Jazz, which was originated in the streets of New Orleans, made its way upward the Mississippi River to places like Kanas City and St. Louis. It finally reaches New York City during the same time as the literary explosion that was later known as the Harlem Renaissance. This assembly forever crafted a personal voice and artistic style of African Americans of this era. Even though jazz had an influence in all categories of art during the Harlem Reissuance, most mainstreamist of the time did not approve of this style of music, viewing it as “morally disfiguring to the black community” (Early). One writer, however, was totally inspired by jazz’s themes of rhythm, improvisation and gritty humor, and used it to create his own voice. This writer was Langston Hughes, who is considered the first real “jazz poet”. This essay is an attempt describe the role of Langston Hughes and to give a brief background and an analysis of the “marriage” between literature and jazz that gave birth to a new genre called jazz poetry.
Two popular ways of expression for artists have always been music and poetry. Wallerstein explains that “Tone, rhythm and cadence and lyricism are the
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property of both,” in his book, Poetry and Jazz: A Twentieth-Century Wedding. For people who are both poets and musicians the combining of music and literature would naturally happen. In 1920 the two art forms merged and created jazz poetry. Langston Hughes was the first true “jazz poet” who, ironically was discovered by Vachel Lindsay who dislike jazz music and was known to go into a tantrum whenever called a jazz poet (Author). Hughes created a “lazy sway” in his poems by incorporating the rhythm of blues. Unfortunately, this created a confutation for those who felt jazz should not be in the same esteem as classical music. They felt that jazz was the “devil’s music” and consider it low class. Many leaders of the Harlem Renaissance did not go the clubs are subordinate themselves with the well-known jazz musicians during this time (Hilliard). It is thought-provoking that even though jazz and blues did not have a major impact on literature during the 1920’s and 1930’s, it was still able created a pervasive influence that gave rise to the beat nick generation and is the bases of modern genres such as slam poetry and hip hop that is so popular is todays time. Just as poetry was attempting to break the Sonnet mold, Jazz also was free from the rigidity of past music styles. Not only was jazz and blues known for its distinctive and unique rhythms, musicians would often play a quarter tone above or below traditional European music. Hughes regarded the blues as well as jazz and considered them the most influential African American arts” (Robinson). It is only fitting that jazz and blues would prove to be the mode Hughes needed to capturing the “human soul” of that era. Without singing a song or playing an instrument, Hughes was able to used words to make the reader feel the song.
An excellent example of musical imagery that Hughes is famous for can be found in the author’s poem, “The Weary Blues”. In the first line the poet sets the tune, which is syncopate, then proceeds to give the beat of “rocking back and forth”. Hughes goes on to point toward the feeling of oppression by repeating synonyms of sad such as, “poor”, “moan”, “frowning” and “weary”, throughout the poem. Within the first three lines the author has implied a movement and a beat which suggests music and emotions. By doing this the reader is not only able to “hear” but also to “feel” the sadness of African Americans. Using only the art of language, Hughes merged the genres of art, poetry, and music
(Robinson). Hughes made no point to draw a line between fine art and folk art perhaps in attempt to bridge the gap between urban African Americans that were usually grouped by professions and by level of education. By using modernism, he mixed high and low culture and wrote in a vernacular language as to appeal to a larger audience. Classical forms of literature with iambic pentameter could not capture the work he wanted to do. A sonnet mold could no way express the life of African Americans during the Harlem Reissuance (Course). Hughes was quoted saying, “I am interested in reproducing the human soul, If I can.” (Rampersad) He did this by combining formal poetry with oral traditions. Thus, jazz poetry became a lyrical mode to capture the internal soul
By the end of World War I, Black Americans were facing their lowest point in history since slavery. Most of the blacks migrated to the northern states such as New York and Chicago. It was in New York where the “Harlem Renaissance” was born. This movement with jazz was used to rid of the restraints held against African Americans. One of the main reasons that jazz was so popular was that it allowed the performer to create the rhythm. With This in Mind performers realized that there could no...
1920’s Harlem was a time of contrast and contradiction, on one hand it was a hotbed of crime and vice and on the other it was a time of creativity and rebirth of literature and at this movement’s head was Langston Hughes. Hughes was a torchbearer for the Harlem Renaissance, a literary and musical movement that began in Harlem during the Roaring 20’s that promoted not only African-American culture in the mainstream, but gave African-Americans a sense of identity and pride.
Dream Variations, also by Langston Hughes, is a strong poem that conveys his cultural identity. In this poem, Hughes uses the light and dark hours of the day to represent the cultures of white and black people. Hughes says, “To fling my arms wide in some place of the sun. To whirl and to dance till the white day is done. Then rest at cool evening beneath a tall tree while night comes on gently, Dark like me-That is my dream!” Hughes compares the daytime to the white man 's work day and correlates the night to himself and his race. This poem clearly conveys Hughes cultural
Over all, I can honestly say that I never really had an appreciation for Jazz music until I read some of Langston Hughes’s work and was able to attend the Jazz Big Band performance. I really enjoyed seeing and listening to the different styles of Jazz music. By attending this performance I noticed that are parallels between Hughes work and some of the Jazz music herd today. Some of these comparisons consist of repetition, racial collaboration, and
...n his poetry. Hughes creates many responses to these poems through the use of symbolism, which he may otherwise not have been able to do.
The ship would take him and his crew to many places, mainly in Western Africa. Hughes was so excited to finally see Africa and to be apart of the culture there. When the ship finally reached shore, Hughes was disappointed. Thinking that Africa was actually pretty ridiculous with men walking around in white gowns, women showing their breast and little children running around naked. There were also many brothels there that Hughes described the setting as little African boys bringing the crew members to see ‘my sister, two shillings’. These brothels not only disgusted Hughes, but also disappointed him on how the Africans praised them. Hughes wrote in his journal, which is now protected at Yale University, calling them “vile houses of rotting
population is oppressed and must ignore or postpone their dreams. The more dreams are postponed
Envision a dark, gloomy night in the heart of Harlem where the soulful sound of a black musician empowers his emotions through Blues music. This image is characteristic of the symbolic arts movement known as the “Harlem Renaissance” (also known as “New Negro Renaissance”) starting after World War I in the 1920s and running through the middle of the 1930s Depression. Groups of talented African-Americans show their racial identity in America by producing a noteworthy amount of literature, art, and music. One of the most influential figures during this time is Langston Hughes, a black writer and poet, who expresses himself through his unique, rhythmic writing. In his poem, “The Weary Blues” Hughes creates racial identity, sorrowful tone, and soulful mood by his use of vivid imagery, rhythm (syncopation), and double-consciousness to assert the poem’s theme of music and culture.
Music can affect people in strange, entrancing, ways but Jazz has managed to move America to the place it is today. In the 1920s in New Orleans, jazz experienced a rise in popularity when the music began to spread. Soon the new style of music spread all around America. Jazz managed to change the social standings so that African-American people were treated with more respect (however there was no more equality). Improvisation and Free Jazz both became extremely and important to jazz in the mid 1950’s. They both helped shape jazz to what is today which is to be investigated in this essay.
The image of African-American’s changed from rural, uneducated “peasants” to urban, sophisticated, cosmopolites. Literature and poetry are abounded. Jazz music and the clubs where it was performed at became social “hotspots”. Harlem is the epitome of the “New Negro”. However, things weren’t as sunny as they appeared.
The Harlem Renaissance refers to a prolific period of unique works of African-American expression from about the end of World War I to the beginning of the Great Depression. Although it is most commonly associated with the literary works produced during those years, the Harlem Renaissance was much more than a literary movement; similarly, it was not simply a reaction against and criticism of racism. The Harlem Renaissance inspired, cultivated, and, most importantly, legitimated the very idea of an African-American cultural consciousness. Concerned with a wide range of issues and possessing different interpretations and solutions of these issues affecting the Black population, the writers, artists, performers and musicians of the Harlem Renaissance had one important commonality: "they dealt with Black life from a Black perspective." This included the use of Black folklore in fiction, the use of African-inspired iconography in visual arts, and the introduction of jazz to the North.[i] In order to fully understand the lasting legacies of the Harlem Renaissance, it is important to examine the key events that led to its beginnings as well as the diversity of influences that flourished during its time.
Not only were musicians and progress leaders influential and imperative to the era of the Harlem Renaissance, but also poets. Weary Blues, by Langston Hughes, indicates the ordinary lifestyle of a lonesome black man in life. The speaker decides to describe this man as a “negro” rather than a black man, giving it more of negative connotation. Loneliness, frustration, and despair are all themes implied in this poem by Hughes to discuss the “negro’s” common worries are in life. The poem reveals itself to have a “lazy sway” back and forth throughout it musically, and shows as “melancholy” and saddening. This blues poem, which contains pain that the “negro” is dealing with, is “transformed from pain into art” by the way that the pain is expressed by the “negro,” transitioning it into a catalyst to do better. It brings this sense of sympathy towards the black community, trying to sway the minds of the people to assist in the black community into trying to lose these common worries and finding themselves. It is self-evident on how the struggle the black community dealt with in this blues poem. The constant worrying and depressive mindset is what murdered the African Americans livelihood and willing to live and be free. For which they didn’t have these, so death would be a plausible choice for majority of these
As it mentioned above, the title itself, draws attention to the world-renowned music created by African Americans in the 1920s’ as well as to the book’s jazz-like narrative structure and themes. Jazz is the best-known artistic creation of Harlem Renaissance. “Jazz is the only pure American creation, which shortly after its birth, became America’s most important cultural export”(Ostendorf, 165). It evolved from the blues
The art of expression has been around since the initial dawn of humanity. From hieroglyphics to the written word to the digital age, it has evolved and changed to correspond with the people living in the era. At the start of the 1920s, also known as the Roaring 20s, the Harlem Renaissance began. It was one of the first times in history where black culture took the spotlight. Music, art, poetry, and various subgenres of the three became wildly popular amongst the urban citizens. Amongst some of the poems that were created were “A Black Man Talks of Reaping” by Arna Bontemps and “The Weary Blues” by Langston Hughes, two pieces focusing on the history and change of African American lives while still connecting to their original roots.
Over the course of the century chronicling the helm of slavery, the emancipation, and the push for civil, equal, and human rights, black literary scholars have pressed to have their voice heard in the midst a country that would dare classify a black as a second class citizen. Often, literary modes of communication were employed to accomplish just that. Black scholars used the often little education they received to produce a body of works that would seek to beckon the cause of freedom and help blacks tarry through the cruelties, inadequacies, and inconveniences of their oppressed condition. To capture the black experience in America was one of the sole aims of black literature. However, we as scholars of these bodies of works today are often unsure as to whether or not we can indeed coin the phrase “Black Literature” or, in this case, “Black poetry”. Is there such a thing? If so, how do we define the term, and what body of writing can we use to determine the validity of the definition. Such is the aim of this essay because we can indeed call a poem “Black”. We can define “Black poetry” as a body of writing written by an African-American in the United States that formulates a concentrated imaginative awareness of an experience or set of experiences inextricably linked to black people, characterizes a furious call or pursuit of freedom, and attempts to capture the black condition in a language chosen and arranged to create a specific emotional response through meaning, sound, and rhythm. An examination of several works of poetry by various Black scholars should suffice to prove that the definition does hold and that “Black Poetry” is a term that we can use.