BLACK LIKE WHO?
“If I didn’t define myself for myself I would be crunched into other people’s fantasies for me and eaten alive.”
– Audre Lorde
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Workshop Objective
· Critically explore the implications of the fundamental question, “What is Black?”
o Provide a high-level overview of how past Black literary/artistic movements have dealt with Black(ness) as identity
· Examine how Black identity is constructed and articulated in hip hop culture, specifically rap music
o Collectively read and discuss excerpts from Michael Eric Dyson’s Know What I Mean to further deconstruct identity politics in hip hop/rap music
· Facilitate a space for community to draft poems articulating what it means to be Black or how Black(ness) is idenitified
Critical Questions to Consider
· Is there such a thing as Blackness?
· Should Black artists be burdened with the responsibility of defining what Black is?
· How does community interrogate the integrity and authenticity of artists and/or art that speaks to Black(ness) as identity?
Discuss how these songs and/or poems explore Black(ness) as identity:
1.) Most Def: “Mr. Nigga”
2.) Nas: “Project Roach”
3.) Styles P: “I’m Black”
4.) Assata Shakur: “Rhinoceros Woman” and “Out of Style”
Writing/Workshop Exercises
· Write a poem that links your voice to your experience and identity. This poem should implicate/deal with inauthentic voices that attempt to impose an alternative identity upon you… or write a poem articulating why there is no need to assert what Black(ness) is.
· Share works aloud and have community weigh in with critical commentary and feedback.
Composing for Community
“The writer is committed when he plunges to the very depths of himself with the intent to disclose, not his individuality, but his person in the complex society that conditions and supports him.”
- Jean-Paul Sartre
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Workshop Objectives
· Critically analyze community in context
o assess and examine the needs, expectations and/or frame of reference
· Better identify with community as an individual writer
o critically explore the singular writer within the broader context of his or her community
· Facilitate a space for community writers to discuss and compose poems for their communities with the intent of informing, conveying concern(s), arguing for change, or raising consciousness
Becoming Cognizant of Community
What is community?
community- people with common background: a group of people with a common background or with shared interests within society
Define: community in context
context- surrounding conditions: the circumstances or events that form the environment within which something exists or takes place
Community in context is a group of people with shared interests and/or common circumstances or events that form the environment within where those people exist or take place
· What might one anticipate when assessing the needs, expectations, or frame of reference of a specific community in order to convey information or argue for a particular claim?
Reminder: frame of reference- is our total life experience framing how we interpret a message
· How does this community make meaning or access key ideas?
· Where are they?
Identifying with the yoU within commUnity
· How do you relate to/with your community?
· What commonalities do you share with the community you are
communicating with? (subject interests, social beliefs, political beliefs, demographic features, etc.)
Probing for Purpose
o Why are you writing to this community?
o Do you want to tell a story to inform?
o Are you writing to convey concerns and/or issues?
o Are you arguing directly for change?
o Do you want to raise consciousness about a problem?
The Process of Reexamination
Review and reexamine the community’s concerns in the editing and revising process
· Did you effectively achieve your goals in communicating with your community?
Community Work
§ View together Sunni Patterson performing her piece “we know this place” and discuss what she is doing in this poem.
§ Break into groups and discuss the writer’s intent in the poem and how he/she relates to the larger community within which that writer might exist or take place.
1.) D. Noble’s “Jenacide” or “Black in America”
2.) ebony golden’s “a blues bop for megan williams” or “_________”
3.) Amaris’s “sista2sista” and “____________”
Writing/Workshop Exercises
§ Compose a creative poem for your community with the intent of informing, conveying concern(s), arguing for change, or raising consciousness while at the same time relating to your community thru commonalities shared
§ Share works aloud, and if time permits, allow workshop community to weigh in with critical commentary and feedback.
Homework: Now that you have done some composing, take time to revise and edit your poem. Stay focused on your goal of effectively communicating with your community.
Spoken Word. Hip Hop. and Activism
Poems not Prisons!
“…the prison system, as a whole, served as weapon of political repression, racist repression affecting not only those who were incarcerated for explicitly political reasons, but the vast majority of the people who virtually all of them were poor…a disproportionate number tend to be people of color Black, Latino, Native Americans…”
-Angela Davis, freedom fighter, scholar and prison abolitionist
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EOG/EOC Content skills
· Practice the effective use of rhyme scheme in lyrical poetry
· Practice the effective use of rhythm in lyrical poetry
· Practice the elements of lyrical and contemporary poetry
· Explore the effects of social institutions on individuals and smaller institutions
· Explore and practice the role of literary and performing arts in re-visioning social institutions
Workshop Objective
· To write poems, freestyles and hip hop lyrics as a means of activating radical thought to address the prison military industrial complex.
· To utilize elements of Theatre of the Oppressed actions to further explore and incite dialogue about how the prison military industrial complex creates a culture of fear in our neighborhoods.
· Collectively discuss how hip hop and spoken word can create radical avenues for prison re-invention and/or abolishment.
What is Hip Hop?
Hip Hop is defined many ways by many people. For the purpose of this workshop, we will use this working definition I have been working through:
Hip Hop is the practice and praxis of cultural performance that works to reconstruct whole Black communities, places we call home. Hip Hop is rooted in the African aesthetic and experience and therefore does not begin with corporate manipulations of music or visual expression but instead perform the antithesis of institutions that perpetuate Black death, the division of our communities and Black dis-ease. Hip Hop is comprised of the Five Pillars as created by scholar and artist, KRS-1: Djaying, Emcing, Breaking, Graph Arts/ Tagging and Hip Hop History.
What is a freestyle?
A freestyle is an improvisational “flow” performed a cappella over beats or beat boxing. Freestyles can either be based on a topic or not but all must be performed “off the top of the dome” meaning with out rehearsal, previous composition, or assistance from a partner. Elements of freestyle include attention to rhyme, rhythm, ability to stay on topic and showcase unique showmanship/ show-womanship.
What is Theatre of the Oppressed?
Juan Gabriel Gomez Albarello writes, “Theater of the oppressed, is a set of games for actors and non- actors meant to prompt a reflection on power (and the lack thereof), is an extraordinary tool in any political science class. Theater of the oppressed gives instructors means to lead students to know what power is on the basis of their direct experience. In other words, theater of the oppressed let students explore the meaning of conceptual discussions about power using interactions in which they take a role by making those interactions the object of a critical reflection. In a fundamental way, theater of the oppressed allows both students and instructors to overcome the limitations of disembodied forms of knowledge (and, consequently, of disembodied forms of teaching and learning), i.e. conceptualizations dissociated from the experiences they describe, interpret and explain.
Theatre of the oppressed was created by Augusto Boal and is based on the pedagogy of the oppressed theories developed by Paulo Freire.
Procedure
1. Play clip of Angela Davis speech. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yh8ZrGhzJIM
2. Freestyle- after listening to speech and viewing the following words write the first ideas that come to your mind. Try to write a consistent stream of ideas.
Word Bank: Freedom, Prison, Community, Nike, Upliftment, Hip Hop, Change, Neighborhood, Police Officer, Repeat
3. Share freestyles
4. Divide the class into groups
5. Instruct whole class about rhyme scheme and rhythm
6. Instruct whole class about positions of power
7. Pass out cards representing positions of power or disempowerment or conflict and conflict resolution in community
8. Students will create performance poems using rhyme scheme, rhythm and movement
9. View- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7z9IrJ7W6JA
10. Performances
11. Pass out resource sheet and discuss any final comments
POETS FOR PRESIDENT
“I as a black writer, must in some way represent you. Now, you didn’t elect me, and I didn’t ask for it, but here we are.”
– James Baldwin
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Workshop Objective
· Critically explore the implications of black creative manifestos and aesthetic paradigm shifts
o Provide a high-level overview of past black literary movements and the aesthetics/politics that informed and shaped their writings
· Better understand the impact these governing aesthetics had/have on black writers
o Collectively read and discuss excerpts from Michael Eric Dyson’s Know What I Mean and Richard Iton’s In Search of the Black Fantatstic to see how these issues are still relevant and prevalent for today’s artists
· Faciliatte a space for community to draft poems embracing and/or denouncing black creative manifestos
What is a manifesto?
a public declaration of intentions, opinions, objectives, or motives, as one issued by a government, sovereign, or organization.
A Creative Manifesto is a calculated articulation of creative aims, goals and objectives that community can hold an artist accountable to.
· What does it mean to outline your creative belief system?
· How does this inform and influence your trajectory as a life artist?
· Should community artists be governed by an aestethic of rigid (didactic, nationalistic, spiritual, political, etc). criteria?
Do Black Poets need a Creative Manifesto? Why or Why not?
· Is the manifesto monolithic? If it isn’t, should it be?
· How does community interrogate the integrity and authenticity of the manifesto?
· How should this aesthetic inform our poetry/art and how to we engage/interpret/receive other art/artists via this aesthetic?
· What, if anything, is problematic about a creative template for black artists?
Break into 4 groups and discuss these poems as creative manifestos:
1.) Amiri Baraka’s “Black Art”
2.) Audre Lorde’s “Power”
3.) Haki Madhubuti’s “What We Don’t Know” and “For the Consideration of Poets”
4.) Sonia Sanchez’s “Homecoming” and “A Poem for My Father” and “Blk Rhetoric”
Writing/Workshop Exercises
· Write a creative manifesto poem that articulates our intentional aesthetic and links our voice to our experience and identity. This manifesto should also implicate/deal with inauthentic voices that attempt to impose an alternative aesthetic and identity upon us… or write a poem articulating why a creative manifesto is not needed
· Share works aloud and have community weigh in with critical commentary and feedback.
