The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain is an intriguing piece of writing by Langston Hughes. This piece of writing was written with an internalized sense of equating culture with whiteness. Hughes describes how the "Negro middle class" are obsessed with whiteness, and how parents of this class are not teaching their children to see the beauty of the black race, "He is taught rather not to see it, or if he does, to be ashamed of it when it is not according to Caucasian patterns" (40). As the piece continues, Hughes outlines his own vision of what black poetry and art ought to be. Hughes states that black art should represent ordinary people with ordinary lives, explaining that these people are more creative since they are in touch with the artistic forms of the past (spirituals) and the present (jazz).
Reading some of Hughes' poetry in The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes it is evident that Hughes focuses a lot on jazz and rag-time with simple on the surface language. In Jazzonia, the land of jazz is described in a flowing, upbeat tempo. Throughout the poem repetition and variation are displayed ("Oh, Silver tree! Oh, shinning rivers of the soul!" L-1 and 2 "Oh singing tree! Oh, shining rivers of the soul!" L- 7 and 8). It is obvious that this poem was written with an experimental quality.
So far, I enjoy reading the poems by Langston Hughes. Not only are they simple to understand, but the idea that jazz and other musical styles are incorporated makes the poems easy to realte to. Being a jazz and blues listener myself, I enjoy reading the poetry that may have influenced songs created by musicians of this time period.
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I thought that Hughes’ essay, The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain was a very interesting piece of writing as well. I think that it was very important that we read this essay before we started to read Hughes’ poetry. This essay is very reflective of Hughes’ perspective on African American writers and artists. Hughes takes a bold stand in stating that African American writers must write to represent the race. Hughes backs up his viewpoint in this essay through almost all of his poetry.
I liked hughes work and it too reminded me of music. I didnt think about the old time jazz at first, but since our instructor pointed that out and showed us what he may have been listening to i had a better understanding. after that alli could hear was some more modern jazzy/blues tunes i heard more recently like its a wonderful world----see my post.
nice post though at picking apat negro artist and racial mountain..
I agree with you on how he has musical tones to his writing. It really does make it more enjoyable to read as well as a little easier to read and understand I believe. I also think that those two pieces we read before actually going into the poems helped a lot.
I think reading Hughes' essay helped me get a better sense of who he was and what he thought about other African American writers. Short essays like this help set the tone before we begin reading a different author. I like to know the background of the authors we are reading because it helps me to understand their style and writing topics.
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