Month: September 2022

Read: The following poems by Helene Johnson

• – “A Southern Road” (in Fire!!)

• – “Sonnet to a Negro in Harlem” by Helene Johnson (allpoetry.com)

Read: The following poems by Langston Hughes

• – “Railroad Avenue” (in Fire!!)

• – “Song for Billie” (stephenfrug.blogspot.com)

• – “Negro Dancers” (poets.org)

Read/Listen: The following poems by Sterling Brown

• – “Ma Rainey” (poetryfoundation.org)

• – “Memphis Blues” (allpoetry.com)

• – “Southern Road” (poets.org)

• Listen: – “‘Ma Rainey’ by Sterling Allen Brown” [2:12] posted on YouTube.com by Amir Menasheof on April 2, 2018.

Watch / Listen:

Louis Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6,1971) Wikipedia.

• – “Louis Armstrong – Black and Blue.” [5:33] Posted on YouTube.com by Austin Casey on January 25, 2013.

Ma Rainey (April 26, 1886 – December 22, 1939) Wikipedia.

• – “Ma Rainey – ‘Jealous Hearted Blues’ 1924.” [3:22] Posted on YouTube.com by New Orleans Jazz-Pub on November 2, 2016.

Bessie Smith (April 15, 1894 – September 26, 1937) Wikipedia.

• – “Tain’t Nobody’s Business if I Do’ (Bessie Smith, 1923) Jazz Legend” [3:23]. Posted by RagtimeDorianHenry. June 3, 2009. Youtube.com <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VKEKkTQU-k> Accessed 10/7/19.

• – “Bessie Smith – I Need a Little Sugar in my Bowl” [2:48] Posted by Sugar Bear Mosher. February 16, 2009. Youtube.com <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meuwKhPGItk> Accessed 10/7/19.

Memphis Minnie (June 3, 1897 – August 6, 1973) Wikipedia

• – Memphis Minnie “When the Saints Go Marching Home” [3:07] posted on YouTube.com by The Orchard Enterprises on November 6, 2014.

Duke Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) Wikipedia.

• – Duke Ellington’s “Symphony in Black: A Rhapsody of Negro Life (1935) | Duke Ellington and Billie Holiday.” [9:41] Posted on YouTube.com by reelblack on March 27, 2018.

Mae Barnes (c. January 23, 1907 – December 13, 1996) Wikipedia.

• “‘(I Ain’t Gonna Be No) Topsy’ – Mae Barnes” [4:25]. Posted by Zilbernet. June 10, 2011. Youtube.com <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdHp7wAgF04> Accessed 10/7/19.

Cab Calloway (December 25 1907 – November 18, 1994) Wikipedia.

• – “Cab Calloway’s Jitterbug Party (1935.}” [7:40] Posted on YouTube.com by reelblack on December 6, 2019.

Billie Holiday (April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) Wikipedia.

• – “Billie Holiday- ‘Strange Fruit’ Live 1959 [Reelin In the Years Archives]” Posted by Reelinintheyears66. February 12, 2018. Youtube.com <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DGY9HvChXk> Accessed 10/7/19.

Optional

• Secondary Sources
  • – Stepto, Robert. “‘When de Saints Go Ma’chin Home’: Sterling Brown’s Blueprint for New Negro Poetry.” Callaloo 21.4 (Autumn 1998): 240-249. Last accessed via JSTOR. 09/28/2022.

• Poems:
  • “The Harlem Dancer” by Claude McKay (poets.org)
  • “Little Cinderella” by Lewis Alexander (in Fire!!)
  • “Jungle Taste” by Edward Silvera (in FIre!!)
  • “Jazz Band in a Parisian Cabaret” by Langston Hughes (poetrynook.com)
  • “Jazzonia” by Langston Hughes (poets.org)

Read: – Passing by Nella Larsen

Read: – “Smoke ,Lilies and Jade” by Bruce Nugent in Fire!!

Read: – “Cordelia the Crude” by Wallace Thurman in Fire!!

Read: – “Heaven Compared to the Rest of the Country: Wallace Thurman in Harlem” by Allyson Hobbs in The Nation Online thenation.com (April 26, 2018). <https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/heaven-compared-to-the-rest-of-the-country/>

Watch: – Passing (2021 film) Available on Netflix – Contact professor if you do not have access to Netflix

Watch: – Looking for Langston

• – clip of Isaac Julien’s Looking for Langston [3:57] posted on YouTUbe.com by The Aesthetics of the Image: [world] cinema clips on July 2, 2022
• – clip of Isaac Julien’s Looking for Langston [1:07] posted on YouTube.com by cinemaetcie on June12, 2017
• – clip of Isaac Julien’s Looking for Langston 4:03 posted on YouTube.com by Artomo Sardanapale on June 22, 2021

A – Hurston, Zora Neale. “Color Struck: A Play in Four Scenes.” FIRE!! A Quarterly Dedicated to Younger Negro Artists. Volume 1 Issue 1. New York: The Fire Press, 1926. 7-14.  Online at <https://issuu.com/poczineproject> Accessed 3/15/19. (8 pages)

A – Hurston, Zora Neale. “Color Struck: A Play in Four Scenes.” FIRE!! A Quarterly Dedicated to Younger Negro Artists. Volume 1 Issue 1. New York: The Fire Press, 1926. 7-14.  Online at <https://issuu.com/poczineproject> Accessed 3/15/19. (8 pages)

II. Listen [Total listen time – 11 minutes and 55 seconds]:

B. “Just Because She Made Dem Goo Goo Eyes (1900)”[4:55]. Posted by Sheet Music Singer. July 6, 2018. Youtube.com <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpPaTZnNk0w> Accessed 10.4.19.

C. “Manuel Romaine. ‘Daises Won’t Tell’ Edison Standard Record 10399 (1910)” [2:03]. Posted by Tim Gracyk. Sep. 13, 2014. Youtube.com <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_8VPVX0nos> Accessed 10.4.19.

D. “‘La Pas Ma La’ by Ernest Hogan (1895, Ragtime piano)” [2:22]. Posted by Ragtimedorianhenry. Nov. 10, 2014. Youtube.com <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvu_7l52LF4> Accessed 10.4.19.

E. “Miles & Bob Pratcher: ‘I’m Gonna Live Anyhow Until I Die’ (1959)” [2:35]. Posted by Alan Lomax Archives. Jan. 26, 2011. Youtube.com <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7fbrwQwc7E> Accessed 10.4.19.

II. Watch [Please note that you will need your BC login credentials to access the library database and Kanopy. Total Watch Time: 103 -108 minutes]:

Dance Black America: A Festival of Modern Jazz, Tap & African Styles [Total watch time – 8 minutes 40 seconds]

F. “Al Perryman as Earl “Snake Hips” Tucker.”  (1:15). Dance Black America: A Festival of Modern Jazz, Tap & African Styles. performed by Charles Moore, 1928-1986 (Pennebaker Hegedus Films, 1984), 1 hour 27 mins. Found on Alexander Street: A Proquest Company.  via DanceOnline: Dance in Video. March 14, 2019.

G. “Leon Johnson as Master Juba.”  (1:35). Dance Black America: A Festival of Modern Jazz, Tap & African Styles. performed by Charles Moore, 1928-1986 (Pennebaker Hegedus Films, 1984), 1 hour 27 mins. Found on Alexander Street: A Proquest Company.  via DanceOnline: Dance in Video. March 14, 2019.

H. “The Cakewalk.” (1:56). Dance Black America: A Festival of Modern Jazz, Tap & African Styles. performed by Charles Moore, 1928-1986 (Pennebaker Hegedus Films, 1984), 1 hour 27 mins. Found on Alexander Street: A Proquest Company.  via DanceOnline: Dance in Video. March 14, 2019.

I.  “Lindy Hop.” (3:59). Dance Black America: A Festival of Modern Jazz, Tap & African Styles. performed by Charles Moore, 1928-1986 (Pennebaker Hegedus Films, 1984), 1 hour 27 mins. Found on Alexander Street: A Proquest Company.  via DanceOnline: Dance in Video. March 14, 2019.

The Call of the Jitterbug [Total watch time 36 minutes and 32 seconds]

J. “Lindy Hop or Jitterbug”  (8:25). The Call of the Jitterbug.  produced by Tana Ross, Jesper Sorensen and Vibeke Winding; performed by Frankie Manning, 1914-2009, Norma Miller, 1919-, Dizzy Gillespie, 1917-1993, Mama Lu Parks and Sugar Sullivan-Niles (New York, NY: Filmakers Library, 1989), 37 mins

K. “Passing it On.” (7:55). The Call of the Jitterbug.  produced by Tana Ross, Jesper Sorensen and Vibeke Winding; performed by Frankie Manning, 1914-2009, Norma Miller, 1919-, Dizzy Gillespie, 1917-1993, Mama Lu Parks and Sugar Sullivan-Niles (New York, NY: Filmakers Library, 1989), 37 mins

L. “Rhythms.” (7:08). The Call of the Jitterbug.  produced by Tana Ross, Jesper Sorensen and Vibeke Winding; performed by Frankie Manning, 1914-2009, Norma Miller, 1919-, Dizzy Gillespie, 1917-1993, Mama Lu Parks and Sugar Sullivan-Niles (New York, NY: Filmakers Library, 1989), 37 mins

M. “A Joyful Legacy.” (13:04).  The Call of the Jitterbug.  produced by Tana Ross, Jesper Sorensen and Vibeke Winding; performed by Frankie Manning, 1914-2009, Norma Miller, 1919-, Dizzy Gillespie, 1917-1993, Mama Lu Parks and Sugar Sullivan-Niles (New York, NY: Filmakers Library, 1989), 37 minsDance in Video. March 14, 2019.

N. No Maps on My Taps (1979) Film. Available via Kanopy. 58 minutes.

OPTIONAL

Hurston, Zora Neale. “Characteristics of Negro Expression” (1934) in The Sanctified Church, Turtle Island, Berkeley, 1981. 49-68.  Found on http://www.ypsilonediteur.com. Accessed 3/15/19.  Pdf available here: “Characteristics of Negro Expression” by Zora Neale Hurston.  (20 pages)

Required Readings

Primary Source Readings:

Du Bois, W.E.B. “Criteria for Negro Art.” (The Crisis 1926) Reprinted online at WEB Du Bois. Webdubois.org <http://www.webdubois.org/dbCriteriaNArt.html> Accessed 9/2/22.

Schulyer, George S. “The Negro Art-Hokum.” (1926) Reprinted online at Black Past. Blackpast.org <“The Negro-Art Hokum,” an essay George Schuyler> Accessed 9/2/22.

Hughes, Langston. “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain” (1926). Reprinted online at the Poetry Foundation. poetryfoundation.org <https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/69395/the-negro-artist-and-the-racial-mountain> Accessed 9/2/22.

Locke, Alain. “Negro Youth Speaks” in The New Negro: An Interpretation. Ed. Alain Locke. New York. Albert and Charles Boni, 1925. 47-53. (Accessed via HeinOnline on 9/1/22).

Hurston, Zora Neale. “Art and Such” (1938) Reprinted on line at “‘Art and Such’ A 1938 Essay by Hurston Criticizing the Belief that African-American Art Should Be Political.” Primary Source Sets. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. Digital Public Library of America (DPLA). dp.la <https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/their-eyes-were-watching-god-by-zora-neale-hurston/sources/539> Accessed 9/2/22.

Secondary Source Readings:

Bernard, Emily. “The Renaissance and the Vogue.” The Cambridge Companion to the Harlem Renaissance. Ed. George Hutchinson. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2007. pp 28-40. (Accessed online at Cambridge Collection Online on 9/1/22.)

Hutchinson, George. “Introduction.” The Cambridge Companion to the Harlem Renaissance. Ed. George Hutchinson. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2007. pp. 1-10. (Accessed online at Cambridge Collection Online on 9/1/22.)

Jackson, Lawrence. “‘The Aftermath’: The Reputation of the Harlem Renaissance Twenty Years Later.” The Cambridge Companion to the Harlem Renaissance. Ed. George Hutchinson. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2007. pp, 239-253. (Accessed online at Cambridge Collection Online on 9/1/22.)

Optional Readings:

Caroll, Anne E. “Getting the Full Picture: Teaching the Literature and the Art of the Harlem Renaissance.” New Voices on the Harlem Renaissance: Essays on Race, Gender and Literary Discourse. Eds. Australia Tarver and Paula C. Barnes. Farleigh Dickinson UP, 2006. 269-288 (Accessed via Proquest 9/1/22).

Locke, Alain. “The Legacy of the Ancestral Arts” in The New Negro: An Interpretation. Ed. Alain Locke. New York. Albert and Charles Boni, 1925. pp. 254-267. (Accessed via HeinOnline on 9/1/22).

Locke, Alain. “Who and What is the Negro?” (Opportunity 1942) Reprinted in The Philosophy of Alain Locke: Harlem Renaissance and Beyond. Ed. Leonard Harris. Philadelphia: Temple UP. pp207-228.

Wall, Cheryl A. “Zora Neale Hurston’s Essays: Art and Such.” S&F Online. The Scholar and the Feminist. Jumpin’ at the Sun: Reassessing the Life and Work of Zora Neale Hurston. 3.2 (Winter 2005) The Barnard Center for Research on Women. Barnard College. barnard.edu/sfonline <https://sfonline.barnard.edu/hurston/printcwa.htm> Accessed 9/2/22.