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
Showing posts with label Harlem Renaissance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Harlem Renaissance. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 18, 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.
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