Tupac Shakur Langston Hughes
Cultural Messages
Mr. Jackson
Langston Hughes -
- people’s poet – the cultural messenger of Harlem for that period
- one of the most versatile and controversial writers of the 20th century. 860 poems.
- prolific writer, poetry has been translated into 60 different languages
- essay “My America” excerpt – 1943
- poem “Freedom’s Plough”
Spoken Word
- so much history can be found in the home just by talking to the elders
- “I am the darker brother” an anthology of modern poems by african-americans
- “Life ain’t no crystal stair”
Used the terms African, Black and Negro interchangeably which was uncommon in that time
- Nikki Giovanni, Oscar Brown, Gill Scott Heron., Sterling Brown
Watergate Blues
We Beg Your Pardon America
“Oatmeal Man – Gerald Ford”
AuH2o goldwater
Heron’s Generation
- series of poets
- Smokey Robinson
- Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On
- Curtis Mayfield – Choice of Colors
- Donny Hathaway
- KRS-One – knowledge reins supreme
Common Traits in Shakur and Langston Hughes – political family
son of black panther parents
raised in womb of imprisoned mother
wants to be a revolutionary when he grows up
Shakur’s Book
- His aspirations
- Shakur’s use of the term “nigga”
- never ignorant getting goals accomplished
- what do you accomplish by being a n?
- where do you go from being a n?
- as you raise your children – what do you pass on to them as n?
- they don’t see themselves moving beyond 21
- now a cross cultural term
- how does that move society forward?
Common Themes
- warrior poems
- poems with rose in the title
- sensitivity and strength
Two different sides of Tupac
- the one saddened by what he saw
- wanting to speak about those issues
- talked about heroes – Huey Newton and Nelson Mandela
- “Where there’s a will there’s a world”
Remember when hip-hop was supposed to die out? It’s been some 20 years now…
