Fluent Essays

You will work with one, two, or three of the poems studied this week.  Show direct control over theme and analysis. You may incorporate the historical time frame,  cultural emphasis, and/or  how the  author's  background impacted the work. Lead with a thesis sentence that contains the title(s) of the poem (s).  In brainstorming, consider the angle you intend to use  to examine them/it. Would it help to know their/its context?  How might you define their/its message?   Would comparison/contrast be valuable? Can you communicate how they/it contributes to the body of literature both idiosyncratic to the Black tradition and  broader implications? Certainly, you are not compelled to work with each of these prompts.  They are just here to help you focus.   The assignment is 75 points, uses MLA, and has a fuller discussion in the compacted Week 14 at end of course.  Notice the extensive preparation time.  Planning is such a valuable tool. So is persistence. :-)    Scroll to the end of the reading materuial for research helps Out of Alien Days Aimé Césaire (Martinique) Pronounce: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufiU0GLxFb8 http://www.mainstreamweekly.net/article1031.html Aimé Césaire, as with so many writers in this course, is central to political movement, societal advancement, and culture honoring. Keys to understanding his contributions are his protest against slavery and European colonialism as well as his stand for Third World struggles for independence. So much of life is retro-evaluation. Pieces have come together and are filtered through time and external lenses of critics, governmental leadership, and historical icons. Césaire continues to gain credibility as a pivotal force who connects the Harlem Renaissance with the Negritude Movement of the Caribbean and Africa. He was “before” the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s. He is frequently compared to legends such as Langston Hughes, Leopald Sedar Senghor, Nicolas Guillen, and Amiri Baraka. The highlighted authors are studied in this course. Online biography and literary analysis: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/aimae-fernand-caesaire The repeated suggestion for this course is that you print the work. · Track and interpret images. Scarecrow? Plow of the storm? Carnival of others? · Note verb uses. Sprout? · Why are there stanzas? What occurs in each? What changes? How is there development or regression? · Who speaks? · What is the motivation? · Do you know all vocabulary? What about the true meaning of alien? Mercenary? Balisier? Salubrious? Scarecrow? Poetry is typically highly condensed. Each word and its placement is vital. Clearly, Césaire is trying encourage his brethren. To do what? To be what? Out of Alien Days Reflection Alien is foreign, not native.  Depending upon perspective, it is not right, edgy, enticing. If we are not used to eating grasshoppers, the thought can abhorrent. In like manner, there are those who consider cows as a sacred representation of life. Some may worship them as evidences of selfless giving. It would not be wise to injure or inconvenience these animals in an area that practices this belief. What if it is we who are among the alien and it is we who have to adjust, conform, engage in order to survive and even thrive? We still might be in our homeland, but  what if a more powerful control is superimposed upon us? We are restricted in some or many ways.  We might be forced to do what we consider is “ungodly,” for example.    The poet pleads, almost shouting, for his people to leave the shackles of foreign power and culture and become their rightful selves. When are you going to do this? When? This is when: When you stop being a dark toy and take on who you were meant to be, then there is a higher, sweeter, broader tomorrow.   Obviously, this is a call for Cesaire’s people to “come into their own.”  Leave the intruder, user, manipulator behind. It has broader application to those beyond his nationalism and immediate culture as well.  Polonius: This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man. Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 3. Remember Charles Atlas Also Dies? The definition of traitor is written by the winner.  Winners generally need traitors to help them. Prayer to Masks New York Leopold Sedar Senghor (Senegal) Pronounce: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcsQassizvE https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/leopold-sedar-senghor Senghor, along with Cesaire, inaugurated the Negritude movement in France, celebrating that part of his heritage. Compelling, too, is the fact that he sought reconciliation between his heritage from both Africa and Europe. Think. The Ballad of the Two Grandfathers. I am who I am. Can I cut off part of me? He is considered central to African literature, was president of Senegal for twenty years, and was a strong voice against the colonial movement. He was brilliantly educated which forces the issue of roots. I found at least three translations of each poem. We will stay with the one on our class site. This refocuses on the power of selecting tone and word that reflects the author’s intended purpose. And do not forget that words and cultures change. The translator is faced with adjusting to these needs. Prayer to Masks and New York are a dichotomy to a degree. Prayer to Masks The first is pure heritage. Here, the poet petitions his ancestors. The masks represent them. It is ancestor worship. Then he address his “now” people: “let us report present at the birth of the world.” Poetry does not “work” universally, unless there is a universal message. Consider the strong belief here in the afterlife where those who have preceded us are involved in our current lives and the fact they are allowed to intervene. Note: … we are the men of the dance whose feet only gain power when they beat the hard soil.” Here he defines his people and calls them to action. Reading: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JS-Yx-HoCwQ New York This is loud. This is rude. This is garish. It is West. How does an African with African sensibilities adjust to such? There are long-legged golden girls, disquiet, sulphur, insomniac nights. Then Harlem comes with its native attributions, skillfully altered and altering this new culture. It is an infusion of energy, seeing, being. loving. LIFE. Notice the first focus on Manhattan and the second on Harlem. Why? Notice a reference to the deity: “It is the pure hour when God sets the life before the memory germinating in the streets.” Notice the placement. Why? The author addresses the city. What is that called? How does this work? The following are contributors to the Negritude movement. They are noted here in the event that you wish to prepare your Special Project on the topic. Prayer to Masks Reflection   Masks can hide who we are until we are comfortable in a situation. Masks can be worn to blend in and then tossed when it is safe to do so. Masks can be a contrivance.  Masks can be like photographs to help us remember others. Those visuals can empower us. It is the last one that Prayer to Masks uses.   Notice that this is a man’s world, with clear division between the genders. closed to any feminine laughter These are men who draw power from the powerful who have gone before them. You guard this place… pantherheaded ancestor. Someday, it is reasonable to expect that others will revere this generation of leaders, providers.  towards your children who have been called/ And who sacrifice their lives like the poor man his last garment Notice color.  Black, red, and black and white.  Remember The Ballad of the Two Grandfathers?  Remember United Fruit Company? See the references to the umbilical cord and the leaven? Notice the holiness. You purify the air of eternity, here where I breathe the air of my fathers. Prayer Notice faith and the exuberance of promise:  the cry of joy, that arouses the dead and the wise in a new dawn? Notice the change: who else would teach rhythm to the world that has/ died of machines and cannons? Notice the power building and renewal:  we are the men of the dance whose feet gain new strength/ pounding the hard soil. New York Léopold Sédar Senghor  "New York! At first your beauty confused me, and your great longlegged golden girls. I was so timid at first under your blue metallic eyes, your frosty smile, so timid" When we think about New York City, we think of a city of hopes and dreams, a city of go-getters. To some, this can be a bit intimidating but exciting at the same time. "Your sulfurous  light and the livid shafts   (their heads dumbfounding the sky)" "But at fortnight on the bald sidewalks of Manhattan –At the end of the third week the fever takes you with the pounce of  a jaguar." Not everything that glitters, is gold but is sometimes a shiny façade. "At fortnight with no well or pasture, all the birds of the air fall suddenly down below the high ashes of the terraces. No child 's laughter blossoms...no tender word for mouths are lipless. Hard cash buys artificial hearts." Once you see past the façade, you see the true city. Although, yes, it is still that city of hopes and dreams but it is also not the paradise one may come to expect. That is what we're shown in movies, media, and books. Always the bright side. The shallow side. "I have seen Harlem humming with sounds and solemn colour and flamboyant smells." Some of us seek to find the heart and soul of New York. And that you can find in Harlem. Let’s not fall for the single story of New York, let’s discover ALL of New York. "I have seen them preparing at flight of day, the festival of the Night. I proclaim there is more truth in the Night than in the day." The booming nightlife of Harlem in the 1920s.The Harlem Renaissance. "Harlem Harlem! I have seen Harlem Harlem! A breeze green with corn springing from the pavements ploughed by the bare feet of dancers in crests and waves of silk and breasts of spearheads, ballets of lillies and fabolous masks." Harlem gave us that sense of culture that some of us can relate to from own upbringing. A place that we could let loose and have fun without worrying about how others perceive us.  "New  York! I say to New York, let the black blood flow into your blood. Cleaning the rust from your steel articulations, like an oil of life." The city of New York, although beautiful, could use a bit of the culture that Harlem exudes. Bring some warmth to the big city so that we all can celebrate life to the fullest. "It is enough to open out eyes to the April Rainbow  and the ears, above all ears to God  who with a burst of Saxophone  laughter created the heavens and the earth  in six days.   And on the seventh day, he slept his great negro sleep" Works Cited Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy, The New York Public Library. "General View - Manhattan - Aerial view - Midtown looking southeast" The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1887 - 1964. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e2-c333-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99 Broadway Theater Row - New York 1957 photograph by Daniel Hagerman, uploaded on May 27th, 2018 via fineartamerica.com https://fineartamerica.com/featured/broadway-theater-row-new-york-1957-daniel-hagerman.html Crowded conditions in New York’s tenements—and the diseases those bred—inspired housing reforms at the turn of the 20th century. https://ny.curbed.com/2020/3/19/21186665/coronavirus-new-york-public-housing-outbreak-history The Cotton Club, Harlem, New York City, c. 1930.Science History Images/Alamy https://www.britannica.com/event/Harlem-Renaissance-American-literature-and-art Savoy Ballroom in Harlem, New York City. 1950. © Cornell Capa / Magnum Photos https://www.pinterest.com/pin/68187381840440157/ New York Reflection Out of towner hits the big city. Remember The Cutting of a Drink? The protagonist is assailed by sounds, experiences, sights, odors.  He is challenged to process all of this “newness.” Two students from last term submitted Special Projects that were original musical compositions that they played as a backdrop to the poem being read aloud.  Did you really read the line below the title? Now, grasp a wide view. Quickly now, how many stanzas are there?  · On what does each focus?  · How do they reveal the protagonist’s acclimation to the city? · How do they reflect his origins? Origins form the words we use until we change. For him, New York is a personification of energies.  Notice his use of exclamation marks. It is like being dropped into really cold water.  Stark. Shocking. Aware. Delicious. Painful, too. In this poem, New York City is capsulized by two areas: Manhattan, a major commerce and wide-world culture center and Harlem, a sub section of Manhattan with its more intimate core of African American culture. Both have their own distinct energies.  Remember The Ballad of the Two Grandfathers? Look at the imagery!  What does the poet celebrate? How does he celebrate it? And then the poet concludes with some very beloved lines:             And the ears, above all the ears to God who with a burst of                   saxophone laughter created the heavens and the earth in six days            And on the seventh day, he slept his great negro sleep.   And just to give you a sense:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pc6CWfBgIt8  (John Coltrane, Stan Getz Autumn in New York)     And for over arching tone:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKfxvyXEe-Q