Ramona La Roche

Unit: Harlem RenaissanceArts Integration

Grade 4

Literature in PreK-12 School ICL 7154

April 12, 2009

Integrated Curricula Concepts

• Language Arts: narrative, story elements, main idea/details, poetry

• Social Studies: relationships, roles in society, cultural context within history

• Visual Arts: shape, color, space, rhythm, repetition, visualization of sound, art history,

• Music: auditory relationship to creativity in performing and visual arts; specifically Jazz.

South Carolina Art Standards

• IV. Understanding the visual arts in relation to history and cultures

• Students will compare and contrast a variety of art objects, artists, and resources specific to South Carolina.

• VI. Making connections between visual arts and other disciplines

• Students will compare and contrast the characteristics of works in two or more art forms that share similar subject matter, historical periods, or cultural context

•

Unit: Harlem Renaissance

QuestionsAssess student’s prior

knowledge by using a KWL (Know, Want to Know, Learned) Chart.

Further or later consideration

• Who were key figures of this period in in American history?

• What was the reason for this Renaissance?

• How did this era influence Bearden’s works?

Lesson Plan(s)

Standards 4(a), 5(a) will be addressed by creating Collage in the style of Romare Bearden.

Related Topics.• Quilt making• Jazz

• 5th graders will learn correlation of art, history, and music by viewing materials and concepts related to quilts; creating collages while listening , and exploring jazz..

Romare Bearden

• Born Charlotte, NC onSeptember 2, 1911

• Died March 12, 1988

• Graduated DeWitt Clinton High SchoolBronx, NY

• Played professional baseball in Negro League

• Collagist• Political Cartoonist• Writer

Romare Bearden

Lesson PlanStandards 4(a), 5(a) will be

addressed by creating Collage in the style of Romare Bearden.

Related Topics.• Quilt making• Jazz

• 5th graders will learn correlation of art, history, and music by viewing materials and concepts related to quilts; creating collages while listening , and exploring jazz..

Era: Harlem Renaissance

Questions to consider.• Who were key figures of

this period that influenced Bearden’s works?

• What was the reason for this Renaissance?

The Conversation

This picture by Romare Bearden is a story-telling or narrative

artwork.The Conversation Narrative works often

have• A setting that shows where and when the story happened.

• Characters who may be people or animals.

• Events or actions that tell what is happening.

What details do you notice in the image?

• What objects do you recognize?

• What things do you not recognize?

• Is this artwork reality or fantasy?

• Why do you think that?

Related Historical Periods which influenced Bearden’s

work.UNDERGROUND RAILROAD• Coded collages compared to historical quilt

making

HARLEM RENAISSANCE peers• Langston Hughes • W. E. B. DuBois• Duke Ellington – one of Bearden’s 1st

patrons

MIGRATION - African Americans south to north.

Underground Railroad

• Bearden’s collages are often compared to the expressive artistry of African American quilt making.

• During slavery, quilts served as communication devices to pass coded information to enslaved persons on the run from slavery along the Underground Railroad.

Show Way by Jacqueline Woodson

• “Show Way provides readers with a rich historical and cultural framework of the significance of the quilting folk art tradition. Woodson’s use of poetic narrative depicts a seven year old African American girl who is separated from her parents and sold into slavery. She is left with memories and a piece of muslin cloth fabric that her mother gives her to hold on to. She finds herself on a living on a plantation in South Carolina. Despite the loss of parents, she is connected and supported through the archetypal Big Mama. This elder woman is the plantation children’s caretaker by day and their Freedom Storyteller by night. She is the teacher, passing on the traditional quilt making folk art. She shows the children and women how to sew secret messages and directions into quilt patterns for those escapees seeking freedom. These quilts become a way to communicate to the captured. They are a significant metaphor for both physical and expressive freedom” (La Roche, 2009, p. 3-4).

• “The book covers years of African American history, from being sold during slavery and growing up on the plantation, to freedom marches during the Civil Rights era, up until today. Years after emancipation, many generations of women in this family, as well as in many others, stay connected through this art form. The needle and thread become a means of support and a creative outlet for these women” (La Roche, 2009, p. 3-4).

• Author Woodson later shares with the reader that this book is actually about her own family lineage. “Her words became books that told the stories of many people’s Show Ways.” (Publishers Weekly Review, September 2007)

• “The cut out book jacket design, and Talbott’s mixed media collage art work make this an exquisite piece in itself. The media include chalk, watercolors and muslin. The illustrator’s use of big triangles, squares, and curve emphasize portraits, landscapes, and shows connections and courage. The tactile experience serves at yet another way to explore our senses as we take this work into our very being” (LaRoche, 2009, p. 3-4).

HARLEM RENAISSANCE

• Negro expression of American experiences through literature, music, visual, and performing arts during the 1920s.

Bearden was highly influenced by this era, his southern background, as well as his own experiences as an African American man. He was a lover of Jazz, as is often indicated by the subject matter in many of his works.

Harlem Renaissance Literature

• Claude McKay, Countee Cullen, James Weldon Johnson, Jean Toomer, Jessie Faucet, Rudolph Fisher, Carter Woodson, Zora Neal Hurston

• More books published by Negro authors during the 20s than in any other decade of American history. (Dennis, p. 134)

Langston Hughes

• Born February 1, 1902 in Joplin, Missouri.

• Died May 22, 1967.• “Chose life experience over academic

education” (Dennis, p. 138).• 1st book of poems – The Weary Blues• Also wrote novels, children’s stories,

lyrics for musicals, plays, short stories, newspaper columns, and anthologies.

Langston’s Poems• Mother to Son• Juke Box Love Song• Motto• Life is Fine• Theme for English 3• Harlem Night Club• The Negro Speaks of

Rivers• Justice• Still Here• Cross • Flatted Fifths

• Harlem (Dream Deferred)

• Hold Fast to Dreams• Song for a Dark Girl• Afro-American

Fragment• Dream Variations• Song for Billie Holiday• One Way Ticket• Ballad of the Gypsy• Be Bop Boys• Quiet Girl• Epilogue

Zora Neal HurstonAuthor, Anthropologist, Folklorist,

Ethnologist, Playwright

• Elements of storytelling as passed on through the elders, stories and songs.

• Zora documented from the Everglades of Florida,to the drums of Haiti. The Drum is the heart, the center, the root of the rhythm of life.

Jamari’s Drum (Bynum, Jackson & Diakite, 2004) provides readers with a wonderful story which highlights the importance of retaining culture as means to maintain order and balance within a society.

Speak, So You Can Speak Again: The Life of Zora Neal Hurston

• An extraordinarily wonderful compilation of Hurston’s work. The book features memorabilia and writing in Zora’s hand. A CD of her interview and songs, and unpublished poetry accompanies the book.

• The book was compiled by Zora’s niece, Lucy Anne Hurston.

MUSIC

Composers, Writers and Arrangers• W.C. Handy• “Jelly Roll” Morton• J. Rosamond Johnson • James Weldon Johnson – “Lift Every

Voice and Sing” Negro National Anthem. Rosamond and James were brothers. The latter was Florida’s 1st Black attorney.

Musical Productions

• Josephine Baker debuts in Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle’s Chocolate Dandies (1923)

“Duke” Ellington

• Edward Kennedy Ellington,

April 29,1899 – May 24, 1974.

• Composed thousands of

compositions, played Swing music, jazz form; including ballet and film scores, orchestral suites, musicals, and chorale works.

Music & Art StyleJuxtapositions

• Improvisation• Does art have a voice like sound?– “Duke told his band to play whatever

came to mind- to improvise their solos. To make the music fly! Each instrument raised its own voice. One by one, each cat …….. With his own special way…….”

(Pinkney, 1998, p. 14) “…on his sleek brass sax, curling his

notes like a kite tail in the wind”. (Pinkney, 1998, p. 18)

Musical Styles & Concepts

• Ragtime• Improvisation• Swing • Blues• Folk Music• Marches

Vocalists

Bessie Smith – The Blues

Ethel Waters

Take The A Train recorded with Duke Ellington

•

Billie Holiday Strange Fruit, Gloomy Sunday

Jammin’ at the Savoy

Performing Arts

• Katharine Dunham – Dancer, anthropologist, ethnologist, and choreographer. “The Dunham Technique” combined ballet, modern and Afro-Cuban style.

• Florence Mills stars in Dixie to Broadway (1924) and Blackbirds (1926).

• Paul Robeson appears in The Emperor Jonesby Eugene o’Neill’s (1921)

THE GREAT MIGRATION

• “Around the time when I was born, many African Americans from the south left home, and travelled to cities in the North in search for a better life. My family was a part of this great migration. In the South, there was little opportunity for education, and children labored in the fields. These were more reasons for people to move north, leaving some communities deserted.”

• JACOB LAWRENCE, ARTIST

Related Arts Jobs

• Illustrator, Graphic Artist • Author: Writer, Poet, Novelist, Author,

Lyricist, Playwright, Columnist, • Musician, Composer• Songwriter – Billy Strayhorn – Take

the “A” Train (1941), hired by Duke Ellington 1939.

• Singer, Songstress

Famous Quotes

• "Well, it [artistic method] is like jazz; you do this and then you improvise."

~ Romare Bearden

Bibliography

• Bynum, Eboni, Jackson, Roland & Diakite, Baba Wague. 2004. Toronto: Groundwood Books

• Dennis, Denise. 1984. Black History for Beginners. NY: Writers and Readers Publishing.

• Duggleby, John. 1998. Story Painter: The Life of Lawrence Jacob. NY: Chronicle Books.

• Flourney, Valery and Pickney, Jerry. 1985. The Patchwork Quilt. NY: Dial Books for Young Readers

• Gourse, Leslie & French, Martin. 2007. Sophisticated Ladies: The Great Women of Jazz. NY: Dutton’s Children’s Books.

• Greenberg, Jan. 2003. Romare Bearden: Collage of Memories. Harry Abrams

• Hopkinson, Deborah. 1993. Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt. NY: Alfred A. Knopf.

• Hughes, Langston. 1997. First Book of Jazz. NY: Echo.

• Hurston, Lucy Anne and the estate of Zora Neal Hurston. 2004. NY: Doubleday.

• Igus, Toyomi, Freeman Ellis, Veronica, Patrick, Diane, & Wilson Wesley, Valerie. 1991. Book of Black Heroes Volume II: Great Women in the Struggle. NJ: Just Us Books, Inc.

• La Roche, Ramona. 2009. Jacqueline Woodson: Children’s Author Research Paper, p. 3-4.

• Lawrence, Jacob. 1995. The Great Migration: An American Story. NY: Harper Collins.

• Lee-Harris, Stephanie. A2006. Teaching Early Childhood African American Studies Through Fine Arts. Retrieved April 8, 2009 from http://www.educationfund.org/uploads/docs/Publications/Curriculum_Ideas_Packets/Teaching_African-American_Studies_with_Fine_Arts.pdf

• Lyman, Darryl. 1999. Great African American Women. NY: Random House.

• Onyefulu, Ifeoma. 2000. A Triangle for Adaora: An African Book of Shapes. NY: Dutton Children’s Books.

• Perdomo, Willie, Collier, Bryan. 2002. Visiting Langston. NY: Henry Holt and Company.

• Pinkney, Andrea Davis and Brian, 1999. Duke Ellington, NY: Scholastic, NY

• Ringgold, Faith. 1996. Tar Beach. NY: Random House

• Smith, Ernie. Portrait of The Swing Era, a preface to Miller, Norma (2001). The Memoir of a Jazz Dancer. Retrieved April 9, 2009 from http://www.temple.edu/tempress/chapters_1100/1214_ch1.pdf

• Woodson, Jacqueline. 2005. Show way. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.

• Watson, Steven. 1995. The Harlem Renaissance: Hub of African-American Culture, 1920-1930. NY: Pantheon Books.

Bearden Electronic Resources• Romare Bearden lesson plans. Retrieved

April 5, 2009 from http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/lessons/middle/bearden.htm#Know

• National Gallery of Art. The Art of Roman Bearden: A Resource for Teachers. Retrieved April 5, 2009 from

http://www.nga.gov/education/classroom/pdf/bearden-tchpk.pdf

• Ulaby, Neda. (2003) National Public Radio: All Things Considered. Retrieved April 5, 2009 from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1428038

Websites

• Jazz Books for Kids: An Annotated Bibliography by Craig S. O’Connell. Retrieved April 5, 2009 from http://homepage.mac.com/crocon/jazz/Jazz_Books_for_Kids.html

• Curriculum of Jazz exposure for primary grades. Retrieved April 6, 2009 from http://www.firstgradejazz.com/

• Explore Jazz history through one photograph. Retrieved April 5, 2009 from http://www.harlem.org/

• Jazz Books for Children. Retrieved April 6, 2009 from http://www.smithsonianjazz.org/bibliography/jazz_books_k_6.pdf

• Musical Harlem Lesson Plan. Retrieved April 6, 2009 from http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/content/2258/

• Faith Ringgold, Tar Beach Lesson Plan. Retrieved April 6, 2009 from http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/lessons/elem/TarBeach.html

Filmography

• Jacob Lawrence: An Intimate Portrait [VHS] (1993)

• Moore, Carol. The Art of Romare Bearden DVD (2003)

• Art of Romare Bearden. 2004. Retrieved from

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=romare+bearden&www_google_domain=www.google.com&hl=en&emb=1&aq=0&oq=romare+#

Interviewer: Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel. 1980. Part of the Diamonstein-Spielvogel Video Archive in the Duke University Libraries: http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollec... interviews Romare Bearden. Retrieved April 9, 2009 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zcp1pW8I_tI

“Duke” Ellington. 1931. It Don’t Mean A Thing. Retrieved April 9, 2009 from

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDQpZT3GhDg