Gil Scott Heron used spoken word and poetry as means for expressing his views. From political to social issues, Gil Scott-Heron advocated for change. Scott-Heron chose spoken word as his mode for relaying his views because he had a natural talent for it and because it was well received by the people of his time. Spoken word is a form of literary expression which could best be described as a combination between poetry and rap. In his early years of life, Gil Scott-Heron found great inspiration for poetry and spoken word from a man named Langston Hughes. Hughes, was a social activist, and great leader during the Renaissance movement. Additionally, Hughes was one of the first people to explore in the world of jazz poetry. Langston Hughes’s jazz …show more content…
poetry served as an inspiration for Gil Scott-Heron. Influenced by Hughes’s style, Gil Scott-Heron used poetry to express his thoughts and feelings. During Gil Scott-Heron’s time, racism was prevalent and the civil rights movement was in full swing. As a peaceful way to protest and stand up to the racism, Gil Scott-Heron chose to write poetry. During Gil Scott-Heron’s lifetime there was a lot of anger and differences among races. What Gil Scott-Heron’s pieces provided was a voice for people to relate to. Gil Scott-Heron created poems or lyrics that were not only relatable, but also catchy. One of Gil Scott-Heron’s most famous pieces was entitled “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.” This piece served as an eye opener to many Americans. The piece expressed the idea that the revolution would not be one big event publicized on T.V. Instead, the revolution would be a series of events. The Revolution would occur every day, as a result of individual’s efforts to combat racism. In addition to its message being well received, the piece also had musical value. The repetitive lyrics of this piece grabbed the listener’s attention, but also stuck with the reader. Throughout the course of the song, the mantra “the revolution will not be televised” is repeated at least once in every stanza. This repetition not only provides a clear message for the song, but it also makes the song easier to follow along with. Musically, the simpler the lyrics of a song are, the more likely people are to learn the song and follow along with it. The simple and repetitive lyrics provide a great foundation for connecting with the listeners. Another one of Gil Scott-Heron’s most famous pieces is “Home is Where the Hatred is.” This piece focused on a different subject, but still had many of the same key elements that Scott-Heron’s pieces usually contain.
The focus of the piece was Scott-Heron’s heroin addiction. The piece details his struggles with heroin and the power of addiction. Within the song, Scott-Heron repeats the lines “kick it, quit it” referring to his desire to quit using drugs. Unfortunately as time has told us, Gil Scott-Heron was unable to beat his addiction. In addition to the repetition of the lyrics, there is also a repetition of the idea of home. To Scott-Heron, home is just an allusion to when he is using heroin. Despite this song having fairly simple lyrics, it is Gil Scott-Heron’s performance of this song powerful. The emotion in Scott-Heron’s voice allow him to connect to listeners and draw them in. Despite having never used heroin, I still feel like I can connect to Gil Scott-Heron and learn something from …show more content…
him. Another piece Gil Scott-Heron wrote in order to expose the challenges of poverty and inequality inn the ghettos was “Small Talk at 125th and Lenox.” “Small Talk at 125th and Lenox” outlines the daily life and conversations that showcase the different issues in the ghettos. From talk of unemployment (“did you hear what the number was yesterday”) to drug use (“Junkies is alright when they ain’t broke”), the struggles of living in the ghettos are made real. The most surprising line of this piece is the ending. The ending brings up question about whether there is a desire to leave the ghettos. “But I wish I could get up and move. Shut up. Hell you know that ain’t true.” The line makes it sound like people want to get out of the ghettos but don’t want to put forth the effort required to escape the cycle of poverty. One piece of Gil Scott-Heron’s that I found particularly powerful was “Get Out of the Ghetto Blues.” Having grown up in Harlem, Gil Scott-Heron can speak first-hand about what goes on in the Ghettos.
From his time in Harlem, Scott-Heron speaks out about the necessity of families working hard in order to make it out of the ghettos. The final statement Scott-Heron makes is particularly powerful. Gil Scott-Heron leaves his readers with the line “and it don’t matter which pine box you choose: You got the get out of the ghetto blues.” Gil Scott-Heron is adamant about the fact that living in the ghettos is a death sentence. Unless you make an effort to get out of the ghettos you will end up in a pine box (casket). This proclamation grabs the listener’s attention and makes them take a step back and evaluate their life choices. Gil Scott-Heron uses his song to get his message across to his listeners. Is message may have been overlooked if it had been written in a paper, but if it is presented in a different mode such as poetry/song, it is much more likely to be
welcomed. Gil Scott-Hughes used spoken word and poetry as a means to get his thoughts and opinion out to the world. Had he not found his talent for spoken word, his views may not have been as well received. Through his use of repetition Gil Scott-Hughes gets his messages to stick with his listeners. Scott-Hughes’s background and upbringing in the ghettos makes him much more personable and allows him to connect deeper with a larger audience.
The opening stanza sets the tone for the entire poem. Updike uses symbolism to portray the sad, disappointing life Flick ...
Langston Hughes wrote during a very critical time in American History, the Harlem Renaissance. Hughes wrote many poems, but most of his most captivating works centered around women and power that they hold. They also targeted light and darkness and strength. The Negro Speaks of Rivers and Mother to Son, both explain the importance of the woman, light and darkness and strength in the African-American community. They both go about it in different ways.
One of his most famous poems was "Lift Every Voice and Sing." His brother later added music to the poem. It is considered to be the unofficial "Negro National Anthem". It was a bold piece of work that spoke of the struggle of the African American in America and his optimistic hope for a better future.
James Baldwin writes about two African-American brothers growing up in Harlem, a black ghetto in New York, during the 1950's. During this time black people were forced to live in a world of prejudice, discrimination, poverty and suppression. The life of a black person was very difficult; many opportunities afforded to whites were not afforded to blacks. Sonny and his brother lived in the projects and had many obstacles to overcome that white people didn't have to. Sonny chose music to outwardly express his suffering, his brother chose to bottle it up and keep it inside, but this is the common thread they both shared. Suffering is also shown in the story when Baldwin says "it came to me that what we both were seeking through our separate cab windows was that part of ourselves which had been left behind" (P 47). I think this quote means that both Sonny and his older brother want to retrieve some of their past so that it can help them cope with what has happened in their lives. If Sonny and his brother can both cope with what has happened in their lives and get over it, I think t they both can start moving forward and putting this behind them.
The universal struggle that everyone in today’s society goes through is invisible due to the fact that many individuals do not understand first hand how it is to live every day in the harsh matter that comes with dealing with the struggle. Moreover, many individuals similar to the position of Sonny in Sonny’s Blues by James Baldwin feel as their inner struggle to escape the compelling, scary, and brutal, harsh reality around them is unbearable, and sometimes even tough to think about leaving for a better life. Additionally. Mr. Baldwin was a born in New York City and grew up as a preaching youngster in the rough and brutal environment that he was growing up in, but his environments gave him the inspiration and opened his eyes to see
“Sonny’s Blues” revolves around the narrator as he learns who his drug-hooked, piano-playing baby brother, Sonny, really is. The author, James Baldwin, paints views on racism, misery and art and suffering in this story. His written canvas portrays a dark and continual scene pertaining to each topic. As the story unfolds, similarities in each generation can be observed. The two African American brothers share a life similar to that of their father and his brother. The father’s brother had a thirst for music, and they both travelled the treacherous road of night clubs, drinking and partying before his brother was hit and killed by a car full of white boys. Plagued, the father carried this pain of the loss of his brother and bitterness towards the whites to his grave. “Till the day he died he weren’t sure but that every white man he saw was the man that killed his brother.”(346) Watching the same problems transcend onto the narrator’s baby brother, Sonny, the reader feels his despair when he tries to relate the same scenarios his father had, to his brother. “All that hatred down there”, he said “all that hatred and misery and love. It’s a wonder it doesn’t blow the avenue apart.”(355) He’s trying to relate to his brother that even though some try to cover their misery with doing what others deem as “right,” others just cover it with a different mask. “But nobody just takes it.” Sonny cried, “That’s what I’m telling you! Everybody tries not to. You’re just hung up on the way some people try—it’s not your way!”(355) The narrator had dealt with his own miseries of knowing his father’s plight, his Brother Sonny’s imprisonment and the loss of his own child. Sonny tried to give an understanding of what music was for him throughout thei...
Fitzgerald's book at first overwhelms the reader with poetic descriptions of human feelings, of landscapes, buildings and colors. Everything seems to have a symbolic meaning, but it seems to be so strong that no one really tries to look what's happening behind those beautiful words. If you dig deeper you will discover that hidden beneath those near-lyrics are blatancies, at best.
Poetry was another prominent form of expression during the Harlem Renaissance era. Poetry served as another form of self expression for African-Americans, similar to that of Jazz and the Blues. This form of media served the same (or a very much similar) as music did, Some notable poets include the likes of Langston Hughes, who is considered by some to be one of the most important and influential Harlem Renaissance poets of the time, James Weldon Johnson, and Claude McKay. Most notable of the three is, poet and intellectual, Langston Hughes who , in addition to writing books and plays, served to spread the emotions of African-Americans as well as himself and to make clear the ambitions and dreams of the American people within the United States. As Stated by Concordia Online Education, ”Hughes wrote novels, plays and short stories, but it is his emotional, heartfelt poems that expressed the common experiences of the culture of black people for which he is most
During the early to mid-twentieth century Langston Hughes contributed vastly to a very significant cultural movement later to be named the “Harlem Renaissance.” At the time it was named the “New Negro Movement,” which involved African Americans in creating and expressing their words through literature and art. Hughes contributed in a variety of different aspects including plays, poems, short stories, novels and even jazz. He was even different from other notable black poets at the time in the way that he shared personal experiences rather than the ordinary everyday experiences of black America. His racial pride helped mold American politics and literature into what it is today.
In the opening verse of the song, the speaker discusses the need to see her childhood home at least once more before moving on with her life. She shares with the current homeowner some of her experiences while growing up in the house. For instance, she says, “I know they say you can’t go home again, but I just had to come back one last time.” This shows that the speaker realizes that returning “home” is going to be a different experience than it was when she lived there, but she cannot resist the temptation of a final visit to the “house”. The speaker says that “Up those stairs in that little back bedroom, is where I did my homework and learned to play guitar. And I bet you didn’t know, under that live oak, my favorite dog is buried in the yard.” This indicates some of the significant memories the speaker has of her time in the house, such as honing her...
Langston Hughes is considered one of the greatest African American poets to live in the last century. Langston Hughes wrote poems over oppression from 1926-1964, he wrote many poems, jazzes, blues, and spirituals. Langston Hughes uses America as symbolism to represent that America represents more than a country and it represents “The American Dream” and freedom.
Langston Hughes was a large influence on the African-American population of America. Some of the ways he did this was how his poetry influenced Martin Luther King Jr. and the Harlem Renaissance. These caused the civil rights movement that resulted in African-Americans getting the rights that they deserved in the United States. Hughes was born in 1902 in Joplin, Missouri. His parents divorced when he was young and his grandmother raised him. She got him into literature and education; she was one of the most important influences on him. He moved around a lot when he was young, due to his parents divorce, but remained a good student and graduated high school. After this he traveled the world and worked in different places, all the things he saw in his travels influenced him. In 1924 he settled down in Harlem where he became one of the important figures in the Harlem Renaissance. He enjoyed listening to blues and jazz in clubs while he wrote his poetry. The music that he enjoyed greatly influenced the style and rhythm of his poetry. The poem “Dream Variations” by Hughes is about an average African-American who dreams of a world where African-Americans are not looked at or treated differently and they can rest peacefully. Yet in real life this was not so, black people and white people were not equal. And the world was not as forgiving and nice as in their dream. This poem is a good example of Hughes writing because it is typical of three things. The first is the common theme of the average life of an African-American and their struggles. Secondly, the style of his writing which is based on the rhythm of jazz and blues- he uses a lot of imagery and similes. Lastly, his influences which are his lonely childhood and growing up as an Afric...
During the 1920's and 30’s, America went through a period of astonishing artistic creativity, the majority of which was concentrated in one neighborhood of New York City, Harlem. The creators of this period of growth in the arts were African-American writers and other artists. Langston Hughes is considered to be one of the most influential writers of the period know as the Harlem Renaissance. With the use of blues and jazz Hughes managed to express a range of different themes all revolving around the Negro. He played a major role in the Harlem Renaissance, helping to create and express black culture. He also wrote of political views and ideas, racial inequality and his opinion on religion. I believe that Langston Hughes’ poetry helps to capture the era know as the Harlem Renaissance.
Langston Hughes was probably the most well-known literary force during the Harlem Renaissance. He was one of the first known black artists to stress a need for his contemporaries to embrace the black jazz culture of the 1920s, as well as the cultural roots in Africa and not-so-distant memory of enslavement in the United States. In formal aspects, Hughes was innovative in that other writers of the Harlem Renaissance stuck with existing literary conventions, while Hughes wrote several poems and stories inspired by the improvised, oral traditions of black culture (Baym, 2221). Proud of his cultural identity, but saddened and angry about racial injustice, the content of much of Hughes’ work is filled with conflict between simply doing as one is told as a black member of society and standing up for injustice and being proud of one’s identity. This relates to a common theme in many of Hughes’ poems: that dignity is something that has to be fought for by those who are held back by segregation, poverty, and racial bigotry.
Langston Hughes, a primary voice of the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920's, was known as "The Poet Laureate of Harlem". Hughes had pride in his black heritage, strong political beliefs, and the will to survive in a society where racial equality had to be fought for. Hughes' strength and determination shine through his poetry, he does not hide the fact that he lived with racism, but talks of his strength and to st...