Projects - Quater 3 - Harlem

General History:

It was a period of cultural explosion that got its name from the Harlem neighborhood in New York. It was built for the white elite initially, but the large influx of immigrants (nearly 90,000 blacks from the Caribbean) in the early 19th century made the richer white population go up higher. This neighborhood became a notable African-American neighborhood to this day. During the span of 1920 to 1930 new literature, music, art, politics, and culture were being created. Mostly done by a specific race living in harlem, black people. African- Americans were in the center of this movement, they began to express their cultural, depression and wanting of equal civil rights with these forms of communication of art, it was called the “New Negro Movement” in certain places. Most of the works that came out of harlem contextualized the contemporary life for African-Americans after World War I. All fueled by race riots and the and civil uprisings that occurred in 1919 during the Red Summer of virulent white racism towards the black community.

Elements of Poetry (Harlem Renaissance Poems):

The poems in the Harlem Renaissance mostly depicted the life of the less fortunate black population of Harlem, and in retrospect all of America. During this time the musical appeal of jazz was put into poetry. In this new modernistic age jazz poetry was introduced with the invention of the stride style of jazz music in the Renaissance era. These poems were meant to sound rhythmic to the ear, the normal basic meter of the ballad was used in more poems. With an emphasis put on every other syllable to get that upbeat jazzy feeling. Classical American poetry of before the 1900, namely Emily Dickinson's used this old school iambic pentameter in her poetry that influenced much of style in the Harlem renaissance poetry we see today.

Incident by Countee Cullen Research:

Once riding in old Baltimore,

Heart-filled, head-filled with glee;

I saw a Baltimorean

Keep looking straight at me.

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Now I was eight and very small,

And he was no whit bigger,

And so I smiled, but he poked out

His tongue, and called me, "Nigger.

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" I saw the whole of Baltimore

From May until December;

Of all the things that happened there

That's all that I remember.

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This poem takes place in a Baltimore bus where our character was called a ‘nigger’ by a child on the bus when he was 8. He smiles at the other child, in return he gets called a nigger. This memory kept on with him his entire life and was named the ‘Incident’. This really reflects the feelings of most the artists during the Harlem Renaissance that portrayed the racial struggle the black community had to face from the whites. The elements of racism are present especially through Countee’s diction . The use of the word ‘whit’ is also a foreshadowing of the child that called him a nigger was white, and the use of the word nigger also has a strong implication on this poem that leaves a mark on our character and the reader.

LIVIN' IN 1920s HARLEM

Research

SELF CREATED RAP & ANALYSIS

I’m White Like Milk RAP by:Adnan

YOUNNG

young muslim from new york

young muslim from the desert

young muslim blow the twins

clit clat clet I hit you my shirt

and can’t miss scaring some melk

my poems be extensive

poets be expensive

religion be expressive

rascism's offensive

my looks aren’t capitalist

but y’all call me a TERROIST!

YOUNGGG MUSLIM

Young muslim’s skin supposed to be scary

it scare Armageddon

I can’t make bombs

but white think he from iran

but to switch up to

my stereotyped black homies

the rest of lyrics aint mine

racism’s an allergy.

Analysis

I’m White Like Milk Rap by Adnan Sharif is a song with a central theme revolving around racial stereotyping. The modern struggles of the regular muslims living in the western world is shown through his wordplay. This modern day art piece bears resemblance to works of black authors and artists portraying racism in their work. Notably that of Countee Cullen in Adnan Sharif’s case. The use of alliteration, personification, and the occasional irony, all assimilate with a certain form and meter to mimic the poem Incident by Countee Cullen.

Countee Cullen was a famous black poet from the harlem renaissance and his poem the Incident bears similar structure and elements to that of I’m White Like Milk Rap. Our first similarity can be seen from the use of alliteration in the first stanza. In our rap, Adnan wrote, “clit clat clet I hit you with y shirt”, while in the Incident Countee wrote, “Head-filled, heart-filled with glee”. Both these alterations were just not merely used for audible aesthetics but also to set a scene of normality, that both our characters are going about their regular days and life is fine. This is very important for the later foreshadowing of both our characters racial identities.

Our 2nd stanza is very powerful, this is where the climax occurs and leaves an unforgettable mark in our characters minds. Both Countee and Adnan start in a fable like manner explaining a experience of the past. They both explain a character that calls them a very offensive word through the first line, Countee through a use of the phrase ‘no whit bigger’, pertaining to a white child. Adnan also achieves this by personifying a cup of milk, “and can't miss scaring some melk”, symbolizing to a small white child. Knowing that these two pieces follows an ABCB rhyme scheme and ballad meter that helps stress the last syllable of two very important words. This was diffucult for Adnan to acheive through his entire rap but the two peices still have the same dynamics. The word “capitalist” in Adnan’s rap and the word “bigger” in Cullen’s poem which set the stage for a racial slur awaiting to be said to our characters.

The 3rd stanza is accompanied by grief and remorse, it begins with an ironic phrase, “Young muslim's skin supposed to be scary... he can't make bombs ”. Our character was stereotyped as a “terrorist” who is known to construct bombs, but instead he was bombed internally by a little white child. Which is a common stereotype of muslims. To help show that one word can have a large impact on an individual. So to is the case in Cullen’s poem, the word “nigger” is very pivotal and powerful, without it the poem cannot show the emotional effect it has on our character. Following the moment Cullen wrote, “of all the things that happened there, thats all that I remember”. To relate to that Adnan wrote “it scare Armageddon”. The use of one racial slur gives us sombrous ending and realization in both characters of the effect racial stereotyping can have on a victim of discrimination.

Adnan Sharif’s song and Countee Cullen’s poem both show similarities in rhyming and audible structure. They both alliterate words, but they do also use some different elements of writing, but the message they both portray are profoundly similar no matter what time you are on earth. The mark left by racial stereotyping is a large one, and it is a depressing memory that can never be healed, from the 1920s in Harlem, to just normal a Muslim boy in modern day New York City. One word has the power of making one’s day from pleasant to a distasteful recollection for the rest of their lives.