Analysis Of ' Blood On The Forge ' By William Attaway

Blues music is mainly defined by its lyrics, which are more lyrical in nature, rather than narrative. In B.B. King’s song, “Every Day I Have the Blues,” King gives us a good example of what blues music is generally about,

As time has passed humanity still tends to separate each other based on our racial being rather than seeing each other as one human race. Langston Hughes’s, “A New Song,” published in 1938 introduces the idea of a new vision of social relations in American society. Hughes’s original version of this poem written in 1933, does not encompass his growing anger on this subject that is dwelled upon in his published version. However, with Hughes’s powerful tone and word choice throughout his 1938 rendition, his reader is able to understand his urge to transform America into an interracial culture. (Central Idea) His poem voices the importance of transforming society into a multiethnic unity and working-class established through cultural ties between whites and blacks. (Thesis) Hughes voices this crucial need to change through his emphasis on African American’s past struggles as opposed to the new dream, his militant tone, and through expressing the role that the establishment of cultural ties plays in society.

Music is an art form and source of power. Many forms of music reflect culture and society, as well as, containing political content and social message. Music as social change has been highlighted throughout the 20th century. In the 1960s the United States saw political and socially oriented folk music discussing the Vietnam War and other social issues. In Jamaica during the 1970s and 1980s reggae developed out of the Ghetto’s of Trench town and expressed the social unrest of the poor and the need to over-through the oppressors. The 1980’s brought the newest development in social and political music, the emergence of hip-hop and rap. This urban musical art form that was developed in New

Writing during the emergence of the “New Negro” movement, Claude McKay and Langston Hughes work to reconcile black life in white America. The trope used by the two poets within “The Harlem Dancer” and “The Weary Blues” is that of a performance and a single speaker’s recollection of it. While both depict an African-American performer presumably consumed by the isolation and oppression of their condition, the intensity of the performances prove to be vastly disparate. Hughes’ “The Weary Blues” features a much more transcendent performance than that of McKay’s “The Harlem Dancer” not only because of the relationship between the audience and the performer, but the degree of ubiquity in descriptions of the performer and the poetic form through

Romance can be a part of someone’s life, but it isn’t always the main focus. In the article “I Can’t Think About Kissing: Strong Female Protagonists and Romance in Dystopian Young Adult Fiction”, university student Mollie Hall discusses romance in dystopian novels: “Romance is pursued, but it is a side pursuit in the female protagonist’s journey instead of the goal.” (Hall 5). This statement is true in the novel Blood Red Road by Moira Young. Saba is a girl with a plan, who has had her brother stolen from her own home. She vows to get her brother back and sets off on a journey, meeting many interesting, villainous, and kind characters. That being said, Saba finds a bit of romance. This, however, is not her main goal. This is evident during Saba’s first meeting with Jack, her need for help, and her thoughts on her relationship with Jack. To begin, the initial meeting between Saba and Jack demonstrates a romantic viewpoint in the novel. Upon seeing Jack, Saba instantly feels a sense of love from her heartstone, a necklace charm that heats up when you are near your heart’s desire:

Leslie Marmon Silko’s novel, Ceremony, reveals how the crossing of cultures was feared, ridiculed, and shunned in various Native American tribes. The fear of change is a common and overwhelming fear everyone faces at some point in their life. The fear of the unknown, the fear of letting go, and the fear of forgetting all play a part in why people struggle with change. In Ceremony the crossing of cultures creates “half-breeds,” usually bringing disgrace to their family’s name. In Jodi Lundgren’s discourse, “Being a Half-breed”, is about how a girl who struggles with understanding what cultural group she fits into since she is a “half-breed.” Elizabeth Evasdaughter’s essay, “Leslie Marmon Silko’s “Ceremony”: Healing Ethnic Hatred by

Duke Ellington was a musical and political genius; he was “America’s only original musical mind.” He was not only a performer, but a composer. He learned the craft of composing by observing others instead of disciplined study. One important factor of Ellington’s music was its relation to black heritage and African American history. His symphony “Black, Brown, and Beige” displayed the African American struggle in America. Not only did Ellington use his music to portray the struggle, voice, and triumph of black Americans, he used his professionalism, originality, persuasiveness, and political performances.

The folk genre has origins all the way back to the 19th century, which in many ways is mirrored by many popular genres in modern musical genres. To make it easy folk music is merely, “ballads and songs which are composed and conveyed vocally, without being written.”(Mclean 12) Though what we distinguish ‘folk’ today as stylistically very different to what ‘folk’ was during the 19th century, at its basic form, it still holds the same standards and concepts, describing the simpler times. Through vigorous research, it’s hard to overlook the past and expansion of folk music originating from the south, and how it could help understand the significance for observing and expanding the dynamics of southern race relationships. Equally, race

The blues have deep roots embedded within American history—particularly that of African American history. The history of the blues originated on Southern plantations in the 19th century and was created by slaves, ex-slaves, and descendants of slaves. They were created by individuals who endured great hardship while performing endless hours of arduous labor and blues served as a form of escapism. To these individuals, songs provided them with the strength to persevere through their struggles. Blues songs depicted individuals who persevered in the face of adversity. They were symbols of hope to those squandering in the depths of oppression. In relations to the blues, every song has a story behind it and within every story, there is something to be said. Blues artists, through their struggles, detail how they overcame hardship and laughed at the face of oppression. They defied the rules and in doing so, showed African Americans that they too are beacons of hope for the hopeless. The best blues is instinctive, cathartic, and intensely emotional. From irrepressible bliss to deep sadness, no form of music communicates more genuine emotion than that of the blues. Like many bluesmen of his day, Robert Johnson applied his craft as a lonely traveling musician on street corners and in juke joints. He was a lonely man whose songs romanticized that existence. With Johnson’s unique vocal style, haunting lyrics, and creative guitar techniques, Johnson’s innovation embodied the essence of

(Lemann 1991:70) Migrants moved out west to California, up the East coast, but most migrants from the Mississippi Delta moved straight north to Chicago—and the Blues moved with them. By then sharecropping and plantation living were unsustainable ways of living carried out by various “push” factors. The mechanized cotton picker could field an acre of cotton in about 16% of the man hours. The Boll Weevil beetle (Anthonomus grandis) devastated the south’s dependence on cotton and created further economic struggles for African-Americans. While the southern economy struggled, that of Chicago boomed. WWII created droves of manual and manufacturing jobs which were open to newly settled African-Americans. “The stockyards were hopping during the war. The work was hard, but you could make lots of hours, and every year there was a raise; the stockyards were such a familiar part of the iconography of black Chicago in those years…” (Lemann 1991: 63) The themes of the Blues shifted with the change in economic standing of man Blacks. Themes of loss, hardship, and despair were replaced by those of sex, humor, and bravado despite a large, lingering dichotomy between whites and African-Americans. “Black America had been through an enormous change, namely the shifting of its base from the rural South to the urban North, and attitudes were just beginning the shift.” (Lemann 1991:99) Noted Blues harp blower, Matthew Skoller confirmed this trend as the Blues’ themes took a

In this essay I will attempt to underscore and celebrate Simone’s activist efforts through song and demonstrate the messages in the music about race, gender, and class.

Music is a monumental element of black culture and protest, as well as the most influential. The struggles that people of color face in America have been expressed through songs and music for decades. Although a song may not be directly about struggling, they all come from a place of injustice. Music has changed with the passage of time, but many aspects remain and morph from the past. Protest songs from the mid-twentieth century civil rights movement contain various notable similarities to antebellum spirituals, specifically lyrically and in terms of rhetoric.

This speaker gives a detailed description of listening to a blues musician in Harlem. This poem has a mournful tone and tempo of blues due to its diction, repetitive lines and inclusion of blues lyrics thus, giving the reader an appreciation of the state of mind of the blues musician in the poem.

In the beginning of its existence, blues music was a way of expressing ones’ feelings that they were not allowed to speak about in mixed company. This was music that expressed from the heart and soul of painful experiences that continued on throughout the course of living in a divided, unequal society. Blues music is still based on emotional pain, still the most wonderful way to express tears and heartache in a catchy sounding musical format. This is the music that touches people in a deeper manner and helps appease the pain that one has endured. Every blues song produced is a symbol of past experiences of the writer of the song and its’ performer. This allows each song to be uniquely impactful. Many blues songs used racial inequality as a common theme because many black Americans were suffering from this in their daily lives. The following songs were structured to help raise support to put an end to the racial inequality that occurred.

The black population of Lorain, Ohio, participates in traditions that foster black survival, comfort in times of need, and enduring creativity. Against this grain, Pauline and Cholly Breedlove erroneously accept the myth of the north as a place where blacks become socially and economically free. As a result they lose their abilities to use the old folk forms that sustained generations of rural blacks, and thus they broke chains of continuity in black culture.