Analysis of "Power" by Audre Lorde

Many generations view music as a form of entertainment only, so society tends to overlook the messages behind the music. Some artists use music to promote their beliefs or inform their listeners about overlooked issues. Music spreads awareness about misfortunes in the world, and Martina McBride used her celebrity status to promote her own concerns about child abuse. In 2002, Martina McBride recorded a song “Concrete Angel” to spread awareness about child abuse. Her song exists for the general population that consists of bystanders because most people are aware of tragedies such as child abuse but refuse to report them. Through the elements of plot, characterization, and foreshadowing, “Concrete Angel” illustrates the story of a young girl’s abuse in order to call the bystanders to awareness of the societal problem.

Robin Thicke’s music video to his song “Blurred Lines” avidly contributes to the patriarchy, while portraying sexism, gender standards, and beauty standards. His music video can be analyzed from a feminist theory approach, as it’s evident that his song and video contribute to a patriarchal society and its inherently sexist and sexualized ideologies. The ideology behind the song and music video is purely sexual and about male dominance. The lyrics to the song and actions in the video exhibit extreme over sexualization and objectification of the women. Analyzing this piece of popular culture through a feminist approach opens up a provoking conversation about how popular culture functions in a patriarchal culture. Analyzing pop culture though a feminist theory can allow for a larger variety and more in-depth analysis about the social aspects and political agenda within popular culture.

What is poetry? Is poetry about your feelings? Is poetry meant for you to deliberate or read between the lines? Elizabeth Alexander, a black educator that teaches poetry, believes that poetry is where you are your true self and finding yourself. In 2005, she published one of her poems called “Ars Poetica #100: I Believe.” She constructed the poem to speak to her students about her meaning of poetry. Poetry causes various emotions, various content, and based on various forms of realities.

The above text is the hook to the poem “Mystery of Iniquity” Before going in depth with the first piece of the poem; something stands out in the first two stanzas: “iniquity” and “inequity”. According to Webster’s dictionary, inquity is defined as “gross injustice; a wicked act or thing” and inequity is defined as “injustice, unfairness; an instance of injustice or unfairness” (Merriam-Webster) Here Ms. Hill sets the tone for the rest of the poem. She explains that the unfairness of iniquity and inequity is a miserable feeling. She is talking directly to those that share her unfortunate circumstances of being treated unfairly in a state of misery. The pre verse that follows the hook brings the topic of religion into view. The first four lines in the pre-verse symbolize Biblical meaning and give way to religious pretext. The verse says

The song "U.N.I.T.Y." by Queen Latifah, released in 1994, is a hip-hop song with a theme about the harassment, domestic violence and sexist slurs against women, black woman to be specific. Should “U.N.I.T.Y” be considered literature, specifically is it a poem? I think that every song, no matter what the genre is free verse poetry. However, this artist and song are important in the hip-hop as literature genre movement because of both the artist’s credibility and the message that she is delivering.

“When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have to speak up. You have to say something; you have to do something” (NP). This is a quote from U.S. Representative John Lewis’ commencement speech that he gave at Washington University in Saint Louis. Lewis was a civil rights leader who marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The essay, The Fourth of July, by Audre Lorde is about her trip to Washington D.C., and the racism she experienced. As an 8th-grade graduation present, Audre’s parents took Audre and her sister to Washington D.C. In pre-civil rights America, racism was a powerful force experienced by minorities, limiting their opportunities to advance economically and integrate equally into America’s predominantly white society.

She enforces this idea onto the narrator tirelessly regardless of actually considering her daughter’s outlook of the mother’s idea. This shows that the narrator’s mother has taken another extreme to be too involved and controlling her life. Next, is the time and age the speaker and narrator are from the poem, “Hanging Fire”, and the story, “Two kinds”, are currently in. For instance, in Lorde’s poem, the speaker says she is fourteen, and she has various ordeals to do. Due to constant pressure and confusion and the lonesome environment she lives in, she questions whether she would come out of it alive and how would people finally understand her. This depicts that the speaker is currently a teenage girl who shall live the moment to then eventually confront and solve her

Smith states her argument topic the humanities are a necessity in people’s life at the beginning by using the work of Audre Lorde. She claims that the vanish of language proves that the skill of critical thinking is degradation through various types of social media (48). By proving this claim, Smith uses the word from Robert Frost as an evidence to prove that people’s minds are easy to be manipulated. Smith mentions that for a long time, in many people’s opinions, the humanities are not making any profit because they see people always have a difficult time to find a decent job after graduating with a major in the humanities. She even uses her own story as a counter- evidence to demonstrate this situation in widely consider (50).

I. Description Upon the first view of the painting Queen by Audrey Flack, I am assaulted with strong colors and objects at first glance. The painting in itself is an assortment of random objects and knickknacks, ranging from a slice of an orange to a locket with portraits of women in the locket. Along with just those two images, a lot of the objects in the painting have feminine qualities to them, such as the queen of hearts card and the queen chess piece. Along with those there are images of female products such as rouge and what I can only assume are different types of lip balm and perfume. In the painting, a lot of the tones are closer to the warm colored spectrum with a few being in the cool colors.

Aubrey Drake song uses a powerful use of emotions and words to get the readers’ attention of what is going on in his life. The song “The Calm” stresses in Drake’s life, and it also refers to an apology towards his mom. Despite it all, the song has unusual phrases, imagery and feelings making the reader feel what he was feeling. Through these elements he shows the theme of confidence and forgiveness.

In “Love Poem” Lorde wrote “And I knew when I entered her I was, high wind in her forests hollow/ fingers whispering sound/honey flowed/from the split cup /impaled on a lance of tongues/ on the tips of her breasts on her navel /and my breath-howling into her entrances/ through lungs of pain.”(6-15). This quote shows that Lorde loved every part of her and wanted to let her know in one of the most personal forms of

The date in which the narrative took place held great significance to the readers as well as the author. Independence Day is an important holiday where numerous Americans celebrate their freedom and honor the brave individuals who fought for our country’s liberty as well as the soldiers who are currently fighting for our continued independence. However, Lorde’s narration illustrates that there are a plethora of American citizens who are not completely liberated; instead, they are socially oppressed by racism and segregation. The author provided various examples of how Black people were treated despite the fact that the United States is renowned for being the “land of the free.” For example, Lorde stated that her sister Phyllis could not attend

The song Team written by Lorde was released in 2013. The song has to do with teenagers and their struggle of coming with age and is also describing a war that is occurring between two kingdoms. The two kingdoms that are fighting is your inner self and your age. Many people struggle with accepting the fact that they are getting older. Getting older means that you will have to have more responsibilities, conquer inner demons, come to terms with who you are etc.

For this piece, we danced to "All Through the Night" by Sleeping At Last. Both the choreography and the lyrics of the song coincide to portray the difficulties of connecting deeply with someone. In the song, the soft tone indicates an intensity of feeling and a sense of seriousness. The generally slow and deliberate movements of the piece also indicate that same feeling of intensity and thoughtfulness. When dancing and listening to the lyrics of the song I got the impression that one person was sacrificing themselves for the sake of another person. In the piece, there are some movements where we collapse, cave in on ourselves and fall down. Perhaps, these movements demonstrate a message of hopelessness and a lost sense of direction. However

Joan Baez is an extraordinary American female icon, most notable for her contributions to the folk music scene, as well as her involvement with civil rights and antiwar movements. Baez, still alive today at 75 years old, continues to inspire and lead people along an inclusive and nonviolent way of life, as she knows that “action is the antidote to despair” (Loder).