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left1063300Sharon Udoh (Counterfeit Madison)American, born 1981Singer, songwriter, and keyboardist, Sharon Udoh is frontlines the vocals of her Rock and Roll group, Counterfeit Madison. The band currently has two albums—the most recent entitled Opposable Thumbs which was launched at a release party at the Wexner Center for the Arts. Alongside her musical talent, Udoh created the 2017 performance known as Counterfeit Madison Meets Nina Simone: A Celebration of Blackness in 2017. Udoh is currently an award recipient of the Wexner’s Artist Residency Program for 2019-2020.Udo grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio to two Nigerian parents and with strongly religious Christian family. Music quickly this became a large influene of Udoh’s life as she began singing and playing the piano at a young age in her church community. While attending college at the University of Cincinnati, Udoh was introduced to opinions, beliefs, attitudes, and music that she was not previously exposed to in church. This had a great impact on her future musical style as she combined them with her gospel background.1047752088515003609975114300000Counterfeit Madison is the musical manifestation of Udoh’s connection to the Nigerian Columbus in Ohio. She plays with a variety of folks. She is a versatile artist; her funky yet classical piano-playing and gospel-tinged voice peppered with the occasional bursts of ecstasy make for an experience that is often described as surpassing genre in the warmest and most welcoming of ways. Her magnetic performances and poignant songwriting leave you with goosebumps, tears, a soulful two-step, and everything in between. Intelligently unpretentious, emotionally explorative, and powerfully vulnerable, Counterfeit Madison is simply unforgettable.Artistic PracticeAt the age of twenty-eight, Udoh moved to Columbus, Ohio where she continued to sing back-up vocals and play piano solos for various bands. Recognizing her talent, several of Udoh’s friends encouraged her to record her own music. Udoh released Opened and Shut in 2013 and, in November of 2017, she released Opposable Thumbs. She states, “This second album is a result of me growing up and playing new materials. It sounds like all the parts of me, it sounds like all of me.” Drawing from a variety of genres—including rock, punk, funk, gospel, and soul—Udoh creates a uniquely hypnotizing sound.“Counterfeit Madison doesn’t easily fit into any one genre. During our talk, she mentioned her vast and versatile musical inspirations from Peter Gabriel to No Doubt. But her sound is still deeply unique, she ultimately?describes her music as ‘rock n’ roll’ since that’s what she’s most told and that’s what her performances?feel like but it’s certainly unlike typical rock music today. In addition to challenges of fitting into a clear genre, she’s also frequently and sometimes frustratingly been compared to other artists including Tracy Chapman and Nina Simone. Though she appreciates both artists she has pushed to be seen as herself, not as another version of other black female musicians. Despite the worry from these comparisons Counterfeit?Madison subverted expectations by?doing a one night only Nina Simone cover night.”right585574Counterfeit Madison is currently on Tour.Listen to the Opposable Thumbs album: Here. Selected Discography2017Opposable Thumbs2016Counterfeit Madison Meets Nina Simone: A Celebration of Blackness2015graceland/anything at all: a holiday feeling2014Where My Keys At2013Opened and ShutCounterfeit Madison Meets Nina Simone: A Celebration of Blacknessleft1005700In 2016, Counterfeit Madison recorded a live performance of “several Nina Simone songs on August 13, 2016 at Notes in Columbus, Ohio. The show was produced by a young gifted, and Black human Counterfeit Madison. It was performed as a declaration of Black beauty and pride, using Nina's art and spirit as a way to explore all levels of this beauty and pride in both her and myself. It also, during the inception, development, performance, and aftermath of the show, became a rebellion against several attempts from non-Black folks of all kinds defining Blackness for me and other Black folk. The resistance came from unexpected places and was quite eye-opening. Still, we create, produce, explode, reset, and continue.”The songs recorded during this performance include Simone’s racially charged single, “Mississippi Goddam” and a response to Simone’s “To Be Young, Gifted, and Black”. This song, which serves as a tribute to the black playwright and poet Lorraine Hansberry, alludes to a famous poem by Hansberry of the same title. This title has been referenced by several artists, writers, and musicians.-5715030226000Watch the performance: Here.Listen to Counterfeit Madison Meets Nina Simone: Here.Articles and Interviews Black Squirrel Radio | A Conversation with Counterfeit MadisonA personal conversation with the singer Sharon Udoh and her path to becoming Counterfeit Madison. Columbus Alive | The 2017 Year in Singles with Sharon Udoh and Sam CraigheadColumbus Alive sat down with Sharon Udoh and singer-songwriter Sam Craighead to recap the year of 2017 in music. Udoh discusses her taste in music, offers her insight into the over-produced sound of mainstream female singers, and reveals how Cardi B’s “Bodak Yellow” grew on her over the summer. “Once you’ve seen Sharon Udoh writhe around on the floor with her band Counterfeit Madison, you know the singer-songwriter isn’t prone to holding back.In that regard, Udoh would be the ideal person to have comment on some of the year’s most critically and commercially celebrated songs — even if the musician didn’t release one of the best local records of 2017 in Counterfeit Madison’s Opposable Thumbs.”WOUB Public Media | From Religion to ‘Rumors’: How Sharon Udoh Became Counterfeit MadisonUdoh talks to WOUB about her childhood connections to music, and her journey to becoming Counterfeit Madison. “She became so involved in her Christian community that by the time she was ready to graduate high school, she was set to join the ministry full time. However, Udoh also did very well academically, and one day she decided to weigh her options and test the Lord. In the spirit of the biblical Gideon, Sharon gave God a proposition. ‘Lord, if you want me to go to college, give me all the money. I want a full ride. That’s the only way I’ll go,’ she said. Sure enough, she got one. She set her ministry aside and attended The University of Cincinnati for digital design under the DAAP program (Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning), and it was here that things started to change.‘I was learning about art. I was learning about Caravaggio, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Robert Mapplethorpe- I was learning about risk takers and expressing yourself,’ Udoh said. ‘And here I was coming to class wearing long skirts and a white shirt, painting Jesus and just trying to awkwardly navigate art school in a really religious way.’ Udoh started hanging around people with different opinions, beliefs, and attitudes, things she was never exposed to in church. She met her first gay friend, at first with religious skepticism, and then with open-mindedness. She became involved in a new world of art, politics, and sex.”Anyway Records | Counterfeit Madison“Counterfeit Madison is the musical manifestation of Nigerian Columbus, Ohio resident Sharon Udoh. She plays with a variety of folks. She is a versatile artist; her funky yet classical piano-playing and gospel-tinged voice peppered with the occasional bursts of ecstasy make for an experience that is often described as surpassing genre in the warmest and most welcoming of ways.Her magnetic performances and poignant songwriting leave you with goosebumps, tears, a soulful two-step, and everything in between. Intelligently unpretentious, emotionally explorative, and powerfully vulnerable, Counterfeit Madison is simply unforgettable.You can check Counterfeit out on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, ACPA, and in real life somewhere drinking coffee and avoiding cops.”VideosPaste Magazine | Counterfeit Madison Performing “Impossible” LiveSofar Sounds | Counterfeit Madison Performing Light SwitchKey Terms3000375825500arranger: a person who adapts a musical composition to meet the requirement of a performer, group of performances, conductor, or music director; an arranger makes sure that every aspect of a music piece is well harmonized, from the instruments down to the tempocomposer: a person who writes music; an author of music including vocal, instrumental, and electronic; composers often express their works in a written musical score using musical notation gospel: a genre of Christian music that often entails performance for religious purposes; its roots are in the African-American oral tradition and hymnsimprovisation: the creative activity of immediate musical composition, which combines performance with communication of emotions and instrumental technique as well as spontaneous response to other musiciansHarlem Renaissance: an intellectual, social, and artistic movement centered in Harlem, NY in the 1920sjazz: a music genre that originated in the African-American communities jazz poetry: defined as a type of poetry that demonstrates jazz-like rhythm or the feel of improvisationphrasing: in music theory, a phrase is a unit of musical meter that has a complete musical sense of its own, built from figures, motifs, and cells and combining them to form melodies, periods and larger sections; a phrase is a substantial musical thought, which ends with a musical punctuation called cadence; phrases are created in music through an interaction of melody, harmony, and rhythmtempo: the speed or pace of given piece of music; it is usually measured in beats per minuteMusical Influences left7621500Nina SimoneAmerican (1933-2003)Nicknamed the “High Priestess of Soul”, Nina Simone was an American songwriter, musician, and civil rights activist. Her musical genre encompassed classical, jazz, blues, folk, R&B, gospel, and pop. Nominated one of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time but Rolling Stone Magazine, Simone’s style has a significant influence over artists such as Lauryn Hill, Common, and John Legend. In 2018, Simone was induced into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. “Born Eunice Kathleen Waymon on February 21, 1933, in Tryon, North Carolina, Nina Simone took to music at an early age, learning to play piano at the age of 3 and singing in her church's choir. Simone's musical training over the years emphasized classical repertory along the lines of?Beethoven?and?Brahms, with Simone later expressing the desire to have been recognized as the first major African-American concert pianist. Her music teacher helped establish a special fund to pay for Simone's education and, after finishing high school, the same fund was used to send the pianist to New York City's famed Juilliard School of Music to train.”“Simone taught piano and worked as an accompanist for other performers while at Juilliard, but she eventually had to leave school after she ran out of funds. Moving to Philadelphia, Simone lived with her family there in order to save money and go to a more affordable music program. Her career took an unexpected turn, however, when she was rejected from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia; she later claimed the school denied her admittance because of racial discrimination.” In 2003, just days before he death, the Institute awarded her an honorary degree. After several years of studying classical music, Simone “started playing American standards, jazz and blues in Atlantic City clubs in the 1950s. Before long, she started singing along with her music at the behest of a bar owner. She took the stage name Nina Simone—"Nina," derived from the Spanish word "ni?a,"?came from a nickname used by her then boyfriend, while "Simone" was inspired by French actress Simone Signoret. The performer eventually won over fans such as writers?Langston Hughes,?Lorraine Hansberry?and?James Baldwin.”right1460500“In 1958, Simone released her debut album Little Girl Blue with Bethlehem Records. Unfortunately, she never reaped the benefits from the album sales or royalties after selling the rights to her work. The 1964 album Nina Simone In Concert was the first time Simone addressed racial inequality in her music. The song “Mississippi Goddam” was considered a reprimand on the recent murder of Medgar Evers and the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama which killed four young black girls and partially blinded a fifth. Though the album was boycotted in many southern states, it also marked a key moment in Simone’s life as she became more involved with activism and began to incorporate racial and socio-political issues into her work. Simone was heavily involved with the Civil Right Movement, but she supported the black nationalism of Malcolm X rather than the non-violent approach of Dr. Martin Luther King.Later in life, Simone stated that the boycotting of “Mississippi Goddam” and the controversy surrounding the album ultimately hurt her career. During a performance, she informed the audience that if they wanted to see her again, they would need to come to France because she was not coming back to the United States. In 1993, Simone settled near Aix-en-Provence, France and died ten years later in her sleep at home in Carry-le-Rouet.”Rock and Roll Hall of Fame | Inductee Insights: Nina SimoneNPR | New Inductees to 2018 Rock and Roll Hall of FameNina Simone’s Artistic Practice left2825000Simone’s stage presence earned her the title “the High Priestess of Soul” as she was ‘separately and simultaneously” a piano player, singer and performer. As a composer and arranger, Simone moved from gospel, blues, jazz, and folk to the classical styles of nineteenth-century classical pianists such as Chopin, Liszt, and Bach. Onstage, she incorporated monologues and dialogues with the audience into the program, and often used silence as a musical element. Simone is regarded as one of the most influential recording artists of the twentieth century and a pioneer of “improvisational” music.1905046672500321945045783500Album cover of “Mississippi Goddam” and a video of Simone performing the song.Questions:Known to be a civil rights activist, Simone, in the above lyrics, references the struggles faced by those advocating for equal rights during the 1950s and 1960s. Why do you think these lyrics caused were rejected in the south? What type of events is she referencing?Do we continue to see similar events in today’s world? For what causes?Lyrics to “Mississippi Goddam”by Nina SimoneThe name of this tune is Mississippi goddamAnd I mean every word of itAlabama's gotten me so upsetTennessee made me lose my restAnd everybody knows about Mississippi goddamAlabama's gotten me so upsetTennessee made me lose my restAnd everybody knows about Mississippi goddamCan't you see itCan't you feel itIt's all in the airI can't stand the pressure much longerSomebody say a prayerAlabama's gotten me so upsetTennessee made me lose my restAnd everybody knows about Mississippi goddamThis is a show tuneBut the show hasn't been written for it, yetHound dogs on my trailSchool children sitting in jailBlack cat cross my pathI think every day's gonna be my lastLord have mercy on this land of mineWe all gonna get it in due timeI don't belong hereI don't belong thereI've even stopped believing in prayerDon't tell meI tell youMe and my people just about dueI've been there so I knowThey keep on saying 'Go slow!'But that's just the trouble'Do it slow'Washing the windows'Do it slow'Picking the cotton'Do it slow'You're just plain rotten'Do it slow'You're too damn lazy'Do it slow'The thinking's crazy'Do it slow'Where am I goingWhat am I doingI don't knowI don't knowJust try to do your very bestStand up be counted with all the restFor everybody knows about Mississippi goddamI made you thought I was kiddin'Picket linesSchool boy cotsThey try to say it's a communist plotAll I want is equalityFor my sister my brother my people and meYes you lied to me all these yearsYou told me to wash and clean my earsAnd talk real fine just like a ladyAnd you'd stop calling me Sister SadieOh but this whole country is full of liesYou're all gonna die and die like fliesI don't trust you any moreYou keep on saying 'Go slow!''Go slow!'But that's just the trouble'Do it slow'Desegregation'Do it slow'Mass participation'Do it slow'Reunification'Do it slow'Do things gradually'Do it slow'But bring more tragedy'Do it slow'Why don't you see itWhy don't you feel itI don't knowI don't knowYou don't have to live next to meJust give me my equalityEverybody knows about MississippiEverybody knows about AlabamaEverybody knows about Mississippi goddam, that's itRelated Musical and Literary Historyleft906700Jazz MusicJazz is a genre of American music that developed from ragtime and blues and is characterized by rhythms, ensemble playing, and varying degrees of improvisation. Jazz originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans in the late 19th and early 20th centuries before evolving into various regional and local genres. The genre primarily stems from blues and ragtime.Blues is a musical form—originating in the Deep South—that incorporates spirituals, work songs, and narrative ballads popular through and at the end of slavery. It utilizes a rhythmic call-and-response patterns of scale and chord progressions. The style of ragtime has its origins in the African-American communities in St. Louis and artists such as Scott Joplin. While ragtime is characterized by a “ragged” rhythm, its style has been compared to classical minuets by Mozart, Chopin and Brahms.In the 1950s, ‘free jazz’ emerged which explored playing music without regular meter, beat and formal structures. Soon after the influence of blues and gospel brought in the use of saxophone and piano playing. ‘Modal jazz’ utilized a musical scale that changed the basis of musical structure for improvisation. By the 1960s and 1970s, jazz-rock fusion evolved to incorporate improvisation with rock music’s rhythms, electric instruments, and highly amplified stage sound.Although jazz is considered difficult to define, improvisation is one of its defining elements. The centrality of improvisation is attributed to the influence of earlier forms of music such as blues, a form of folk music which arose in part from the work songs and field hollers of African-American slaves on plantations. These work songs were commonly structured around a repetitive pattern, but early blues—which developed shortly after—was more improvisational and closer to jazz. Jazz is often characterized by the product of interaction and collaboration, placing less value on the contribution of the composer, if there is one, and more on the performer. The Jazz performer may change melodies and harmonies, and time signatures.NPR | History of Jazz-5727702076450003448056318250Jazz Music – 1880s to Present00Jazz Music – 1880s to Presentleft1119400Billie Holiday American (1915-1959)Billie Holiday, also known as “Lady Day” was an American jazz and pop singer from Philadelphia, PA. Holiday’s vocal style, which was strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists, created a new way of phrasing and tempo for the time. She was well known for her vocal delivery and improvisational skills, which made up for her limited vocal range and lack of formal music education. Holiday began her career singing in Harlem nightclubs. By the 1930s and 1940s, Holiday was considered mainstream—selling out concerts at venues such as Carnegie Hall. Unfortunately, Holiday suffered from multiple abusive relationships, drug abuse, and legal troubles. Many of her musical awards—including several Grammys and the Grammy Hall of Fame were received after her death in 1959.397192690614500-38100117221000In 1939, Holiday recorded “Strange Fruit”, a song based on a poem about lynching and written by a Jewish schoolteacher named Abel Meeropol. Holiday performed the piece at the Café Society despite fear of retaliation and later recorded it with Commodore Records. “Strange Fruit” became one of the biggest selling records in the 1930s. 9525019050000308292519113500Billie Holiday performing ‘Strange Fruit” in 1959.Questions:The poetic language of “strange fruit” serves as a metaphor linking the racial hate-crime of lynching black Americans to an unnatural cycle of life and decay. Do you find this poetic language effective?Nina Simone, like Billie Holiday, presents words that are clearly racially charged and commenting on American attitudes towards race in society. Why do you think Holiday’s record became a best-seller while Simone’s was boycotted?Both Simone and Holiday use an improvisational and poetic approach to their lyrics. Can you think of a reason this style is better suited for their topics? Do you think it is a by-product of the time?Billie Holiday | Official WebsiteNPR | “Strange Fruit: Anniversary of A Lynching”Biography | Billie Holidayleft1070700Langston HughesAmerican (1902-1967)Langston Hughes was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. He moved to New York City as a young man to begin his career and years later became known as leader of the Harlem Renaissance. Hughes was also one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form called ‘jazz poetry’. Jazz poetry has been defined as poetry that demonstrates jazz-like rhythm or the feel of improvisation. Jazz poetry has long been something of an ‘outsider’ art form that exists somewhere outside the mainstream, having been conceived in the 1920s by African-Americans, maintained in the 1950s by counterculture poets and adapted in modern times into hip-hop music and live poetry events known as poetry slams. “Jazz poetry is a literary genre defined as poetry necessarily informed by jazz music—that is, poetry in which the poet responds to and writes about jazz. Jazz poetry, like the music itself, encompasses a variety of forms, rhythms, and sounds. Beginning with the birth of blues and jazz at the start of the twentieth century, jazz poetry can be seen as a thread that runs through the?Harlem Renaissance,?the Beat movement, and?the Black Arts Movement—and it is still vibrant today. From early blues to free jazz to experimental music, jazz poets use their appreciation for the music as poetic inspiration.right155236Jazz artists make appearances in jazz poems as well: Louis Armstrong, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Billie Holiday, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Sonny Rollins, Bessie Smith, and Lester Young are just some of the muses for jazz poetry.But writing about jazz poetry is, as they say, like dancing about architecture. Perhaps the form can be best understood through a few lines from Hughes’s “The Weary Blues”.left15367000The Weary Blues (1926) was Hughes’s first published collection of poetry. His poetry and fiction portrayed the lives of the black working-class in America as a full of struggle, joy, laughter, and music. Two of his most famous poems include “Harlem (A Dream Deferred?)” and “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”.Biography | Langston HughesSmithsonian | “What Langston Hughes’ Powerful Poem “I, Too” Tells Us About America’s Past and Presentleft50927000left000Aretha FranklinAmerican (1942 -2018)Aretha Louise Franklin was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, and civil rights activist. She began her career as a child singing gospel at her Baptist church in Detroit, MI. In 1966, she signed to Atlantic Records and recorded the iconic songs such as “Respect” and “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman”.Throughout her career, Franklin received several honors including the National Medal of Arts and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 1987, she was the first female performer to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. She was also inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2012 and named one of the “100 Greatest Singers of All Time” by Rolling Stone magazine. In 2009, Franklin performed “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee” at President Barack Obama’s inaugural ceremony.Franklin was involved with civil rights and women’s rights during her career and throughout her life. She provided money to civil rights groups during their protests and was outspoken when non-violent civil rights leaders were jailed for participating in demonstrations.220027522034500Biography | Aretha FranklinTIME | “Aretha Franklin Wasn’t Just a Music Legend. She Also Raised Her Voice for Civil Rights”NPR | “The Sound Made Flesh”NPR | “All The Things You Are: Aretha’s Life in Jazz”left508000Mahalia JacksonAmerican (1911 – 1972)Mahalia Jackson was an American gospel singer and referred to as the “the Queen of Gospel”. She became one of the most influential gospel singers in the world and a civil rights activist.She moved to Chicago at the age of 20 and began singing in Baptist church choirs. In 1939, she began touring with the city’s churches to the surrounding areas. In 1947, she signed with the music label Apollo and her records came into high demand. Gaining recognition throughout the United States and Europe, Jackson signed with Columbia Records in 1954 and performed in venues such as Carnegie Hall. In Paris, she was referred to as the “Angel of Peace”.Jackson was criticized by some gospel purist who complained about her handclapping and foot-stomping for bring “jazz into the church”. Nevertheless, her music earned her multiple awards and three songs being inducted to the Grammy Hall of Fame.As a civil rights activist, Jackson often sung at bus boycotts to raise money for the movement. She most notably sung at the March on Washington in 1963 just before Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.2819400-116713000Video of Mahalia Jackson performing “I’ve Been Buked and I’ve Been Scorned" at the 1963 March on Washington.left1001200Lorraine HansberryAmerican, (1930-1965)Lorraine Hansberry was an African-American playwright and writer born in Chicago, Illinois. She moved to New York City and became acquainted with intellectuals such as W.E.B. Du Bois and Langston Hughes. At 29, Hansberry won the New York Drama Critic’s Circle Award—making her the first African-American dramatist, fifth woman, and youngest playwright to do so. 3624107152651Hansberry was the first black female playwright to have her play performed on Broadway. A Raisin in the Sun, Hansberry’s best-known play, highlights the lives of black Americans living under racial segregation in Chicago. The title of the play was taken from the poem “Harlem” by Langston Hughes. Hansberry inspired the song by Nina Simone entitled “To Be Young, Gifted and Black”. In 2010, Hansberry was inducted into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame and into the American Theatre Hall of Fame three years later. In 2018, Hansberry was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame.Biography | Lorraine HansberryCPL | Historical Context of A Raisin in the SunVideo of Simone performing “To Be Young, Gifted and Black”.left1016000James Baldwin American (1924-1987)James Arthur Baldwin was an American novelist, playwright, and activist. His essays explore the intricacies of racial, sexual, and class distinctions in Western societies, most notably in mid-20th century America.Baldwin’s novels and plays fictionalize fundamental personal questions and dilemmas amid complex social and psychological pressures thwarting the equitable integration of not only African Americans, but also gay and bisexual men, while depicting some internalized obstacles to such individual’s quests for acceptance. An unfinished manuscript, Remember This House, was expanded and adapted for cinema as the Academy Award nominated documentary film I Am Not Your Negro. One of his novels, If Beale Street Could Talk, was adapted into an Academy Award-winning dramatic film in 2018.right63352300Baldwin grew up in Harlem and the city’s racial prejudices and obstacles became the basis of many of his essays. At the age of 24, Baldwin moved to Paris, France in hopes of distancing himself from American racism and producing his work outside of the African-American context. Baldwin—like many black artists—sought to be considered merely writer rather than a “negro writer’. Baldwin was close friends with Langston Hughes, Lorraine Hansberry, Nina Simone, Josephine Baker, and several other musicians and artists—many of whom visited him in his French home in Saint-Paul-de-Vence.In 1957, Baldwin returned to the United States as civil rights legislation was being debated in Congress. He wrote about the movement and became involved with Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). This association gave him the opportunity to travel throughout the North and South and share his insights about the racial problems in the country. By 1963, the mainstream press had caught on to Baldwin’s incisive analysis of white racism and eloquent descriptions for the Negro’s pain and frustration. Despite Baldwin’s clear intellectual contribution to the movement, his sexual orientation proved a hindrance to his participation. The movement was hostile to homosexuals and this led to Baldwin being uninvited to speak at the March on Washington.Interview with James Baldwin On Being Black in America (1960)Biography | James Baldwinright39626900Poetry Foundation | James Baldwinright1671955QuestionsHow did these artists and writers use the form or writing and music as a form of political protest? Was it effective then? Is it effective now?Race, sexual orientation, and gender all play a part in how people interact and impact politics, society and culture. Why is it important that history recognize artists, writers, and musicians of color not only intellectuals but also as persons of intersectionality? Relevant Literature: Young Adultleft5949800I Put A Spell on You: The Autobiography of Nina Simone (2003) by Nina SimoneThe classic autobiography of the iconic singer and pianist detailing her music and involvement in key moments of the Civil Rights Era.left5026900Sophisticated Ladies: the Great Women of Jazz (2007) by Leslie GourseThis handsome volume contains the stories of fourteen fabulous women, blues and jazz singers all. Their art reflected their backgrounds—often small, poverty-ridden towns in the South—and the influence of musicians who preceded them. Each singer adapted the culture of jazz and wove it into her own personal style. Jazz historian Leslie Gourse’s biographies of Bessie Smith, Ethel Waters, Mildred Bailey, Mabel Mercer, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Anita O’Day, Peggy Lee, Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughan, Betty Carter, Rosemary Clooney, Cassandra Wilson, and Diana Krall offer a fascinating glimpse into American history and a continually evolving musical genre.left42354500Relevant Literature: Background & ThematicThe Colored Waiting Room: Empowering the Original and the New Civil Rights Movements(2018) by Kevin ShirdIn?The Colored Waiting Room, modern-day activist Kevin Shird heads from his hometown of Baltimore, MD to Montgomery to meet eighty-four-year-old Nelson Malden and contextualize the significance of the killings of Tamir Rice, Freddie Gray, and Trayvon Martin as well as the demonstrations is Charlottesville, Ferguson, Baltimore, and around the country. The result is a groundbreaking understanding of today’s burgeoning second-wave civil rights movement and the urgent actions necessary for racial equality and change.Here, Shird raises the profound question of whether blacks are still in a colored waiting room, biding their time and waiting for racial equality to be the norm. He also shares compelling personal realizations on the lost connection between African American youth and their ancestors’ fight against slavery and Jim Crow laws, asking throughout this pivotal volume, how far can we go without knowing where we’ve come from?left3829200The History of Jazz (2011) by Ted GioiaTed Gioia's?History of Jazz?has been universally hailed as a classic--acclaimed by jazz critics and fans around the world. Now Gioia brings his magnificent work completely up-to-date, drawing on the latest research and revisiting virtually every aspect of the music, past and present. Gioia tells the story of jazz as it had never been told before, in a book that brilliantly portrays the legendary jazz players, the breakthrough styles, and the world in which it evolved.Relevant Literature: Poetryleft4762500Jazz Poems (2006) by Kevin YoungEver since its first flowering, jazz has had a powerful influence on American poetry; this scintillating anthology offers a treasury of poems that are as varied and as vital as the music that inspired them.From the Harlem Renaissance to the beat movement, from the poets of the New York school to the contemporary poetry scene, the jazz aesthetic has been a compelling literary force—one that?Jazz Poems?makes palpable. We hear it in the poems of Langston Hughes, E. E. cummings, William Carlos Williams, Frank O’Hara, and Gwendolyn Brooks, and in those of Yusef Komunyakaa, Charles Simic, Rita Dove, Ntozake Shange, Mark Doty, William Matthews, and C. D. Wright. Here are poems that pay tribute to jazz’s great voices, and poems that throb with the vivid rhythm and energy of the jazz tradition, ranging in tone from mournful elegy to sheer celebration.left6462300The Second Set: The Jazz Poetry Anthology (1996)With The Jazz Poetry Anthology, this volume offers a comprehensive exploration of the history of jazz poetry. The Second Set gathers many poets omitted from The Jazz Poetry Anthology, including Gwendolyn Brooks, Arthur Brown, Diane di Prima, Henry Dumas, Nikki Giovanni, David Henderson, Anselm Hollo, Haki Madhubuti, Michael McClure, Larry Neal, Dudley Randall, Eugene B. Redmond, Carolyn M. Rodgers, Ntozake Shange, A. B. Spellman, and Jay Wright. The Second Set fills out the history of jazz poetry with poems written before World War II, as well as those from the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s, and includes contemporary writers from a range of cultural backgrounds.“We Real Cool”by Gwendolyn Brooks? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?The Pool Players.? ? ? ? Seven at the Golden Shovel.? ? ? ? ? ? We real cool. We???? ? ? ? ? ??Left school. We? ? ? ? ? ??Lurk late. We? ? ? ? ? ??Strike straight. We? ? ? ? ? ??Sing sin. We???? ? ? ? ? ??Thin gin. We? ? ? ? ? ??Jazz June. We???? ? ? ? ? ??Die soon.“An Exercise in Love”by Diane Di PrimaMy friend wears my scarf at his waistI give him moonstonesHe gives me shell & seaweedsHe comes from a distant city & I meet himWe will plant eggplants & celery togetherHe weaves me cloth? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?Many have brought the gifts? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?I use for his pleasure? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?silk, & green hills? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?& heron the color of dawnMy friend walks soft as a weaving on the windHe backlights my dreamsHe has built altars beside my bedI awake in the smell of his hair & cannot rememberhis name, or my own.“The Homecoming Singer”by Jay WrightThe plane tilts in to Nashville,coming over the green lightslike a toy train skipping pastthe signals on a track.The city is livid with lights,as if the weight of all the peopleshooting down her arterieshad inflamed them.It's Friday night,and people are home for the homecomings.As I come into the terminal,a young black man, in a vested gray suit,paces in the florid Tennessee air,breaks into a run like a halfbackin open field, going past the delirious faces,past the poster of Molly Beein her shiny chaps, her hips tilted forwardwhere the guns would be, her legs set,as if she would run, as if she werea cheerleader who doffs her gunson Saturday afternoon and careensdown the sidelines after some broken field runner,who carries it in, for now,for all the state of Tennesseewith its nut-smelling trees,its stolid little stone wallsset out under thick blankets of leaves,its crisp lights dangling on the porchesof homes that top the graveled driveways,where people who cannot yodel or yellputter in the grave October afternoons,waiting for Saturday night and the lightsthat spatter on Molly Bee's silver chaps.I don't want to think of them,or even of the broken field runner in the terminal,still looking for his girl, his pocketfull of dates and parties, as I comeinto this Friday night of homecomingsand hobble over the highway in a taxithat has its radio tuned to country music.I come up to the campus,with a large wreath jutting upunder the elegant dormitories,where one girl sits looking down at the shrieking cars,as the lights go out, one by one, around herand the laughter drifts off, rising, rising,as if it would take flight awayfrom the livid arteries of Nashville.Now, in sleep, I leave my brass-headed bed,and see her enter with tall singers,they in African shirts, she in a robe.She sits among them, as a golden lancecatches her, suddenly chubby, with soft lipsand unhurried eyes, quite still in the movementaround her, waiting, as the other voices fade,as the movement stops, and starts to sing,her voice moving up from its tart entranceuntil it swings as freelyas an ecstatic dancer's foot,rises and plays among the windowsit would with angels and falls,almost visible, to return to her,and leave her shaking with the tearsI'm ashamed to release, and leave hertwisting there on that stool with my shamefor the livid arteries, the flat Saturdays,the inhuman homecomings of Nashville.I kneel before her. She strokes my hair,as softly as she would a cat's head,and goes on singing, her voice shiftingand bringing up the Carolina calls,the waterboy, the railroad cutter, the jailed,the condemned, all that had been forgottenon this night of homecomings, allthat had been misplaced in those livid arteries.She finishes, and leaves,her shy head tilted and wrinkledin the green-tinged lights of the still campus.I close my eyes and listen,as she goes out to sing this city home. ................
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