1.  The Latin root “lib –” derives from “liber,” which is the Latin word for “free.” Key Words Liberty 1. improvise“Statue” Ad-lib 2. generous“Comedy” Liberate 3. freedom“Iraq” Liberal 4. release from slavery “Democrat”  Put each one of these words in a sentence, but there’s a trick: you must use the “key words” found on each line in that word’s sentence. Bell work: 4/19/10 Latin root “lib -”

2. Test Prep questions #89-95  Silently read pages 52-53 and answer the questions #89-95.  Do the best that you can.  If you finish early you can do another quiet individual activity.  If you have any questions, we’ll address them afterwards.

3. Harlem Renaissance Poetry 1900’s – 1920’s When the influence of African- Americans in politics, literature, music, culture and society grew and became a part of mainstream American culture.

4. Harlem Renaissance Poetry 1900’s – 1920’s Key Authors and Artists: Paul Laurence Dunbar W.E.B. Du Bois Langston Hughes Claude McKay Zora Neale Hurston

5. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE POETRY AND ART  African-American leaders started speaking out against the white establishment for its institutionalized racism and encouraged African- Americans to educate themselves and participate in politics and mainstream culture.  Never before had so much African-American artistic productivity bloomed in so short a time.  Writers, poets, philosophers, musicians, visual artists, and filmmakers gathered to form a large and diverse talent base whose achievements reflected and challenged societal conventions.  The social purpose behind African-American literature of this time influenced its choice of techniques and styles: it sought to reach the entire community, not merely its most highly educated members.

6. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE  Take, for example, an excerpt from Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes were Watching God: Written in Black Southern Vernacular Examples: ○ “Ah” for “I” ○ “Tuh” for “to” “Shucks! ‘Tain’t no mo’ fools lak me. A whole lot of mens will grin in yo’ face, but dey ain’t gwine tuh work and feed yuh.” This type of depiction of African-American culture, while at times controversial even in the black community, gave a voice and identity to southern African-Americans.:

7.  The son of former slaves, Dunbar was the first African American to gain national eminence as a poet. Became a fan of Wordsworth when he was six, thinking it was written by a man in his hometown by the same name.  Dunbar’s work was treated as precursor – a pioneer – to the work that was to come out of upper Manhattan.  At the time Dunbar wrote his poems, the use of dialect was very popular; consequently, many of Dunbar’s poems not written in dialect were neglected. Paul Laurence Dunbar: (1872 – 1906). The Harlem Renaissance Prophet

8. “We Wear the Mask” Paul Lawrence Dunbar We wear the mask that grins and lies, It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,-- This debt we pay to human guile; With torn and bleeding hearts we smile, And mouth with myriad subtleties. Why should the world be overwise, In counting all our tears and sighs? Nay, let them only see us, while We wear the mask. We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries To thee from tortured souls arise. We sing, but oh the clay is vile Beneath our feet, and long the mile; But let the world dream otherwise, We wear the mask!

9. We wear the mask that grins and lies, It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,-- This debt we pay to human guile; With torn and bleeding hearts we smile, And mouth with myriad subtleties. Why should the world be overwise, In counting all our tears and sighs? Nay, let them only see us, while We wear the mask. We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries To thee from tortured souls arise. We sing, but oh the clay is vile Beneath our feet, and long the mile; But let the world dream otherwise, We wear the mask! “We Wear the Mask” Paul Lawrence Dunbar What is the rhyme scheme (mark it on the poem)? What two lines do not rhyme and what might be the purpose of this? What is the tone and what words help you identify this? What metaphor is at work? What image does this façade create in your mind? You’re an African-American living in Harlem at the turn of the century – how do you feel after reading this poem?

10. “Douglas” Paul Lawrence Dunbar Ah, Douglas, we have fall’n on evil days, Such days as thou, not even thou didst know, When thee, the eyes of that harsh long ago Saw, salient, at the cross of devious ways, And all the country heard thee with amaze. Not ended then, the passionate ebb and flow. The awful tide that battled to and fro; We ride amid a tempest of dispraise. Now, when the waves of swift dissesion swarm, And Honor, the strong pilot, lieth stark, Oh, for they voice high-sounding o’er the storm, For they strong arm to guide the shivering bark, The blast-defying power of they form, To give us comfort through the lonely dark. “Douglas” Paul Lawrence Dunbar What is the rhyme scheme (mark it on the poem)? Why do you think the author changes it from the first to the second stanza? What does the speaker say the difference is between the current time and the time in which Douglass lived? Does this poem represent Douglass in a positive or negative way? What lines tell you this? What abstract metaphor is at work in this poem? What might it represent?

11. Claude McKay (1889-1948)  Claude McKay was born in Jamaica in 1889 before moving to America in 1912. Recognized as a leading writer of the Harlem Renaissance, McKay published his only two American volumes of poetry in 1920 (Spring in New Hampshire and Other Poems) and 1922 (Harlem Shadows), about the time he became associate editor of a socialist magazine, The Liberator. His three novels Home to Harlem (1928), Banjo (1929), and Banana Bottom (1933), and his book of short stories, Gingertown (1932), were published while he was abroad. He returned to the United States in 1934 and earned a living as a journalist, publishing his memoirs, A Long Way from Home (1937), and a book of essays, Harlem, Negro Metropolis (1940). He died destitute in Chicago on May 2, 1948, working for a Catholic Youth Organization. He is buried in Queens, New York. His Selected Poems appeared posthumously in 1953.