Hughes Blues Blog: A Conversation Across Classes at Clemson University

K. Baldwin and D. Reiss, American Literature to 1945, Spring 2006

Recognizing the importance of sound to all poetry, the ways that blues and jazz inform the poetry of the Harlem Renaissance, and the ubiquity of music in the lives of our mp3-wired students, two teachers of American literature at Clemson University developed the Hughes Blues Blog.

We focused primarily on the poems of Langston Hughes in part because Clemson was featuring Hughes in a multimedia performance on campus as part of a celebration of the Harlem Renaissance. More important, our interest in joining our classes for this activity grew also out of our commitment to collaboration among teachers as well as among students and to the potential of computers and the Internet to incorporate multiple modes and media into teaching and learning. Just as we shared enthusiasm for the poet Langston Hughes and the other arts of his time, we wanted our students to move out of the space of our classrooms into a less-physical (but no less real) location where they would come to new understandings of Hughes from a range of perspectives.

We divided our students into groups of 6 students, 3 from each of our classes. At the blog site, we provided specific guidelines for responding to the poems and each other. We also provided links to additional resources for understanding Hughes, the blues, and the Harlem Renaissance. At the class Blackboard site, we included several blues and jazz songs as well as recording of Langston Hughes reading his poems.

Students in our classes read the poems closely, considered the language of the poems as well as the relation to music and culture, wrote for a real audience of people who read them thoughtfully and responded to their ideas. In their final class portfolios, many students also commented that they enjoyed and learned from reading the perspectives of other students.

To personalize the correspondence between students, we asked them to write 250-350-word letters to group members.

1. Letter #1: Read and respond to the poem for your group. Take any approach that interests you, for example, striking words, phrases, images or motifs; poetic structure or rhythms (blues and jazz in particular); or cultural, historical, or biographical approaches. Consider your initial personal reaction as well as your reflections as you re-read and study the poem and supporting materials. Let your classmates know what sources you used and how to find them. Tell us what you think and ask a good question to stimulate a helpful response from a classmate.
   • Kathryn H. said...
     Group 8: Initially, after reading “Song for a Dark Girl” and “Silhouette,” I felt a strong sense of passion and a cynical tone that ran throughout both poems. In “Song for a Dark Girl,” the repetition of the line “way down south in Dixie” stood out to me because I believe Hughes wanted to emphasize the importance of the role the south and the idea of slavery had in what happened to his “lover.” Hughes juxtaposes love and death as well. The “black young lover” is hung to her death. He mentions heartbreak and love as well as a detailed description of her dead and naked on the tree. The line concerning “white lord Jesus” was shocking to me. It seems as if he’s almost questioning his belief in religion and prayer. He asks “What was the use of prayer” in a hopeful yet almost sarcastic way.

   “Silhouette” processes the same basic ideas as “Song for a Dark Girl:” the hanging of a black person, contrast in white and black, a “naked shadow” and a “silhouette.” There is a distinction between the term girl, used in “Song for a Dark Girl,” and the term lady used in “Silhouette.” Girl gives reference to someone young and whom he can relate. Lady may refer to someone he has high regard to because of power. Also, there is a distinct difference in the descriptions of the two people mentioned in the poems: black young lover and white lord Jesus in “Song for a Dark Girl,” and black man and white womanhood in “Silhouette.” This gives the reader a visual as well as literal contrast in the difference between the white race and black race. Lastly, I see a correlation between his use of the “naked shadow” and “silhouette.” Both give allusion to the black people who are hanging as almost not being people, just merely there. These poems could easily be blues songs because of their repetitive nature and the rhyme scheme that runs throughout them. Kathryn H. 11/15/2005 01:08:00 PM

2. Letter #2: Within your same group, respond to someone else’s first letter, adding your reaction and thoughts on their ideas about the work(s). Answer their question of course but also consider extending the ideas they presented, offering alternative viewpoints, and asking additional questions stimulated by their first letter. Although the poem and your classmate’s letter are your focus, your own further thinking is important.
   • Paige L. said...
     Katie M.,
     In my first posting I wrote about “Song for a Dark Girl”, but your posting has prompted me to take a closer look at “Silhouette”. I read the poem with my focus on the light and dark that you spoke of, and the part that stood out to me was the repeated line of “In the dark of the moon”. This line is interesting to me to think about. The moon alone, as we see it, is an object of light but it is only light because everything else around it is so dark. There is so much darkness of thinking in “Dixie” that what they are doing to “protect its white womanhood” may seem like a good thing. I don’t know where I’m going with that but that’s a thought I had with the moon and darkness contrast. Things that people don’t want to be caught doing are done in the dark because they can remain hidden, such as hanging a black man in the dark of the moon. If “they” didn’t think it was wrong to do it why did they do it in the dark? It’s funny that he says in the poem that it was “for the world to see”, yet it was “in the dark of the moon”. Those two things don’t exactly fit together in my head. The “world” probably just refers to the Dixie world. There is a lot of strong sarcasm in this poem against the white people and rightly so.
     Paige L. 11/21/2005 10:06:00 PM
3. Letter #3a: Write a short note to the person who replied to your Letter 1, responding to their Letter 2 and telling what their reply contributed to your thinking and learning about the poem. Letter #3b: Read all of the letters and responses of a different group that focused on a different poem, and write a response to their overall discussion. Summarize what they have said and emphasize what you have learned from reading their discussion, naming at least two people in the group as you describe what you learned.

   • Tiffany H. said...
     Dear Group 6,
     After reading your letters in response to listening to Langston Hughes reading "Weary Blues" at Blackboard under "Blues Music" and re-read the poem "Weary Blues" posted at http://wordsworth2.net/literary/hughesblues.htm, and listen to the version of "Weary Blues" with music played in class, I have gotten a better understanding of how you all feel and what you all think about “Weary Blues”.

     On your first experience with weary blues many of you felt sad and down. As Anne W. says, “My first response to “Weary Blues” was that it depicted fatigue and tiredness. The poem did not show people or music that was energetic or happy.” The words used in the poem emphasized things were slow and sad liked the words “drowsy” and “moaned”. Instead of showing the happy side of music, “Weary Blues” was characterized by exhaustion and tiredness.

     Some of you, like Bryan M., did not like it at all in any shape or form, while others thought they could relate it to Jazz music like Alexis B. did. One thing I particularly notice was that many people emphasized the words "Thump, thump, thump, went his foot on the floor." This phrase showing the importance of the words to evoke a conscious sound and image of what is being described. This phrase was repeated in many of your responses.

     Another thing that was interesting was how the phrases used in “Weary Blues” created many visual images and sounds. This shows the power of these phrases like: “ebony hands on each ivory key”, a drowsy syncopated tune,” “poor piano moan,” and “that sad raggy tune” as described by Caroline R. Overall, “Weary Blues” was tearful and gloomy and emphasized these feeling and thoughts through many visual images and sounds.

     Tiffany H. 11/27/2005 09:27:00 PM

   
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