African-American music

Renaissance, gave other races and cultures a glance in the average African-American life and struggles. John Mercer Langston Hughes was born on February 1, 1902 in Joplin, Missouri. Shortly after his birth, his father left to Mexico to escape racial prejudices, and he and his mother…

Through the analysis of scholarly work, one can decipher that to be a slave meant to be a stranger in your own skin. Hence, when the African people were stripped of their identities and torn from their homeland, it created a rift in the connection with their own African heritage. Asphyxiating under the strong hold of oppression, the African community was unable to express their true customs in attempt to keep a connection with their homeland afloat. However, as black individuals began to break…

The Harlem Renaissance was a movement that started in New York City during World War I and continued into the 1930’s. It was an African American movement, which was also known as the “New Negro Movement”. Many African American’s were sick and tired of the way they were being treated by white Americans and used many forms of art to express and represent who they were and what was happening in their culture. The Jim Crow laws and white supremacy were becoming too much for many to handle, which is…

don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”(pp. 90) The book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is one of the most inspiring books in our generation that teaches us many lessons about different topics. Racism is one of the main problems that conflicts the small town of Maycomb, Alabama. African Americans are treated poorly…

Education is an essential part of life. Looking at education through race is beneficial because education is not the same for all races. In Jon Spayde’s “Learning in the Key of Life” he talks about what it means to be educated. He asks the question, “What does it mean—and more important, what should it mean—to be educated?” in the beginning of his essay. This connects to Richard Wright’s “The Library Card” because he found a way to get through obstacles to become educated. To be educated…

is a South African singer. She was born in Johannesburg on March 4, 1932. Miriam Makeba had a passion for singing as a young girl. She performed her first solo during the royal visit in 1947. Around that time, she would help her mother clean houses to make money. Miriam began her music career by singing for her cousin’s band, the Cuban Brothers. Later into the future, Makeba sang in an all woman group called the Skylarks. The Skylarks was a mixture of jazz and traditional African melodies.…

This essay examines how race and gender are portrayed in a music video Anaconda by Nicki Minaj from 2014. The issue of representation of the Black community and women is significant, considering a huge impact hip-hop culture has on young people’s perception of social matters (Emerson, 2002, p. 115). Minaj is an influential figure in popular culture - her album The Pinkprint, which is supported by the single Anaconda, debuted at number one on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart as well as a number two…

elements of African American poetry. One small sampling of college literature professors found that the most common definition of African American literature was “African American writers who wrote about black characters and the black experience” (Gibson 77). This definition does not provide an adequate delineation of the crucial properties of Black poetry. Zora Neale Hurston, novelist and folklorist, observes that the following are some of the characteristics of African American…

even appears in pop culture references such as in the song “La Vie Bohéme” from the musical Rent. One of Hughes most famous poems is titled “I, too, sing America”. It refers to not just the time in which it was written but the history of people of African descent in America. The poem’s use of simple yet powerful words drives the meaning home and allows the complex meaning to shine. The rhythm of the poem is the rhythm of jazz and blues. This adds a musical quality to the free verse piece.…

you guessed it, the Black Arts Movement. In it, the author – Harmonious Assembler – explains to the audience that the main argument that they should focus on is the fact that only three people have driven the movement into where it is today: with music like hip-hop and rap being played. These three people they are implying are Amiri Baraka, Gil Scott Heron, and The Last Poets (both the original and current members of the group). The article continues to explain that these three forerunners have…