Category: Black History

WHY HIP HOP POETRY MATTERS

9/28/2020

Carole Boston Weatherford

The Poet Professor

One reviewer claimed that my book, The Roots of Rap: 16 Bars on the 4 Pillars of Hip Hop, surprised him. “I didn’t take Carole Weatherford for a hip-hop head,” he confessed.
Maybe not. But I have designed and taught a hip-hop course for college students. I write poetry and stories steeped in oral traditions. And I was raised on family lore; street, playground and handclap rhymes; proverbs; spirituals; and the call-and-response of the black church. As a child, I also read Langston Hughes poems and chanted James Brown’s anthem, “Say It Loud (I’m Black and I’m Proud.” I later tuned into Gil Scott Heron’s spoken word manifesto, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.”

Back in the day, I partied to Whodini, the Fat Boys and Run DMC, but did not fathom the power of rap until 1981 when I heard “The Message” by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. The song confirmed for me that rap is rooted in resistance.

Rap originated in the late 1970s among alienated black and Latino youth in the Bronx, Harlem and Brooklyn. The genre has since come of age, and rappers have won Grammys for best album (The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill in 1999) and best song of the year (Childish Gambino’s “This Is America” in 2019). In 2017, Kendrick Lamar won the Pulitzer prize for music, a first for rapper.

Today, hip hop is the language of global youth culture. Rap reveries have replaced hoop dreams, especially as a male rite of passage. A vehicle for self-expression, hip hop gives youth validation and agency. Despite rap’s rebellious vibe, the genre has form and makes use of figurative language.

Here’s how I harness the power of hip hop in the classroom. I discuss rap’s roots in oral traditions and its use of poetic elements. I show documentaries on the pillars of hip hop: graffiti, breakdancing, deejaying and emceeing. We study how rap influences pop culture, politics and commerce. Finally, I get students to write homages, confessional lyrics, social commentary and/or advertising jingles. My son and collaborator, poet/illustrator Jeffery Weatherford, amps up the excitement with a mini-studio that lets students download beats, record lyrics and mix audio. Mobile apps can produce similar results.

Like the genre itself, rap workshops convey to students that their voices deserve to be heard.

James Brown by Frank Morrison.

Rapper by Frank Morrison

Carole Boston Weatherford has written many books inspired by oral traditions, including The Roots of Rap: 16 Bars on the 4 Pillars of Hip Hop, illustrated by Frank Morrison. Here is Vicki Cobb's review.

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Scraps of History from Negro League Baseball’s Heyday

3/25/2020

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Carole Boston Weatherford

The Poet Professor

In the foreword to A Negro League Scrapbook, Buck O’Neil, former player/manager for the Kansas City Monarchs and the first black major league coach, says “Segregation was the only reason the Negro Leagues existed. Negro League baseball was outstanding.”

The players—most of whom never donned major league uniforms—were equal to, and sometimes better than, their white counterparts. Negro League and Major League players faced off in numerous exhibition games. Negro League teams usually won those contests, O’Neil explains, because the African-American players had something to prove.

From 1919 to 1963, Negro League teams crisscrossed the country, thrilling fans with crafty pitches, frequent bunts, hit-and-run plays, and stolen bases—all without big salaries or a level playing field.

Slugger Josh Gibson, a catcher for the Homestead Grays and Pittsburgh Crawfords, once hit a homer 580 feet, among the longest ever at Yankee Stadium. The Negro League’s home run leader for 10 consecutive years, Gibson hit 75 home runs in 1931.
Pitcher Leon Day, a no-windup right-hander who played for the Baltimore Elite Giants, hurled a 95-mile-an-hour fastball.
Satchel Paige, the Negro League’s most popular and highest paid player, struck out 24 batters in one game and pitched 64 consecutive scoreless innings and 21 straight wins. Paige coined such colorful names for his pitches as bat dodger, four-day creeper and whipsy-dipsy-do.
James “Cool Papa” Bell, one of the fastest runners in baseball, stole an estimated 175 bases one season.
During the 1932 Negro League World Series, all-star Ted “Double Duty” Radcliffe caught in the first game of a doubleheader and then pitched a shutout in the nightcap. The Negro League boasted several so-called utility players who could play more than one position.

Jackie Robinson, who began his career with the all-black Kansas City Monarchs, took the Negro League’s fast-paced brand of play with him to the Brooklyn Dodgers, stealing home during the 1955 World Series. Robinson broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier in 1947—a milestone that O’Neil considers the first pitch of the Civil Rights Movement.

Since 1971, more than twenty Negro League players have been inducted—some posthumously—into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.

in 1921 the Elite (pronounced eee-light)Giants won a four game championship series against the Montgomery Grey Sox, making them the Southern Colored Champions.

A Philadelphia baseball park used primarily by the Negro League

Look Magazine profiled Jackie Robinson in 1946.

1924 Negro League World Series

Carole Boston Weatherford’s A Negro League Scrapbook recreates what life was like on and off the field for African American baseball players before Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier. With lively verse, fascinating facts, and archival photographs, this is a celebration of the Negro Leagues and the stellar athletes who went unrecognized in their time.

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WHY HIP HOP POETRY MATTERS

Scraps of History from Negro League Baseball’s Heyday

NEWS
FLASH
We're back for the 2020-2021 school year! Read a Minute a day online, free, to keep your students engaged in learning.
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WHY HIP HOP POETRY MATTERS

Scraps of History from Negro League Baseball’s Heyday

*NEWSFLASH *We're back for the 2020-2021 school year! Read a Minute a day online, free, to keep your students engaged in learning.Authors on Call and our bookstore!

Categories

Archives

NEWS
FLASH
We're back for the 2020-2021 school year! Read a Minute a day online, free, to keep your students engaged in learning.
Authors on Call and our bookstore!