Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Post #1

I've always liked movements. I always wondered to myself why have I not really been apart of any of great significance. I look at the news and see students of other countries fighting for change. Whatever that change may be. I feel myself as well as many of my peers are very passive aggressive about wanting change. I'm hoping this class could give me some educational background of movements that have happened that have been a success and those with epic fails. I'm excited to learn about the different ways to make a change. I'm very excited about this course and hope I continue to be intrigued by it throughout this semester.

Post #2

I listened to the song "Strange Fruit". When I first heard it I must say i was a little taken back by the performer’s voice. A very distinctive voice which now that I think about it is a perfect match to the morbid and descriptive lyrics the song has. Does the person who wrote this song always write in such a matter where he is very descriptive but yet tasteful in the sense of his metaphors?
One of my classmates mentioned that the reason why the person who wrote the song "Strange Fruit" went by two names is because he also wrote for the whites. That came to be like a surprise because the lyrics to "Strange Fruit" were talking about the injustice and the crudely and the misconception the white man lives by, but then he writes for them? Can he not write for them under the same name? What would happen if he did? Would his songs not sell? Is a good song writer as good as his name or as the song he writes?
"The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain" seeems to address and anaswer some of the questions i just asked. The piece of writting sheds light by an example of a promising black poet who said he doesn't want to be a Negro poet. Once thats said I think is that the same thing that happened with the person who wrote the song to "Strange Fruit"?