Langston Speaks (excerpt)
Subdued and time-lost
Are the drums-and yet
Through some vast mist of race
There comes this song
I do not understand
This song of atavistic land
Of bitter yearnings lost
Without a place
So long
So far away
Is Africa's
Dark Face.
"Afro American Fragment"5
by Langston Hughes:
Teaching voice through Poetry: Mary McLeod Bethune (educator and civil rights leader) says in a poem titled "My last Will and Testament": "I leave you hope! Yesterday our ancestors endured the degradation of slavery, yet they retained their dignity. I leave you thirst for education, knowledge is the prime need of the hour. I leave you racial dignity, I want all Negroes to maintain their human dignity at all cost."6
Bethune leaves a legacy of hope and demands that negroes maintain human human dignity at all cost. When faced with adversity how do we express our voice and maintain human dignity? In "How to Get Power through voice" Peter Elbow's states that "real" Voice requires practiced safe methods of writing and experimenting with untried styles."7 He recommends free writing on a regular basis in an atmosphere of total freedom. Essentially, the best way to discover real "voice" is by writing into it. Elbow goes on to state that "when students can explore and draft in whatever language is most comfortable and inviting they stand a better chance of finding writing itself more comfortable and inviting. In contrast, the traditional approach makes speakers of African American language continually interrupt their drafting to stop and figure out 'correct grammar' throughout the entire writing process."8
Allowing speakers of African American dialect to draft in their most comfortable language may postpone any worries about standardized, edited, written English. Throughout this unit examples of writings will be illustrated that will model for students styles in which they can show purpose in their voice and hopefully, guide them into delivering a message in a more powerful and productive manner.
Comments: