Poets in Protest: Footsteps to Hip Hop

Catalog description

This seminar examines the tradition of poetic protest in the African Diaspora. From the Harlem Renaissance and Négritude to the Black Liberation Movement of the '60s and today's Hip-Hop/Rap explosion, poets, lyricists and rap/hip-hop artists have sought to reclaim and reshape images of themselves and their communal experiences. Through comparative and critical analysis of historical works, songs, and poetry, we come to a deeper understanding of the common thematic and aesthetic approaches of these movements as they continue to alter the discourse on race and liberation. Texts may include Michael Richardson, ed., Refusal of the Shadow: Surrealism and the Caribbean; David L. Lewis, ed., The Portable Harlem Renaissance Reader; films such as Euzhan Palcy’s Sugar Cane Alley and Tony Silver and Henry Chalfant’s Style Wars; and samples from Langston Hughes, Amiri Baraka, KRS-One, Nas, and Tupac Shakur, among others.