week 7a - Oct 25-28 - Race politics and the problem of poetic form

The Kelly Writers House

at 3805 Locust Walk, on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania, where PhillyTalks sessions are held. Here's more about the PhillyTalks project. We will view the November 15 PhillyTalks program, featuring poets Barrett Watten and Rachel Blau DuPlessis.

• Claude McKay, headnote (Norton, p. 516-17), "The Tropics of New York" (Norton, p. 517), "If We Must Die" (Norton, p. 517-18), "The Harlem Dancer" (Norton, p. 518)
• Claude McKay reads "If We Must Die"
• Melvin Tolson's review of McKay with reference to "If We Must Die"
• to help with "If We Must Die," read about the 1921 Oklahoma City race riots
• paper option #9 Consider McKay's poem "If We Must Die." Write a paper stating your position on the following question: Does McKay's use of traditional poetic form diminish the power of the position he takes in the poem? Explain your position. And be sure to describe the form he uses.
• Countee Cullen, headnote (Norton, p. 660-61), "Yet Do I Marvel" (Norton, p. 661-62), "Incident" (Norton, p. 662)
• paper option #10 Consider Cullen's poem "Incident." Write a paper stating your position on the following question: Does Cullen's use of traditional poetic form diminish the power of the incident he describes in the poem? Explain your position. And be sure to describe the stanza form he uses.
• Langston Hughes on jazz, race and writing
• Langston Hughes, headnote (Norton, p. 645-47), "Morning After" (Norton, p. 649-50)
• audio: Langston Hughes reads "I've Known Rivers" (courtesy "The Listening Booth")
• audio: Sterling Brown, "Putting on the Dog"
• Gwendolyn Brooks, brief biographical profile
• Brooks, "The Boy Died in My Alley"
• Imamu Amiri Baraka, biographical profile
• Baraka, "Incident"
• June Jordan, "Poem about My Rights" (a video recording of a performance at the Writers House, April 23, 2001)

  ---

  navigate 88v: schedule | key | home | PAPERs | video-audio index | m a i l the s t a f f | next chapter