Tuesday, October 26 - Race politics and the problem of poetic form

• Claude McKay, "The Tropics of New York"
• Claude McKay, "If We Must Die" [text]
• Claude McKay, "The Harlem Dancer"
• Claude McKay reads "If We Must Die"
• Melvin Tolson's review of McKay with reference to "If We Must Die"
• to help with "If We Must Die," read about the 1921 Oklahoma City race riots
• paper option #9 Consider McKay's poem "If We Must Die." Write a paper stating your position on the following question: Does McKay's use of traditional poetic form diminish the power of the position he takes in the poem? Explain your position. And be sure to describe the form he uses.
• Countee Cullen, brief biography
• Countee Cullen, "Yet Do I Marvel" [text]
• Countee Cullen, "Incident" [text]
• paper option #10 Consider Cullen's poem "Incident." Write a paper stating your position on the following question: Does Cullen's use of traditional poetic form diminish the power of the incident he describes in the poem? Explain your position. And be sure to describe the stanza form he uses.
• Langston Hughes on jazz, race and writing (1926)
• Langston Hughes, "Morning After"
• audio: Langston Hughes reads "The Negro Speaks of Rivers"
• audio: Sterling Brown, "Putting on the Dog"
• Gwendolyn Brooks, brief biographical profile
• Brooks, "The Boy Died in My Alley"
• Imamu Amiri Baraka, biographical profile
• Baraka, "Incident"