and unsafe. Hollywood was not interested in filming the success stories of thousands of young blacks. And rather than dealing the realities of street life and black neighborhoods, many films portrayed the communities as gang-ridden and violent-- with frequent drive-by shootings and alternating chase sequences. This was because these over-the-top scenes resonated well with young black males in the audience, and ensured profits.…
Question 4 1969 was a time where African American musicians and political organizations were fighting against the war on Black America. For example, James Brown and Sly and the Family Stone both stood up for African American rights and equality, but took very different approaches to their music and message. Political organizations also took a similar approach to black liberation. For instance, there were militant groups like The Black Panthers and nonviolent advocacy groups like the Student National Coordinating Committee (SNCC). During this time having a spectrum of opinions and approaches to ending racism was essential because it gave anyone who was willing to join the fight someone to look up to and gain strength from.…
Louis Armstrong was born on August 4, 1901 in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was born in a very poor part of the city which was called “The Battlefield.” Louis Armstrong’s dad left his family a little bit after he was born and his mom was a prostitute, so he went to live with his grandma. When he was in fifth grade he had to quit school to get a job as a newspaper boy. On New Year’s Eve in 1912 he took his stepdad’s gun and fired it into the air then was arrested and sent to Colored Waif’s home for boys.…
Louis Armstrong was a part of an influential time of the Harlem Renaissance. He played a major role in the Jazz Age, otherwise known as the Roaring Twenties. He helped this time period move forward with this type of jazz. Louis and his group, the Oliver band, brought “swing” to this time period. Louis Armstrong helped start a significant music period (“Louis Armstrong”).…
Power of Imagination What is the power of imagination? Albert Einstein said “Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”…
The Impact Of Motown Motown is one of the most influential music genre. Motown wasn’t just music that was fun to listen to. It helped with the civil rights movement, and It also had crossover success. Motown was founded in the 50s when there was a lot of racism.…
These cultural memories become stable, reliant on the need for critics to enter productions with preconceived notions of what to expect when critiquing revivals of plays that have, by canonization, received mythic status. Yet the first actors who performed the famous roles written by Tennessee Williams did not have to compete with canonized interpretations. The original performances of Laurette Taylor’s Amanda, Marlon Brando’s Stanley, and Burl Ives’s Big Daddy were acts of creation, rather than re-interpretation. Over time, as these performances have become engrained in cultural memory, new performers are forced (by critics, audiences, and scholars alike) to compete with an assumed stability to these original performances, made mythic by their canonization.…
In 1961, The Marvelettes released their debut single, “Please Mr. Postman”, the first song to reach number one from Motown records, founded by a previous automotive factory worker, Berry Gordy, Jr. The founding of Motown records on January 12th, 1959 would lead to some of the most recognized and successful records and artists in the history of music. Along with the many people involved in the rising success of Motown, the style and unique identity of the music and artists would lead to effecting not only African-American listeners, but people of all races. Being at its peak during the Civil Rights Movement, Motown records indirectly impacted the outcome of the end to racial segregation in the United States.…
The Harlem Renaissance was created for the simple purpose of letting African Americans express themselves through music, art, and poetry. At the time, African Americans weren’t violent in any nature, as they were prone to use art and music as their weapon to stand their ground and show the world the beautiful things they can create to overcome the hatred. But how did music and art keep the Harlem Renaissance alive for so long? Was it the culture and foundation? Or was it leading the world into a new era that it became so popular?…
What comes to mind when you hear the name, Dorothy Dandridge? Many think of her arguably best film, 1954's Carmen Jones, while others remember the sultry but unconventional femme fatale. Today, Dandridge is hailed as a pioneer for African-American women in film. In fact, Dorothy Dandridge was the first African-American woman to be nominated for an Academy Award for best actress. However, her legacy remained unacknowledged by the mainstream entertainment industry until 1999, when Halle Berry played Dandridge in Introducing Dorothy Dandridge.…
The first poem I am going to talk about is called “I hear America singing” written by Walt Whitman. The second poem is called “Let America be America again” by Langston Hughes. These two poems have a few similarities that I am going to talk about. The first similarity is that both of these poems themes are centered towards the main idea of America and the american dream.…
The 1920s and 30s were a time of renewal and revival for the city of Harlem. This period of time has been dubbed “the Harlem Renaissance.” One of the artists at the head of this movement was Louis Armstrong. “Satchmo” or “Pops” as he was often called, released many important works, many of which are performed to this day (ABiography.com (Eds.), n.d.). His music has resonated throughout the world from his time to our time.…
Men, for many years, have been considered as the head of the family while women were more compliant, however that changes in the 1900s as women break from their traditional roles thus causing a shift in the men’s roles. According to The Norton Anthology of African American Literature, Lorraine Hansberry was “the first black woman to have a play produced on Broadway” (Gates 1768). Hansberry ’s play A Raisin in the Sun is set around 1959 in Chicago and it is about the Younger family facing situations after the death of their father.…
Comparing and Contrasting Elements in Poems Langston Hughes’s, “Harlem (or A Dream Deferred)” depicts what occurs when a dream is postponed over a long period of time. Maya Angelou’s, “Still I Rise” depicts the speaker’s resistance to those who try to oppress her. Incorporating both similes and metaphors, “Harlem” and “Still I Rise” are used to portray the different reactions of the speaker towards being oppressed, and the different kinds of oppression they face. Although both poems use similes to portray the speaker’s reaction to oppression, the speaker in the first poem faces the oppression of a dream coming true, the speaker in the second poem faces the oppression of herself.…
I have read Theodore Roethke’s poem “My Papa’s Waltz” several times, and every I tend to find new insights in it. It is the same old story where a father comes home drunk and mistreats his family. That’s what a reader would think after one reading of it. I expressed I can relate to the son and father’s relationship, along with some of the emotions expressed in the poem.…