Reflective Blog

After winter term, I will never forget Ms. Lewis' poetry class. It was the best class I've ever taken in my 4 years. This class was full of laughter and smiles. I entered this class not knowing anything about poetry. All I knew was that each of the lines had to rhyme or It could be written in a haiku style. After taking this class, i learned alot of different literary styles such as parallelismus memborum, Brooks style, free verse, unusual typography and using metaphors in poetry. My favorite poem was the one where we had to go to walgreens and choose an object and write about it. After writing one poem, we also had to write a boiled down version. This made me realize that poems with the same meaning can be written in a short form and still sound good! My poem of "don't be silly, wrap your willy" really taught me how to write poetry. Boiling down my poem was a difficult task, but I managed to keep it the same scructure but just less words. My perspective of poetry had changed alot. When i stepped into the classroom, i thought all we would do was workshop day poems but instead, we learned alot about different poets and used their style to write a new poem everyday. My favorite was definetly E.e Cummings because her style of writing was really interesting and humorous! Overall, I really enjoyed this class alot! :)

BIGGIE!

His name of birth is Christopher George Latore Wallace, but if you've heard of this historical legend you do not know him by that name. He became known as several different names such as Biggie Smalls or Notorious B.I.G. Many critics refer to him as the savior of east coast hip-hop. The majority of hip-hop artistd were coming from the west coast and it was unheard of to see a succesful eastern hip-hop artist. This all changed when Biggie entered the rap game. Since Notorious B.I.G's death his albums have been consistently selling for years. Wallace began rapping when he was just a young teenager and would make money on the streets by exploiting his talents. He had an extreme talent to rap and began the largest feud in the rap game between the west and east. There is no doubt that Biggie Smalls in one the most famous and historical rappers to ever live. There's no telling what he'd being doing if he were alive today. R.I.P

"Let's do the Boogie!"

Boogie Down Productions was a hip hop group originally comprised KRS-One, D-Nice, and DJ Scott La Rock. This group combined the fusion of dancehall raggae and hip hop music and their debut LP Criminal Minded contained frank descriptions of life in the South Bronx of the late 1980s thus setting the stage for what would eventually become gangsta rap. Conservative attitudes concerning hip-hop's irreverence for middle-class values such as evident in slang, clothing have impeded the process of critically analyzing an art form that has proved to be a considerable force for social change through campaigns. Boogie down's Production's "Stop the Violence" can be one of the examples. Hip hop through history has brought much needed dialogue to issue affecting America's Black community in a manner that no popular art form has, prompting the Public Enemy's Chuck D to refer to hip-hop as the "CNN" of the Black community.

James Brown

70’s music marked a time of great experimentation, as new media outlets helped bring different cultures and audiences closer together than ever before. Rock music was expanding. There were many new genres such as hard rock like Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. Other parts of the country, the underground punk started entering the mainstream due to the success off the Ramones, Sex Pistols, and the Clash. Other genres such as the village people and the Bee Gees were also really popular. During the black arts movement, hip-hop music and culture have caused numerous of controversy and forged their way into a marginal position along side that of popular culture. Through rhythm and poetry, hip-hop has endeavored to address racism, education, sexism and drug use.

During the 70’s, The Black Arts Movement gained force and generated controversy. Many things were booming during this period. A black arts repertory theatre/school in Harlem was intended to awaken black people to the meaning of their lives. Black artists were also called upon to be morally and culturally responsible to black people for their work. James brown is a really famous artist during the Black Arts Movement period. “Say it Loud – I’m Black and I’m Proud” is a funk song written and recorded by James Brown. It is notable both as one of brown’s signature songs and as one of the most popular “black power” anthems of the 1960s. He proclaims that “we done made us a chance to do for ourself/we’re tired of beating our head against the wall/workin’ for someone else” This song means “Say it loud” with “I’m black and I’m proud!” It explored similar themes of black empowerment and self-reliance.

Our plan on our project

For the up coming weeks, our poetry class will be using blogger and goggle docs to work on our project on answering the question: How are the Black Arts Movement and Hip-Hop connected to one another. My group, VanKyDan will be showing providing numerous artists that affected the black arts movement. For our plan, we have this right now. This will be constantly changing, so we will be updating our outline each year.

I. Talk about artists that affect to the black arts movement.

• We will show how these artists inspired the society during this time period: James Brown, 2 pac, Biggie Smalls, Rick James, Boogy-Down Productions "Stop the Violence", Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston and Jay-Z.

Sources:
htttp://www.jstor.org/pss/3042308 (Article: the black arts movement and hip-hop)


II. Introduction of olden music (60's/70's music) vs modern music (right now)

• Talk about the kind of music and show examples

Sources
- links of 70's/80's:
* http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?p=38182750 = people's opinions on 70's music
* http://www.spinner.com/2009/09/30/70s-music/ = description on 70's music

- music at this time of period:
* www.mtv.com
* www.billboard.com