Ask Your Mam 12 Moods For Jazz

Langston Hughes was one of the great writers of his time. He was named the “most renowned African American poet of the 20th century” (McLaren). Through his writing he made many contributions to following generations by writing about African American issues in creative ways including the use of blues and jazz. Langston Hughes captured the scene of Harlem life in the early 20th century significantly influencing American Literature. He once explained that his writing was an attempt to “explain and illuminate the Negro condition in America” (Daniel 760). To fulfill this task, he wrote 15 volumes of poetry, six novels, three books, 11 plays, and a variety of non-fiction work (Daniel 760). He also edited over 50 books in his time (McKay).

“Langston Hughes: Beyond The Music and The Rhythm of An Extraordinary Black Artist.” JazzMuzic 23 (2001): 35-39.

The Harlem Renaissance was a time of revival and awakening in which the African American community produced a new form of cultural identity. After years of oppression and slavery, African Americans struggled to discover their own distinctive culture. It was through the literature and artistry of the Harlem Renaissance that the African American community began to express the suffering and resentment they truly experienced. In addition, the movement allowed them to find a way to escape their hardships. James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” and Langston Hughes’ “The Weary Blues” address the addiction, poverty, and violence that surrounded African Americans and the triumph of life that was captured in their attempt to escape the suffering.

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

Common themes of komunyakaa's poems include black resilience, jazz, and wartime appeal. In February in Sydney He opens the poem with the image of jazz being played through a tenor sax. This poems allow the audience to see how jazz impacts Komunyakaa in such an emotional way when he says “music is an anesthetic.” The metaphor of jazz music numbing the pain allows for a momentary escape from the world of stereotypes and judgement towards African Americans.

Langston Hughes is an extremely successful and well known black writer who emerged from the Harlem Renaissance (“Langston Hughes” 792). He is recognized for his poetry and like many other writers from the Harlem Renaissance, lived most of his life outside of Harlem (“Langston Hughes” 792). His personal experiences and opinions inspire his writing intricately. Unlike other writers of his time, Hughes expresses his discontent with black oppression and focuses on the hardships of his people. Hughes’ heartfelt concern for his people’s struggle evokes the reader’s emotion. His appreciation for black music and culture is evident in his work as well. Langston Hughes is a complex poet whose profound works provide insight into all aspects of black

Langston Hughes is one the most renowned and respected authors of twentieth century America not simply one of the most respected African-American authors, though he is certainly this as well, but one of the most respected authors of the period overall. A large part of the respect and admiration that the man and his work have garnered is due to the richness an complexity of Hughes' writing, both his poetry and his prose and even his non-fictions. In almost all of his texts, Hughes manages at once to develop and explore the many intricacies and interactions of the human condition and specifically of the experience growing up and living as a black individual in a white-dominated and explicitly anti-Black society while at the same time, while at the same time rendering his human characters and their emotions in a simple, straightforward, and immensely accessible fashion. Reading the complexity behind the surface simplicity of his works is at once enjoyable and edifying.

During the 1920’s a new movement began to arise. This movement known as the Harlem Renaissance expressed the new African American culture. The new African American culture was expressed through the writing of books, poetry, essays, the playing of music, and through sculptures and paintings. Three poems and their poets express the new African American culture with ease. (Jordan 848-891) The poems also express the position of themselves and other African Americans during this time. “You and Your Whole Race”, “Yet Do I Marvel”, and “The Lynching” are the three poems whose themes are the same. The poets of these poems are, as in order, Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, and Claude Mckay.

This volume could be considered as a celebration of jazz, the music genre. Walter Dean Meyers, the author, presents nine of the most famous African-American jazz artists through fifteen extraordinary free verse poems. Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker, and Duke Ellington are some of the famous artists included in this group. The verses and illustrations perfectly capture the improvisational rhythms of jazz. The layout of the book is as eclectic as the music. Some of the poems occupy just one page while some others can fill several. Words written in different font styles help convey the distinctiveness of this genre. The volume begins with a two-page introduction by the author and ends with a glossary of jazz terms and a timeline. The artists

Langston Hughes compositions are known for being the voice of the Harlem Renaissance. A considerable number of his written work shared the feelings of that time. This particular poem "Trumpet Player" mirrors that music can lift the agony remembered, but one always remembers the hardships. The poem shares that freed blacks still experienced the impacts of slavery. Because of this, they held onto music as a method for soothing the agony they persevered.

“The 1960’s saw Hughes as productive as ever. “In 1962 Langston’s ambitious book- length poem “Ask Mama” dense with allusions

“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.

The Langston Hughes Project Ask Your Mama:12 Moods for Jazz filled Sursa Hall on Wednesday, February 17, 2016. Around 7:30 p.m. the show started with three spoken word poets. These poets set the tone for the night, which was story telling through poetry and song. Throughout the whole twelve moods of jazz, a story was told. Throughout the concert, the crowd got to experience a variety of feelings. A fast tempo usually resulted in a fun upbeat feel, while a slow tempo usually left the audience with a more relaxed or even sad feel. The Ron McCurdy Quartet and the Ball State Symphony Orchestra left the audience in awe at the end of the night.

Langston Hughes shows many jazz influences in his poems with his vocabulary and his views toward the American culture. Langston Hughes wanted to highlight their concerns and the challenges they faced in America at that time, including racism. Hughes also wanted to highlight the unique ways that the African American experience was different from the experience of white Americans. “I too” and “ The Negro Speaks of Rivers” both show examples of Jazz influences in the poems during the harlem renaissance and how it changed how people viewed the African American society.

During the Harlem Renaissance, many modernist poets arose and addressed topics revolving around racism, unequivocal rights, and African American identity. One such poet was Langston Hughes, who wrote “Dream Variations.” Similar to many Harlem Renaissance poets, the speaker in “Dream Variations” celebrates African American culture and identity, but also expresses his desire for a world where he can celebrate freely without racial discrimination. This is revealed through incorporation of a jazz-like form, which is defined by its lyrical rhyming and stanzaic form, musical tone and simple language.