Monday, August 31, 2009
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Freedom Seekin. . . .
Times is gettin’ harder,
Money’s gettin’ scarce.
Soon as I gather my cotton and corn,
I’m bound to leave this place.
White folks sittin’ in the parlor,
Eatin’ that cake and food,
Nigger’s way down to the kitchen,
Squabblin’ over turnip greens.
Times is gettin’ harder,
Money’s gettin’ scarce.
Soon as I gather my cotton and corn,
I’m bound to leave this place.
Me and my brother was out.
Thought we’d have some fun.
He stole three chickens.
We began to run.
Times is gettin’ harder,
Money’s gettin’ scarce.
Soon as I gather my cotton and corn
I’m bound to leave this place.
Money’s gettin’ scarce.
Soon as I gather my cotton and corn,
I’m bound to leave this place.
White folks sittin’ in the parlor,
Eatin’ that cake and food,
Nigger’s way down to the kitchen,
Squabblin’ over turnip greens.
Times is gettin’ harder,
Money’s gettin’ scarce.
Soon as I gather my cotton and corn,
I’m bound to leave this place.
Me and my brother was out.
Thought we’d have some fun.
He stole three chickens.
We began to run.
Times is gettin’ harder,
Money’s gettin’ scarce.
Soon as I gather my cotton and corn
I’m bound to leave this place.
If we must die . . . .
If we must die, let it not be like hogs
Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,
While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,
Making their mock at our accursed lot.
If we must die, O let us nobly die,
So that our precious blood may not be shed
In vain; then even the monsters we defy
Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!
O kinsmen! we must meet the common foe!
Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,
And for their thousand blows deal one death-blow!
What though before us lies the open grave?
Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!
--Claude McKay
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/harlem/contents.html
Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,
While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,
Making their mock at our accursed lot.
If we must die, O let us nobly die,
So that our precious blood may not be shed
In vain; then even the monsters we defy
Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!
O kinsmen! we must meet the common foe!
Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,
And for their thousand blows deal one death-blow!
What though before us lies the open grave?
Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!
--Claude McKay
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/harlem/contents.html
Monday, August 17, 2009
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
The Spirit of Creativity in My Quilting
In 1925, painter Aaron Douglas, known as the "father" of African Art, wrote to the poet Langston Hughes:
"Let’s bare our arms and plunge them deep through laughter, through pain, through sorrow, through hope, through disappointment, into the very depths of the souls of our people and drag forth material crude, rough, neglected.
Then let’s sing it, dance it, write it, paint it. Let’s do the impossible.
Let’s create something transcendentally material, mystically objective, earthy. Spiritually earthy. Dynamic."
"Let’s bare our arms and plunge them deep through laughter, through pain, through sorrow, through hope, through disappointment, into the very depths of the souls of our people and drag forth material crude, rough, neglected.
Then let’s sing it, dance it, write it, paint it. Let’s do the impossible.
Let’s create something transcendentally material, mystically objective, earthy. Spiritually earthy. Dynamic."
A Poem By Langston Hughes
I, Too, Sing America
I, too, sing America
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.
Tomorrow - I'll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody'll dare say to me,
"Eat in the kitchen" then.
Besides,
They'll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed-
I too, am America.
'I, Too' written just before Hughes’ return to the States from Europe and after he'd been denied passage on a ship because of his color, has a contemporary feel in contrast to the mythical dimension of 'The Negro Speaks of Rivers'.
It is no less powerful however, in its expression of social injustice. The calm clear statements of the 'I' have an unstoppable force like the progress the poem envisages.
Hughes's dignified introductions to these poems and his beautiful speaking voice render them all the more moving.
I, too, sing America
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.
Tomorrow - I'll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody'll dare say to me,
"Eat in the kitchen" then.
Besides,
They'll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed-
I too, am America.
'I, Too' written just before Hughes’ return to the States from Europe and after he'd been denied passage on a ship because of his color, has a contemporary feel in contrast to the mythical dimension of 'The Negro Speaks of Rivers'.
It is no less powerful however, in its expression of social injustice. The calm clear statements of the 'I' have an unstoppable force like the progress the poem envisages.
Hughes's dignified introductions to these poems and his beautiful speaking voice render them all the more moving.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Still in the South !!!
The University Press of Mississippi
http://upmississippi.blogspot.com/
The University Press of Mississippi is a not-for-profit publisher based in Jackson, Miss. Now in its 37th year of operation, the Press is supported by the eight state universities of Mississippi and releases 60 to 65 books a year.
African American Studies
http://www.upress.state.ms.us/category/african_american_studies
http://upmississippi.blogspot.com/
The University Press of Mississippi is a not-for-profit publisher based in Jackson, Miss. Now in its 37th year of operation, the Press is supported by the eight state universities of Mississippi and releases 60 to 65 books a year.
African American Studies
http://www.upress.state.ms.us/category/african_american_studies
Mississippi and Georgia information.....
http://itawambahistory.blogspot.com/2007_09_01_archive.html
The Itawamba Historical Society is a Mississippi non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of Itawamba County, Mississippi's history and heritage. Be sure to visit the Itawamba Historical Society Online where you can discover your Itawamba County, Mississippi roots
Located on the Internet are some fascinating sites relating to history studies. One such site is the Internet Archive Movie Archive. This interesting site, a part of the massive Internet Archive, contains literally thousands of online movies. The visitor can find most anything in this collection including big bands of the 1940's, public service films from the 1940's and 1950's, old silent Hollywood movies, and television commericals from the 1950's to modern documentaries. Many of these movies are public domain movies and documentaries.
The Itawamba Historical Society is a Mississippi non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of Itawamba County, Mississippi's history and heritage. Be sure to visit the Itawamba Historical Society Online where you can discover your Itawamba County, Mississippi roots
Located on the Internet are some fascinating sites relating to history studies. One such site is the Internet Archive Movie Archive. This interesting site, a part of the massive Internet Archive, contains literally thousands of online movies. The visitor can find most anything in this collection including big bands of the 1940's, public service films from the 1940's and 1950's, old silent Hollywood movies, and television commericals from the 1950's to modern documentaries. Many of these movies are public domain movies and documentaries.
Leonid shower (lee-uh-nid) meteor storm of 1833 was of truly superlative strength. One estimate is over one hundred thousand meteors an hour (lee-uh-nids) are a prolific meteor shower associated with the comet Tempel-Tuttle. The Leonids get their name from the location of their radiant in the constellation Leo: the meteors appear to stream from that point in the sky.
The Alexandria Gazette reported on Thursday morning, Nov. 14, 1833: “A most unusual and interesting atmospherical phenomenon was observed here yesterday morning, from some time before day break till broad daylight, in a continuous display of brilliant Meteors or shooting stars as they are usually called. . . . At times, it is said that it almost seemed as if a shower of fire was descending from the heavens . . . the brilliant flashes would shoot . . . rendering every object around distinctly visible. The ‘shooting of the stars’ commenced about twelve o’clock. . . . Persons in the country and passengers in stages coming into town yesterday before day, speak of the appearance of the heavens with wonder and admiration.”
Slaves and their masters were also scared and worried. Family history tells of a plantation owner who gathered all his slaves during the height of the storm and told them to where he had sold their kin.
A slave, Harriet Powers, grew up hearing preachers and kinfolk relate stories about the meteor shower of 1833, which had happened four years before her birth. As a young woman, Harriet crafted a picture quilt depicting the meteor shower and other events. She wrote,” The people were frighten and thought the end of time has come. . . . The varmints rushed out of their beds.”Meteor showers are named for the constellation with which they are associated.
The 1833 meteor shower was named Leonid for the constellation Leo. After this meteor shower, both amateurs and scientists began to study meteor showers in earnest. People on the East Coast and as far west as the Rocky Mountains witnessed this shower. Yale astronomy professor Denison Olmsted wrote his impression of this phenomenon in the New Haven Daily Journal and asked others to submit their impressions. Soon, he found himself the collector of interpretations and information surrounding the Leonid meteor shower of 1833.
Scientists discovered that the Leonid meteor shower occurs every November. The greatest intensity of the shower occurs approximately every 33 years, when the orbit of the comet Tempel-Tuttle comes closest to the sun, whose gravitational pull causes a larger shower of meteors to reach Earth.
The greatest Leonid meteor shower of recent times occurred in Nov. 1966, with as many as 100,000 meteors an hour.
Even Abraham Lincoln was in awe of the 1833 meteor shower. Walt Whitman wrote of Lincoln’s experience. During the Civil War, concerned northern bankers asked President Lincoln about the stability of the Union. Lincoln told a story of how years earlier he had been awakened by a meteor shower. (Historians surmise that Lincoln was referring to the 1833 shower.) Lincoln related how others had screamed that the end of the world was at hand. Then he said, “But looking back of them (the falling stars) in the heavens, I saw all the grand old constellations with which I was so well acquainted, fixed and true in their places. Gentlemen, the world did not come to an end then, nor will the Union now.”
The Alexandria Gazette reported on Thursday morning, Nov. 14, 1833: “A most unusual and interesting atmospherical phenomenon was observed here yesterday morning, from some time before day break till broad daylight, in a continuous display of brilliant Meteors or shooting stars as they are usually called. . . . At times, it is said that it almost seemed as if a shower of fire was descending from the heavens . . . the brilliant flashes would shoot . . . rendering every object around distinctly visible. The ‘shooting of the stars’ commenced about twelve o’clock. . . . Persons in the country and passengers in stages coming into town yesterday before day, speak of the appearance of the heavens with wonder and admiration.”
Slaves and their masters were also scared and worried. Family history tells of a plantation owner who gathered all his slaves during the height of the storm and told them to where he had sold their kin.
A slave, Harriet Powers, grew up hearing preachers and kinfolk relate stories about the meteor shower of 1833, which had happened four years before her birth. As a young woman, Harriet crafted a picture quilt depicting the meteor shower and other events. She wrote,” The people were frighten and thought the end of time has come. . . . The varmints rushed out of their beds.”Meteor showers are named for the constellation with which they are associated.
The 1833 meteor shower was named Leonid for the constellation Leo. After this meteor shower, both amateurs and scientists began to study meteor showers in earnest. People on the East Coast and as far west as the Rocky Mountains witnessed this shower. Yale astronomy professor Denison Olmsted wrote his impression of this phenomenon in the New Haven Daily Journal and asked others to submit their impressions. Soon, he found himself the collector of interpretations and information surrounding the Leonid meteor shower of 1833.
Scientists discovered that the Leonid meteor shower occurs every November. The greatest intensity of the shower occurs approximately every 33 years, when the orbit of the comet Tempel-Tuttle comes closest to the sun, whose gravitational pull causes a larger shower of meteors to reach Earth.
The greatest Leonid meteor shower of recent times occurred in Nov. 1966, with as many as 100,000 meteors an hour.
Even Abraham Lincoln was in awe of the 1833 meteor shower. Walt Whitman wrote of Lincoln’s experience. During the Civil War, concerned northern bankers asked President Lincoln about the stability of the Union. Lincoln told a story of how years earlier he had been awakened by a meteor shower. (Historians surmise that Lincoln was referring to the 1833 shower.) Lincoln related how others had screamed that the end of the world was at hand. Then he said, “But looking back of them (the falling stars) in the heavens, I saw all the grand old constellations with which I was so well acquainted, fixed and true in their places. Gentlemen, the world did not come to an end then, nor will the Union now.”
What's Wrong... Am I not feelin Black or what???
Is today another silent day in blogland???? (smile)
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