Alma Rosé: The Most Famous Jazz Poet

The blues emerged as a distinct African-American musical form in the early twentieth century. It typically employed a twelve-bar framework and three-lined stanzas; its roots are based in early African-American songs, such as field hollers and work songs, and generally have a melancholy mood. The blues can be divided into many sub-genres, including Classical, Country, and Urban. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the careers of two of Classical blues most influential and legendary singers: Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith.

In a time when Africans were stolen from their native lands and brought through the middle passage to a land that claimed was a free country, a small African girl, who would later be known as Phillis Wheatley, was sold in Boston in 1761. In the speech, “The Miracle of Black Poetry in America”, written by June Jordan, a well respected black poet, professor and activist, wrote the speech in 1986, 200 years after Phillis walked the earth, to honor the legacy of the first black female poet for the people of the United States. Jordan, passionately alludes to the example of Phillis Wheatley’s life, to show the strength and perseverance of African-American people throughout difficult history and how they have overcome the impossible.

The first poet I chose from the Harlem Renaissance was the American poet, Countee Cullen This 1920s artistic movement produced the first large body of work in the United States written by African Americans. (Brown, 2012) The work, Yet Do I Marvel, took a racial theme, lynching of a black youth for a crime he did not commit. The poem is stark and makes reference to Sisyphus and speaks of how life is a struggle up a never ending stair. It speaks to God as if to wonder why, knowing that God is benevolent he does not stop the unreasoning actions of brutes against, “flesh that mirrors him”, meaning the black race. (Brown, 2012) This line is important as it shows that the black consciousness is coming to recognition of their own worth taken

Phillis Wheatley was an American figure unlike any other at her time. In a time where slavery was the normal, Ms. Wheatley was a revolutionary figure. She was not revolutionary because she was one of the enslaved but because she was one of the enslaved that knew how to read and write, becoming a published author. Women at the time of Phillis Wheatley were oppressed into submission to social norms. It was almost unheard of for a woman to write poetry, much less to be published. So, for Phillis Wheatley not only to be a slave, but also to be a woman that wrote poetry, she was an extremely influential figure. She was not influential in just one area, but in two areas because she led the way to women being accepted as writers and planted a seed of abolition, although not directly intentional.

There are many important women who significantly contributed to Jazz and left a legacy of women artists. In the early years of Jazz, it was considered a male professional and women who tried to be part of Jazz faced obstacles. This was from male musicians, critics, record producers, club-owners, concerts and also racism. Despite the obstacles, women forced their way to be part of Jazz and pushed for equality and visibility (“Gender Discrimination, 2014).

The reading for January 24th was focused on Harlem Renaissance poems. While all of the poems in this section were interesting, one poem, in particular, caught my eye. I decided to look further into the poem, “Jazzonia” by Langston Hughes. Jazzonia stands for jazz and how each person in the world represents a specific aspect of jazz.

The Harlem Renaissance was different than I thought it was. I had imagined it was a time of African American’s gathering together in small groups and reading poems and writing stuff. When I began researching, the things that I found blew my mind. Seeing all of the big names of the Renaissance was cool because I have heard these names all my life, but never realized why those names were significant. Being a student in band, the name Louis Armstrong has been a name I have heard since 6th grade. Up until this project, I never knew the extent of the impact he made on the world of music.

“What happens to a dream deferred?” is the opening statement of Harlem that grabs the attention of everyone who is reading this phenomenal poem. Of the two poems listed in this essay, this opening statement is more attention-grabbing and is a fantastic hook to being with. Harlem and Women Have Loved Before As I Love Now, are ideally comparable and contrastable. The meanings of the poems and the authors of the poems are some topics that are different in these poems. The style of the poems and length of the poems are the other topics that are the same and are comparable to this subject. Altogether, these two pieces of literature are actually intriguing and somewhat interesting.

There marriage was secretive because back then there marriage was forbidden because she was german american. In 1924 he married Edith Granzo. She helped him finacial wise for the next decade. They had a child together in 1933.

The Harlem Renaissance was a time where creativity flourished throughout the African American community. At the time many African Americans were treated as second class citizens. The Harlem Renaissance acted as artistic and cultural outlet for the African-American community. The Harlem Renaissance, otherwise known as “The New Negro Movement” was an unexpected outburst of creative activity among African Americans In the poems Harlem by Langston Hughes, America by Claude McKay, and Incident by Countee Cullen all use frustration and hope as reoccurring themes to help empower the African-American population and realize the injustices they face day to day. The Harlem Renaissance was a period marked by great change and forever altered the

Paula Gunn Allen (born Paula Marie Francis) was a prominent Native American scholar, poet, activist, novelist, and literary critic. She collected and interpreted Native American mythology and was active in American feminist movements and in antiwar and antinuclear organizations. Her list of publications is long and diverse and includes poetry, essays on feminist thought, and an American history written from a minority perspective.

The Harlem Renaissance was a wonderful allotment of advancement for the black poets and writers of the 1920s and early ‘30s. I see the Harlem Renaissance as a time where people gather together and express their work throughout the world for everyone to see the brilliance and talent the black descendants harness.

“The Harlem Renaissance was a time where the Afro-American came of age; he became self-assertive and racially conscious… he proclaimed himself to be a man and deserving respect. Those Afro-Americans who were part of that time period saw themselves as principals in that moment of transformation from old to new” (Huggins 3). African Americans migrated to the North in great numbers to seek better lives than in the South as the northern economy was booming and industrial jobs were numerous. This movement brought new ideas and talents that shifted the culture forever. Black writers, such as Langston Hughes, used their work to claim a place for themselves and to demand self-respect in society. Poems that Langston Hughes wrote captured the essence of the complexity of a life that mixes joy and frustration of black American life through the incorporation of jazz and blues in order to examine the paradox of being black in mostly white America, the land of the not quite free.

American soul and jazz poet Gilbert “Gil” Scott-Heron was born in Chicago, Illinois April 1, 1949. It seems he got his singing talents from his mother who was an opera singer that performed with the New York Oratorio Society. His father was a football player and was the first black man to play for Celtic football club. Gil was also an author and musician and known for being a spoken word performer. This was in the 1970s and 1980s and majority of his work was regarding political and social matter. Some of Gil works include: “Pieces of A Man” and “Winter in America” which helped inspired African American music genre like hip hop and neo soul. He was sentenced to jail two times, in 2001 and in 2006 for some type of drug procession; after his sentenced, Gil returned to writing his book called “The Last Holiday” which was about Steven wonder and his strive to make the birthday of Martin Luther King a Holiday in America. “I’m New Here” is another work of Gilbert; it was slightly different from his other works because it was a memoir and he was working on it until his passing. Unfortunately, Gilbert passed away in New York at St. Luke’s Hospital on May 27, 2011; earlier, he admitted to having HIV and had been to the hospital before for pneumonia. In 2012 he was awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and he is also included in the exhibits at the National Museum of American History that was opened on September 24, 2016.

Antonio Vivaldi was born on March 4, 1678 in the town of Venice, Italy. His father was quite the musician and helped his son master the violin and also helped him get find lessons from some the best composers in Italy. Sadly, do to his symptoms that were similar to asthma often causing him to have severe shortness of breath he was unable to master several instruments. At one point in his early life he even became a priest but this was short lived do to his continuing health issues therefore he had to give up his priesthood. “At the age of 25, Antonio Vivaldi was named master of violin at the Ospedale della Pietà (Devout Hospital of Mercy) in Venice” (). This is where he spent in upwards of thirty years teaching his students and only having