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music

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music

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With my poetry class, for Black History Month,

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we decided to do a unit on great African American poets: 

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Langston Hughes among them, Gwendolyn Brooks, Robert Hayden and others, and we've had a really

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lively discussion about this poetry, and it's an important part of American

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literature. In continuing our discussion of the Harlem Renaissance, I want

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to talk about a few poets. One of the great poets was Langston Hughes. Okay?

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And he wrote, you know, about his experiences, too, suffering from

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discrimination, but more importantly, reviving pride. I think

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this poem in particular, grounds so beautifully in kind of a world

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pride. And, so, let's read this poem, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers."

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ancient as the world, and older than the flow of human blood in human

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veins. My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

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I've bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.

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I built my hut near the Congo, and it lulled me to sleep.

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I looked upon the Nile and raised the Pyramids above it.

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I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to

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New Orleans, and I've seen its mighty bosom turn it to gold

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in the sunset. I've known rivers. Ancient,

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dusky rivers. My sould has grown deep like the rivers."

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applause

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African American poetry is American poetry. It's

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some of the finest literature that has been produced in this country. And

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we study it because it's our heritage. And it's a heritage that we're very proud of.

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music, vocalization

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The African American that inspires me is Doctor Martin Luther

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King. He believed in, hatred should be exchanged with

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equality. And, you know, that's always been a great thing with me, with solidarity.

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The person who inspires me is Doctor George Washington Carver. When I was younger

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I had a book about him, a biography, and reading it just kind of

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inspired me, with all the ways that he used the peanut for so many

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different things, agriculturally, scientifically...

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One American that inspires me would be my older brother Chris. You know, at a young age

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he had the dream of being a police officer, and he

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fought with that dream, and he's been a police officer for about five, six years now.

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An African American who has inspired me is a Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps,

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Sergeant Major Carlton Kent. The reason he inspires me is because, when I was stationed

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over in Afghanistan, he made the trip to come over and see us, and he told us

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about the impact that we were having for the Marines on the front lines, and

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any time you heard him speak, he just shows all the

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compassion that he has for all the Marines that are in his charge.

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The individual that inspired me the most is Harriet Tubman. She was famous for starting the

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Underground Railroad and helping thousands of slaves escape from slavery.

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The person who inspired me is my cousin Michael Cailler. Having no

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father or mother there for him at his early life, but then earning a

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scholarship at Oregon, almost making it in the field. Now he's a lawyer at

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Nike headquarters in Beaverton. That shows me that I can do anything.

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The individual that I look to for individual is Frederick Douglass, because from a very young age

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he was able to deal with slavery to become a

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successful statesman, writer, and advocate for women's rights.

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music

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music

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music ends