1. ELIT 48C
Class #15
Accidental
or Incidental?

2.  The adjective accidental
means unintentional or
happening by chance.
 The adjective incidental
means secondary or
nonessential. It often
refers to something that
occurs in connection with
a more important activity
or event.

3. Chair Poet?
Rain And Wind
By Trevor West
Raindrops on this page
Wind blows my paper away
Oh crap! I need that!

4. AGENDA
 Choose new teams
 The Harlem
Renaissance
 Historical Context
 The Poems of
Langston Hughes and
Zora Neale Hurston

5. 2. You must change at least 50% of your team.
3. You may never be on a team with the same person
more than twice.
4. You may never have a new team composed of more
than 50% of any prior team.
1. Your teams
can be made
up of 4 or 5
people.

6. Lecture
The Harlem Renaissance

7. The Harlem Renaissance
 The Harlem Renaissance was a period between World War I
and the Great Depression when black artists and writers
flourished in the United States.
 Most critics and historians agree that 1917 marks the first
comprehensive signs of increased cultural activity among
black artists in the Harlem section of New York City and that
by the mid-1930s the movement had lost much of its original
vigor.
 While Harlem was the epicenter of black culture during this
period, and home to more blacks than any other urban area in
the nation in the years after World War I, other cities, such as
Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia, also fostered
similar but smaller communities of black artists.
What Are We Talking About?

8.  Between 1890 and 1920, the near collapse of the southern
agricultural economy, coupled with a labor shortage in the
north, prompted about two million blacks to migrate to
northern cities in search of work.
 In addition, World War I had left an entire generation of
African Americans asking why, when they had fought and
many had died for their country, they were still afforded
second-class status.
Why This Movement?

9. Harlem had become an entertainment capital. Musical performers moved to
Harlem, drawn by the hundreds of nightclubs and other venues where the jazz
sound was wildly popular. Performers Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Fats
Waller, and others played at nightspots like Smalls’s Inn and the Savoy
Ballroom. Whites from other parts of New York City “discovered” Harlem
and made it the place to be on a Saturday night. Ironically, some of the
nightclubs were off-limits to blacks, including the famous Cotton Club, until
1928. Instead, they catered to a wealthy white clientele intent on experiencing
the “exotic” Harlem atmosphere.
How did Harlem Change?

10. A number of black intellectuals, for example W. E. B. Du Bois,
made it clear that the time had come for white America to
acknowledge the achievements of African-American artists
and thinkers. The idea that whites might come to accept blacks
if they were exposed to their artistic endeavors became a
popular one.
To this end, magazines such as the Crisis and Opportunity
featured the prose and poetry of Harlem Renaissance stars
Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Claude McKay, Nella
Larsen, and Zora Neale Hurston. Major New York-based
publishing houses began to search for new black voices and
print their poems, short stories, and novels.
What Happened Next?

11. White intellectual society
embraced these writers and
supported— financially and
through social contacts—their
efforts to educate Americans
about their race, culture, and
heritage through their art.
Ultimately, however, the
financial backing began to run
dry in the early 1930s with the
collapse of the New York stock
market and the ensuing
worldwide economic depression.
The Renaissance had run its
course.
How did it turn out?

12. In your groups, discuss your
responses to the homework
questions concerning Hughes’s
poems
“The Negro Speaks of Rivers,”
“I, too, sing America,”
“The Weary Blues”
1. What connections can be
made between race and
blues music in "The Weary
Blues"?
2. What do you think it means
to have a soul that is deep
as rivers?
3. How does “I, too, sing
America” make you think
about what it means to be
an American? How is
"America" presented in this
poem, and how does it
make you feel about
America?

13. “The Negro
Speaks of
Rivers”
What do you think it means to have a soul that is
deep as rivers?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mFp40WJbsA

14. What do you think it means to have a soul that
is deep as rivers?
1. I believe that a soul being as deep as rivers means that one has
knowledge and experience that can nurture others. A soul starts off
shallow and innocent; it can’t do much other than maintain it’s
current state. However, over the passing of time, the soul, like a
river, becomes deeper when a larger, main body of knowledge
pours more into its original form. The soul then becomes enriched
and pregnant with new and old things. A soul must rely on the
wisdom of elders, like the Euphrates, Congo, Nile, and Mississippi,
in order to become “deep” like them.
1. By saying his soul has grown as deeps as river he is saying he is
filled with all the richness the ancient generations have provided
him with, and as a river himself, he will continue to add to the
enrichment of the civilizations who are still to come.

15. “I, too, sing
America”
How does “I, too, sing
America” make you think
about what it means to be
an American?
How is "America"
presented in this poem,
and how does it make you
feel about America?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiCWng
Pt-L4

16. How does “I, too, sing America” make you think about what it
means to be an American? How is "America" presented in this
poem, and how does it make you feel about America?
1. In this poem, Hughes depicts America as a racist society that does not respect, nor
treat African Americans as equal “Americans.” In “I, too, sing America”, Hughes
depicts this racist mentality because he shows how an African American (the darker
brother) is shunned and hidden away from others. The reason being that the family
is embarrassed and does not want others to see him. By ostracizing him and
separating him from the others who eat at the table, the people are essentially
dehumanizing him. […] Overall, this poem makes me contemplate how delusional
the notion of equality and freedom for all in America truly is.
2. America has a plethora of cultures and races that inhabit it, but even with the
immense diversity people still have this immediate picture of what an American
looks like, and that picture is usually of a white person. White is the immediate
default for an average American citizen. People who are non-white get asked
questions like “where are you really from?” since they don’t fit the image of a
typical American. People of color aren’t seen as real Americans due to their race and
cultural background.

17. “The Weary Blues”
What connections can be made between race and blues
music in "The Weary Blues"?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uM7HSOwJw20

18. What connections can be made between race
and blues music in "The Weary Blues”?
Droning a drowsy syncopated tune,
Rocking back and forth to a mellow
croon,
I heard a Negro play.
Down on Lenox Avenue the other
night
By the pale dull pallor of an old gas
light
He did a lazy sway . . .
He did a lazy sway . . .
To the tune o’ those Weary Blues.
With his ebony hands on each ivory
key
He made that poor piano moan with
melody.
O Blues!
Swaying to and fro on his rickety
stool
He played that sad raggy tune like
a musical fool.
Sweet Blues!
Coming from a black man’s soul.
O Blues!
In a deep song voice with a
melancholy tone
I heard that Negro sing, that old
piano moan—
“Ain’t got nobody in all this
world,
Ain’t got nobody but ma self.
I’s gwine to quit ma frownin’

19. After graduating from Barnard College in New
York City, Hurston returned to Eatonville to study
her townspeople. As an anthropologist, she
treasured the myths, legends, and folklore that
combined to create the unique African-
American culture. Hurston's cultural pride and
anthropological interests fused in her fiction. She
recorded the voice of her native townspeople
in an authentic manner, effectively capturing
the mood, speech patterns, attitudes, and
customs of Eatonville. Today, one of the most
noted features of Hurston's fiction is her use of
the African-American dialect in the speech of
her characters.
Zora Neale Hurston
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PANwrq_OuPM&list=PLhUY1L
ZyjQLUARKUgLPv1vrSc-1WqoCVE

20. Group Discussion
1. Community is the primary bond among the stories contained in
"The Eatonville Anthology." How does the image of a front
porch act as a symbol of the social concept of community?
Cite specific incidents from the story that prove this
connection.
1. How does the narrator's viewpoint direct the reader's
understanding and approval of the citizens presented in "The
Eatonville Anthology"? Discuss specific examples.
1. QHQ: “How it Feels to Be Colored Me”

21. Community is a consistent theme in the works of Zora Neale Hurston
and the primary bond among the smaller stories contained in "The
Eatonville Anthology." How does the image of a front porch act as a
symbol of the social concept of community? Cite specific incidents
from the story that prove this connection.
The best image of the front porch I could find was from [Hurston’s]
“Eatonville Anthology” section XII The Head of the Nail. Here it can be seen
that Daisy Taylor is flirtatious with the married men of the town, and as Zora
describes her, is the “town vamp” (535). As it is Saturday night and the town
is gathered, we can see a sense of “community”. Here, “the town has had its
bath and with its week’s pay in pocket, fares forth to be merry. The men tell
stories and treat the ladies to soda water, peanuts and peppermint candy”
(535). Daisy is overstepping her boundaries, wanting to gain candy and
attention from the married men. This is a breaking of community and is not
accepted on the porch. [Hurston] states, “the porch was cold to her that night”
(535). Daisy has no hope to gain her way into the community if she cannot
receive any warmth from the porch. The porch represents society, community,
a sense of family, and because she is breaking the rules of ettiquette, she is
kicked out.

22. How does the narrator's viewpoint direct the reader's
understanding and approval of the citizens presented in "The
Eatonville Anthology"? Discuss specific examples.
Hurston gives an honest portrait of life in Eatonville, showing the imperfection
of the people portrayed. She has an observant viewpoint, describing each
person and his or her situation with a very terse tone, leaving the reader with a
clear understanding of the character’s reality with not much room for
disapproval. Hurston talks of Becky Moore and her fatherless eleven children,
concluding with how “the other mothers of the town […] won’t let their
children play with hers” (531). Consequently, she is able place the reader up
front with an honest depiction of a reality that cannot be denied. In addition,
Hurston talks about Mrs. Clarke, who despite getting beat by her husband still
misses him when he is not in church. The irony that arises from this uncovers
the paradoxical nature of human beings, as Hurston succeeds in showing the
reality of individuals and their complexities. Moreover, Hurston chooses to
simply depict the character’s situations—whether good or bad—and leave it
just at that: a concise, honest portrait of life in Eatonville. As a result, she is
able to establish a seemingly objective perspective for each situation, forcing
the reader to approve every presentation of Eatonville as true to life.

23. QHQs: “How it Feels to Be Colored Me
1. What does Hurston mean by “I am not tragically colored”?
2. What does Hurston means when she says, “He is so pale with his
whiteness then and I am so colored” (540)?
3. Huston says “At certain times I have no race, I am me” and “I belong to
no race nor time” (1518). Do you think it’s possible to completely
ignore race as Hurston implies she does?
4. What does Hurston mean when she describes herself as “a fragment of
the Great Soul?”
5. If Hurston is not bitter about the distinction between the “colored” and
white people, then how does she feel about it?
6. What would Langston Hughes think of [Hurston’s] denial of the racial
mountain?

24. HOMEWORK
Familiarize yourself with potential
topics for essay #1
Post # 18
 In 300 words, consider one of our
previous texts through the lens of
African American Criticism.
Read “American Literature since
1945” pp. 3-19
Read Mary Klages
“Postmodernism.” There is a link to
this article on the website home
page.
Post #19
 QHQ on Klages