Langston Hughes & the Harlem Renaissance: Regular 5/14
Click the link to the right to download the handout used in group activities on 5/14. If you were absent this day, print this handout and see Ms. Wilson immediately!
Hey there kiddos! In introduction to the Harlem Renaissance during class on today, we were separated into our class groups and completed a note-taking handout! The exit slip for this class activity is as follows and is due at the beginning of class tomorrow, Wednesday the 29th. Poems can be found using the links below!
EXIT SLIP: Look at “I Hear America Singing” by Walt Whitman in your textbook and briefly summarize the meaning of this poem. Then look at Langston Hughes’ “I, Too” and summarize. Answer, in complete sentences and using evidence/knowledge from the poems: In what ways is Hughes’ poem "I, Too" a response to “I Hear America Singing”? What is he trying to tell his readers with “I, Too”?
If you were absent during class, your makeup work is as follows: Read "I, Too," "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," and "Harlem" by Langston Hughes and answer the following questions from Glencoe Literature in full sentences and using evidence from the poems. About "I, Too": 1.) How is the speaker of the poem treated? How does the speaker respond to this treatment? What is the identity of the speaker and of the other people in the poem? 2.) How will things be different "tomorrow"? What do you think the change will represent? How do you think the speaker expects this change to come about? 3.) What statement does the speaker make in the final line of the poem? Why might he feel the need to make this statement? About "The Negro Speaks of Rivers": 1.) What is significant about rivers in this poem? Why has Hughes incorporated the
Nile, the Congo, and the Euphrates Rivers instead of the Thames, the Amazon,
and the Danube? 2.) What is the final line of the poem? What does this line suggest about how the history of the speaker's people has affected the speaker? 3.) Which two lines are repeated in this poem? What specific meaning might the repetition of each line impart? About "Harlem" 1.) Summarize the poem. What does it mean? Who is the speaker? What is it about? 2.) What is the "dream" in this poem refer to? What is the significance of the dream being "deferred" rather than "destroyed" or "abandoned"? 3.) What are two examples of imagery used in the poem? What significance do these have for the meaning of the poem?
Click to read "I, Too"
Click to read "The Negro Speaks of Rivers"
Click to read "Harlem" aka "A Dream Deferred"
Click to read "I Hear America Singing" by Walt Whitman
For Class Wednesday the 29th
Click the image of Hurston to access the PDF of "Dust Tracks on a Road"
Born 1891 in Florida as the 5th of 8 children to former slaves, John Hurston (a pastor) and Lucy Ann (Potts) Hurston.
Her father was a pastor and served as mayor in the city of Eatonville, Florida, which was one of the nation's first incorporated black towns.
Hurston worked many odd jobs in her youth. Her position as a maid for an actress in a touring troupe took her out of Eatonville and into Maryland, where she lied about her age (26 going on 16) to be enrolled in high school. After graduation, she earned an associate's degree from Morgan College.
Hurston continued her studies at various colleges through grants, scholarships, and hard-earned fellowships. She studied anthropology with Franz Boas at Bernard College in NYC.
Hurston studies Harlem in 1926 and eventually moves there.
Although a gifted author, Hurston's work falls in and out of popularity throughout her life.
She dies of heart complications in 1960 in a welfare home and is buried in an unmarked grave.