Black Literature: The Influences Of African American Literature

Before taking African American Literature I never really thought about the impacts that poetry, songs, stories or folktales really had on society. Rap has never been something I enjoyed and reading has never been overly interesting to me, and finding stories that interested me and caught my attention have been difficult. Throughout this class I have learned a lot about the actual influences of African American literature, while also finding stories that were more than interesting to read. Without African American art and literature society, today, would be so much different. In the “City of Refuge” white people took over black culture like jazz and poetry and twisted it into their own style. Without that “colorful” and inspiring art white people would have never been able to do something more. Slavery would still exist or it may not because the colored man or woman would cease to exist. “Stranger in the Village” would instead be titled “Tourist Visits Village”, because instead of it being a story about a black man in a village, it would be a news article about another white man strolling through a new town. “Chicago Heat”

Many people have given up trying and others have adjusted to the way that they have to live and their sense of being human still is nearly gone. So many people who are African Americans that come from poverty are still stuck there because they don’t know what else to do any they are or have been in jail. If this story were to have happened 100 years ago that whole family would have been killed or put in an asylum and tortured. Although they are still tortured by this sentence and although time is surely taking its time in changing things, a lot has changed and without these stories or poems a lot of this change wouldn’t have