Videos I found Meaning in

I thought it would be nice to add some videos to the blog, partly because everyone likes a good youtube video, and partly because I found out that there a multiple schools that are named after Gwendolyn Brooks in Illinois, and I wanted to show some videos made by students at her schools.

This first video is a fan who is reciting the poem, "The Mother," a poem I almost did my review on, but I ended up liking "The Ballad of Rudolph Reed," more however I do feel like this poem contains several themes we talked about in class. I'm going to leave it up to you readers to tell me which themes you think this poems contains from class.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dinplx_uaAc

This next video is a video of a jazz performance done this year by band members at Gwendolyn Brooks' middle school in Oak Park, Illinois. The reason I posted this video is because I think it is really great that this school named after Gwendolyn Brooks is supporting music, an aspect of public schools that is quickly disappearing all over the country. As someone going through college to get an education degree in teaching the arts, dance just in case anyone wanted to know, I'm glad her school is supportive of the arts because here in the Tucson Unified School District, music is actually going to be cut at the end of this year. Hope you enjoy!
http://www.mefeedia.com/watch/30537845

And to leave you with something to think about, here is a quote I found by Gwendolyn Brooks that I am very in touch with.

“It is brave to be involved / To be not fearful to be unresolved.”
http://thinkexist.com/quotes/gwendolyn_brooks/2.html

-Briana Gonzalez

Why Gwendolyn Brooks is Worthy of a Fan Page

As we have learned in class, it is almost twice as hard if not even more difficult for a woman to be known as a great artist. Whether it is in paint, or words women seem to have to have to have skill that far surpasses a man’s in order to be deemed “worthy” in the arts even in today’s society. Gwendolyn Brooks was able to achieve this title despite being a women, African American and being raised in the early nineteen hundreds. To me, her being able to use her work to surpass all of her obstacles and still become a well-known poet makes her worth of a fan page.

Not only does Gwendolyn Brooks deserve a fan page for being a woman in, “a man’s field” but she also contradicts and mocks aspects of earlier society within her poetry. For instance, she often contradicts the stereotypes of women for instance in the poem I analyzed below, “The Crazy Woman.” Another satirical poem by Gwendolyn Brooks was the one we analyzed in class about the young African American boy that was killed for hitting on a white woman. In that poem Gwendolyn Brooks used irony to display the ridiculousness of the crime committed and how society’s views are frequently skewed. In my opinion any author brave enough to not only show their views through their art, but also show views that are opposed to a society’s views deserves a fan page.

Another aspect of Gwendolyn Brooks that I find amazing is that fact that in a time where racial tension was high, and women where still not encouraged to go to school Gwendolyn Brooks manages to attend and graduate from both an integrated high school and college. In the 1920’s and 30’s this is an amazing accomplishment that must have taken incredible perseverance and intelligence.

The final reason I believe a fan website can be dedicated to Gwendolyn Brooks is that she was the first African- American to ever win the Pulitzer Prize. Why I believe this is such an amazing accomplishment is that she is not only showing a woman can create art, but she is showing that a woman whom is a minority can convince a strong willed society through her work that she has talent and is able to be held to the same standard as any man in the same field.

In the end, what it comes down to is Gwendolyn Brook’s created work that even in a culture ten years after her death continues to inspire and provoke thought in people. It is that element of an artist that makes then remembered, loved, recognized, and overall worthy of a fan page.

The Crazy Woman

The Crazy Woman

I shall not sing a May Song.

A May song should be gay.

I'll wait until November

And sing a song of gray.

I'll wait until November

That is the time for me.

I'll go out in the frosty dark

And sing most terribly.

And all the little people

Will stare at me and say,

"That is the Crazy Woman

Who would not sing in May."

Gwendolyn Brooks

Themes and Culture:

There are quite a few themes evident in this poem. The first one I noticed is the theme of weather and change. Brooks says that society equates May with happiness, "A May song should be gay." and November is described with words like "frosty dark" and "gray." When in reality it is the "dark" and "gray" of May that brings the beauty and "gayness" of May. I believe this theme reflects her culture (1917-2000) in that people support what everyone else supports and they appreciate the nice and beautiful things but fail to pay attention to the ugly and undesirable that it takes to get there.

Another theme that this poem conveys is the cultural stereotype of, "The Crazy Woman." In the title itself Brooks mocks the concept her culture’s idea of a woman who doesn’t follow society’s idea of women. The culture Brooks was raised in would really emphasize women going along with the stereotype of women loving May for the flowers and the sun and things that all people are “supposed to love.” The fact that she has no taste for such things makes her just another crazy woman, a rough stereotype from her culture for women who fail to conform.

Brooks is affecting culture through these themes by embracing her label and thus mocking and making it ineffective. She is rejecting the stereotype of “acting like a woman” by saying she is, “going out into the dark to sing most terribly” she is contradicting society and their ideals that say women should not be out after dark, should sing nicely, and they should want to sing a song in May because it is a nice month. By rejecting those expectations and embracing stereotypes that society says she should not want placed on her she is revoking any power the culture of her society has on her and her choices on what she likes and when and how she wants to sing. By sending this message to her culture she is letting her freedom be known and is giving women the opportunity to do the same. She is showing her culture that their expectations and idea of social roles and culture do not apply to her and if she wants to sing an unhappy song in a gray month in the middle of the night that is what she will do, with or without the approval of her culture.

The Ballad of Rudolph Reed

Gwendolyn Brooks is a revolutionary African American female poet who writes about poverty, social injustice, family dynamics, discrimination, hate, power, urban life, hegemony, liberation, multiculturalism, oppression and social constructions. Her work is respected by many institutions, and she has been awarded countless fellowships, awards and honorary degrees. In 1950 Gwendolyn Brooks became the first African American poet to win the Pulitzer Prize for poetry and since then, the amount of titles Gwendolyn has been awarded for her writing, literature and poetry contributions has escalated.

I think Gwendolyn Brooks is worthy of having this fan page because of the intensity of her words, the amount of literature she has produced and been awarded for, the subject matter that she is personally connected to and for having such charisma and passion in her words when she reads. I admire Gwendolyn Brooks because I admire any person who comes off as overly passionate. I think that she is revolutionary in the way she has decided to write her poetry, what she has to decided to write about and how she presents her craft and for those reasons, I am a true fan.

I wanted to do a blog on Gwendolyn Brooks because when we were introduced to her poem "Real Cool," in class, I was instantly struck. I enjoyed and appreciated her writing style because she exposed the realities of the boys in the poem without making it appear obvious, blatant, or preachy, but instead presented it as any other normal thing. I found Brooks' point of view in that specific poem to be very inspried and thought out, since she had decided to write in a less direct way or rather, roundabout way. I knew after that class that I wanted to read more of her work, and since doing so I have realized that this is her natural writing style, and it is something I really enjoy reading.

The poem I chose to analyze for this blog is a poem called, "The Ballad of Rudolph Reed," which is about a black family who moves to a white neighborhood, which results in violence, and ultimately death. Although the subject matter of this poem is a bit heavy, I liked the poem because she rhymed the lines, described the family's situation before and after the move very eloquantly as well as getting a lot of information accross with very few words.


The Ballad of Rudolph Reed

by Gwendolyn Brooks

Gwendolyn Brooks

Rudolph Reed was oaken.

His wife was oaken too.

And his two good girls and his good little man

Oakened as they grew.

“I am not hungry for berries.

I am not hungry for bread.

But hungry hungry for a house

Where at night a man in bed

”May never hear the plaster

Stir as if in pain.

May never hear the roaches

Falling like fat rain.

“Where never wife and children need

Go blinking through the gloom.

Where every room of many rooms

Will be full of room.

”Oh my home may have its east or west

Or north or south behind it.

All I know is I shall know it,

And fight for it when I find it.“

It was in a street of bitter white

That he made his application.

For Rudolph Reed was oakener

Than others in the nation.

The agent’s steep and steady stare

Corroded to a grin.

Why, you black old, tough old hell of a man,

Move your family in!

Nary a grin grinned Rudolph Reed,

Nary a curse cursed he,

But moved in his House. With his dark little wife,

And his dark little children three.

A neighbor would look, with a yawning eye

That squeezed into a slit.

But the Rudolph Reeds and the children three

Were too joyous to notice it.

For were they not firm in a home of their own

With windows everywhere

And a beautiful banistered stair

And a front yard for flowers and a back yard for grass?

The first night, a rock, big as two fists.

The second, a rock big as three.

But nary a curse cursed Rudolph Reed.

(Though oaken as man could be.)

The third night, a silvery ring of glass.

Patience ached to endure.

But he looked, and lo! small Mabel’s blood

Was staining her gaze so pure.

Then up did rise our Rudolph Reed

And pressed the hand of his wife,

And went to the door with a thirty-four

And a beastly butcher knife.

He ran like a mad thing into the night.

And the words in his mouth were stinking.

By the time he had hurt his first white man

He was no longer thinking.

By the time he had hurt his fourth white man

Rudolph Reed was dead.

His neighbors gathered and kicked his corpse.

”Nigger—“ his neighbors said.

Small Mabel whimpered all night long,

For calling herself the cause.

Her oak-eyed mother did no thing

But change the bloody gauze.

Gwendolyn Brooks, “The Ballad of Rudolph Reed” from Selected Poems. Copyright © 1963 by Gwendolyn Brooks. Reprinted with the permission of the Estate of Gwendolyn Brooks.

This poem contained several themes that we touched upon in class such as discrimination, oppression, patriarchy, hegemony and double bind. Discrimination is obvious in this poem, from the disapproving faces of the neighbors, the rocks thrown at their house, the destruction is caused to their house and their daughter Mabel. Oppression is found in the fact that the white men of the community ended up killing the father of the black family after her ran out to defend his daughter from the violence his neighbors were causing. Patriarchy is another element in this poem, possibly less obvious, because it is the father who decides to move the family, and it is the father who was expected to protect his family after one of his children were hurt by the objects being thrown into the windows of their house. The hegemony of the dominant white community is found in this poem since the neighborhood is an all white neighborhood, and all those white neighbors are on each others side, not the side of the black family. We can see that the whites have much more power and superiority in this community, and therefore cause the father to die fighting a double bind. The father of Mabel is put into a situation where whatever he does, he will fail, a double bind, and his failing results in him losing his life. Since his daughter was hurt by the men outside, it is his "duty" as a man and a father to fight back, or else his manhood is up for question but he does not have one person on his side to back him up since everyone in the community is white. He wants to stand up to the violent neighbors to show that they don't have all the power, but in fact they do, and he loses his valiant fight.