Week of 10/26: Black Arts theater and spoken word poetry

Photo: Playwright Alice Childress.

Next week we finish with plays from the Black Arts Movement and move to poetry.

For Monday, October 26, Read Alice Childress’s play Wine in the Wilderness in the SOS reader. Bring the book with you to class so you can refer to specific lines. We’ll also finish discussion of Sonia Sanchez’s The Bronx is Next: please re-read that. (PDF of the Sanchez play is on the readings page). One recurring theme we see in these plays is that of urban rebellions/riots.
Think about the following as you read:

• What’s the setting of the play and how does it help shape the action?
• What themes of Black Arts and Black Power do you see? Mark/underline specific examples in the text.
• What characters are portrayed in the play and how are they shown?
• What social commentary or critique does Childress make?
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  Watch the short trailer for the Newark ’67 documentary for background. You can watch the entire film online using your Hunter NET ID.

  Optional: The documentary film I’ve been showing clips of in class, <em>Black Theater: The making of a Movement, is also available to stream with your Hunter NET ID if you want to explore further.

  Announcements: The Sun Ra Arkestra (directed by Marshall Allen) will be at Brooklyn Bowl in Williamsburg on the 22nd. The Arkestra was founded by the eclectic musical visionary Sun Ra and has been kept going since his death by Marshall Allen. Also, a new Nina Simone documentary, The Amazing Nina Simone is playing for a week at the AMC Empire 25 theater on W 42nd St. Worth catching if you have an interest in Simone, especially for this class.

  

  Photo: The Last Poets, circa 1970.

  For Wednesday, October 28, watch the following videos in the embedded YouTube playlist. All are from albums of recorded 1960s/70s poetry.

  Presentation by Sheniece, Alycia, Papo, and Yudhel.

  Think about the following as you watch:
   

• What kind of audiences might these appeal to? Why?
• What themes of Black Arts and Black Power do you see?
• How might these appeal to people not traditionally into poetry?
• Would you buy these records
• Optional: See Pat Thomas’s book Listen Whitey: the Sights and Sounds of Black Power 1965-1975, on reserve in the Hunter Library for more on music and spoken word.

Week of 10/14: Baraka’s The Slave and Black Arts Drama

“Die” by Faith Ringgold, 1967. From her “American People” series. From the Art in Context Website.

Class, of course, does not meet on Monday because of the holiday.

Tuesday 10/15, however is a Monday schedule in CUNY, so we meet as we normally would, as do all your other Monday classes. The main assignment is to read Baraka’s play The Slave, which is a follow-up to Dutchman both chronologically, and in terms of where the conclusions it takes toward struggle and society. Think about the differences between the two plays and also the autobiographical elements we’ve discussed and what it meant for Baraka — then Jones — to write such a play. (Ex-wife Hettie Jones refers to The Slave as “Roi’s nightmare” in her own autobiography.) Look at Ringgold’s Die in that context. What might be the end result, according to Ringgold’s vision?

View this trailer for the Revolution ’67 documentary on the Newark rebellion. Baraka had moved back to Newark by 1967 and was extremely politically active. In a sense, The Slave both responds to the times and also offers a premonition of what is to come.

Listen to “Who Will Survive America?” by Baraka from his 1972 It’s Nation Time! album on Black Forum Records (a subsidiary of Motown), which perfectly captures the mood of the time. Who will survive America and the tensions that are erupting in the 1960s? Listen to the lyrics: note that he moves from “survive, Black man/ Black woman too” to “all survive”. What do you think he’s getting at here? Read the corresponding section on It’s Nation Time in Pat Thomas’s Listen Whitey! book (pages 45-49).



Finally Watch Baraka perform his poem “It’s Nation Time!”, which he reads here with almost evangelistic zeal in the early 1970s. on an artistic level, think about the difference between this and his performance of the poem “Black Art”, with drummer Sonny Murray on Sonny’s Time Now that we listened to earlier on. How has his style evolved?

On Thursday, October 17, we continue with drama from the Black Arts Movement. Read Jimmy Garrett’s We own the Night (p. 527) in Black Fire!. Also read the 4-page section on the short-lived Black Arts Repertory Theater/School from Komozi Woodard’s Baraka bio Nation Within a Nation, which is a PDF on the Readings page. In the wake of Malcolm X’s assassination, Baraka left his wife (and children) in the bohemian, artsy scene of Greenwich Village for Harlem to become better connected with the struggle and immerse himself in a Black community. The BARTS experiment was short-lived (and in some ways disastrous), but an important learning experience, extremely important symbolically, and represented a full commitment to the struggle. For these readings, think about the following:

The development of a revolutionary theater that’s attempting to follow a “Black Aesthetic”

How does this play deal with the changing racial view of the times?

How does it deal with the issues of masculinity and Malcolm X’s warning of a “New Negro”?

How does it show the difference in thought between different generations?

How does it represent the theme (and worldwide trend) of revolution?

After reading the play, listen to “When the Revolution Comes” by The Last Poets from their self-titled first album, released in 1970 by Douglas Records.

Assignment for the week of 10/22: Midterm and spoken word

Monday’s Assignment (10/22) is to study for the Midterm!

Thursday’s assignment will be listening to The Last Poets, Gil Scott Heron, Nikki Giovanni, AND Jayne Cortez: all on the Media page. (Hint: same password as Readings page.) Don’t worry about the Nina Simone or Abbey Lincoln for now. The files are all streaming and should work. Total listening is less than an hour, but listen to everything at least once, and pick a few favorites to listen to a second (third?) time and take some notes since the tracks are all short: the longest one is only about 6 minutes.

On Thursday, we also have our first presentation — by Rose, DJ, Brandon, and Jennifer.

Optional (though a very good idea for those presenting) is to take a peek at Pat Thomas’s book Listen Whitey; The Sights and Sounds of Black Power, on reserve in Wexler Library.

As a bonus, if you’re a Pinterest addict, check out my pinboard on vinyl from the Black Arts. It’s a work in progress (and by no means complete), but has things that aren’t on the list for Thursday. If you’re not on yet, I’ll be happy to send an invite.

For the week of 3/19

For Monday, read (in Black Fire!) the poems of David Henderson (p. 230-244), Sonia Sanchez (p. 250-255), Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones)’s “Black Art” (302-303), Barbara Simmons “Soul” (304-308), Carol Freeman (329-331), Victor Hernandez Cruz (436-437). Everything is in the Black Fire! book, which you should have or is on reserve at Purchase.

Also listen to Baraka read “Black Art” on the Sonny’s Time Now album in 1967.

I’ll update to post Thursday’s assignment, which will be listening to The Last Poets, Gil Scott Heron, Nikki Giovanni, AND Jayne Cortez: all on the Media page. (Hint: same password as Readings page.) The files are all streaming and should work. WordPress’s player is Flash-based, so doesn’t work on most tablets and phones: sorry. total listening is less than an hour, but listen to everything at least once, and pick a few favorites to listen to a second (third?) time and take some notes since thee tracks are all short: the longest one is only about 6 minutes.

As a bonus, if you’re a Pinterest addict, check out my pinboard on vinyl from the Black Arts. It’s a work in progress (and by no means complete), but has things that aren’t on the list for Thursday. If you’re not on yet, I’ll be happy to send an invite.

Updated Tuesday, 3/20