Welcome!

Welcome to the Art, Politics and Protest Blog for the Fall of 2010. Soon you'll see topics for your weekly short responses, announcement, links and more. Once you've set up your blog, leave its address in the comments. Soon, you'll be linked through this page. Once our blogs are linked you'll also be able to read and comment on one another's writing.

Each week you'll find here the topic for your short response to post on your own blog. Your response should be about 300-500 words (that would be about a page or two in a double-spaced word file).

Here are topics for our first week. We don't meet again until Thursday, but post by next Tuesday so your colleagues and I can respond. Post a response to ONE topic of your choice on your blog. You don't have to respond to each part of the question in order: go with what gets you interested and writing. Respond in any format or organization you wish but be specific, make direct reference to the text(s), and be sure to make sense! Along with your post, read the selection of Harlem Renassaince poems and Richard Wright's "The Ethics of Living Jim Crow" from your packet for next Thursday. Bring both the packet and Reed's book to class.

1) In his essay "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain," poet Langston Hughes talks about the challenges faced by Black artists. What does he see as the main challenges? Then look at the selection of poems from the Harlem Renassaince from your packet. What connections do you see between Hughes' essays and these poems?

2) In his essay "The Ethics of Living Jim Crow," Richard Wright describes his experiences as a young man learning about the power system of the South. How would you describe this system: who has the power? How do they hold on to it? How do people without power respond and resist? What forms of resistance do you think would be effective in this system?

3) On Thursday we watched the first hour of the documentary Eyes on the Prize, a history of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. Describe the main factors that lead to the emergence of this movement at this time. What have you learned about the Civil Rights movement - in school or outside? What more would you like to learn?