“Blacks should be used to play whites. For centuries, we had probed their faces, the angles of their bodies, the sounds of their voices, and even their odors. Often our survival had depended on the accurate reading of a white man’s chuckle, or the disdainful wave of a white woman’s hand.”
The Heart of a Woman, ch. 12 (1981)
Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
Tagged black history, drama/theater, poetry, readings/research, women's history
Lorraine Hansberry has crossed my radar screen several times recently: she was the subject of a PBS American Masters series, and she is featured prominently in Raoul Peck’s superlative documentary, James Baldwin: I Am Not Your Negro. Lorraine Hansberry and James Baldwin were great friends, and her early death was a great tragedy for him, and for the theater.
Here, hot off the press, is a reading on playwright Lorraine Hansberry and its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet.
If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.
Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Social Sciences, Worksheets
Tagged black history, building vocabulary/conceptual knowledge, diction/grammar/style/usage, drama/theater, high-interest materials, lgbtq history, questioning/inquiry, readings/research, united states history, women's history
“Formerly Leroi Jones, 1934-2014). American poet and playwright. Dutchman, a taut one-act play, part realistic, part ritualistic, crystalizing the conflicts between white and black cultures, established Baraka as an important force in stimulating black playwriting and production. Slave Ship (1967), relies on music and action as much as language to unfold its haunting story. Baraka’s theater is aggressive and provocative, yet lyrical in its theatrical effect. His prolific output of essays and poetry includes Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note (1961) The Dead Lecturer (1964), Black Magic (1969) and Hard Facts (1976); his work is collected in Selected Plays and Prose and Selected Poetry (both 1979). Two other works appeared in 1979: a collection of poetry AM/TRAK and Spring Song. Reggae or Not, prose writings, appeared in 1981. Baraka’s later works have become increasingly polemical and separatist, causing many white liberals to desert him. He also published The Music: Reflections on Jazz and Blues (1987), Shy’s Wise: The Griot’s Tale (1994), and Jesse Jackson and Black People (1994).”
Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.
“A play (1974) by the US writer Ntozake Shange (b. 1948) consisting of 20 ‘choreopoems’ about the experience of African-American women in modern Western society. One of the longest running shows in Broadway history, the play’s extraordinary title, with its unconventional spellings and rejection of accepted grammatical rules, was intended by the author to represent the independence of African-American culture from Western influence. The mutilation of words throughout the title and text are reportedly meant to remind the reader of the mutilation of African slaves through branding and other punishments.”
Excerpted from: Crofton, Ian, ed. Brewer’s Curious Titles. London: Cassell, 2002.
Here is a reading on the late, great, Richard Pryor and its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. Richard (as I like to call him, because when I listen to his comedy routines, even now, I feel like I know him–or perhaps he knows me might be a better way to put it) was an important social commentator, whatever you may think of how he lived his life, of his use of profanity and a certain epithet beginning with “n”. The fact is, Richard was rarely wrong.
If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.
“What all this means only Mr. Pinter knows, for as his characters speak in non-sequiturs, half-gibberish and lunatic ravings, they are unable to explain their actions, thoughts, of feelings. If the author can forget Beckett, Ionesco, and Simpson he may do much better next time.”
Manchester Guardian 1958
Excerpted from: Bernard, Andre, and Bill Henderson, eds. Pushcart’s Complete Rotten Reviews and Rejections. Wainscott, NY: Pushcart Press, 1998.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference
“On what novel is George Gershwin’s opera Porgy and Bess (1935) based? It is based on Porgy (1925), by Du Bose Heyward. Heyward and his wife, Dorothy, won a Pulitzer prize for their dramatic version of the novel. Porgy is a crippled beggar who lives on Catfish Row in Charleston, South Carolina. Bess is his drug-addicted mistress.”
Excerpted from: Corey, Melinda, and George Ochoa. Literature: The New York Public Library Book of Answers. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference
Tagged drama/theater, fiction/literature, music, united states history
OK, on a rainy morning, here is a lesson plan on “Merrill’s Alibi,” the fourth “case” in the first volume of the Crime and Puzzlement series of books.
I begin this lesson with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on “Parting is such sweet sorrow,” the famous line, of course, from Romeo and Juliet. You’ll need this PDF of the illustration and questions from the book itself so students may can investigate whether or not Merrill’s alibi is credible. Finally, here is a typescript of the answer key to close the case of Merrill’s Alibi.
If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.
“A comedy (c. 1600) by William Shakespeare (1564-1616). The story is based on Rosalynde: Euphue’s Golden Legacy (1590), a romance by Thomas Lodge (1557-1625), although the clown touchstone and the gloomy philosopher Jaques are purely Shakespeare’s inventions. Orlando is forced to flee the court of the usurping Duke Frederick. He takes refuge in the forest of Arden, where the usurping Duke and his followers are now living. Rosalind, the daughter of the usurped Duke is also obliged to flee, having previously fallen in love with Orlando (and he with her). Disguised as the youth Ganymede, she befriends Orlando and encourages him to practice his wooing of Rosalind on him (i.e. Ganymede). There are certain complications, involving various other sets of lovers. In the end, all is revealed, four pairs of lovers marry and Frederick the usurper surrenders the dukedom to its rightful owner.
The title indicates the playwright’s desire to please with his offering. At the end, Rosalind addresses the audience directly:
‘I charge you, O woman, for the love you bear to men, to like as much of this play as please you; and I charge you, O men, for the love you bear to women—as I perceive by your simpering none of you hates them—that between you and the women the play may please.’ V. iv, Epilogue
‘What You Will,’ the subtitle of Twelfth Night, has an equivalent implication. Similar epilogues, asking the audience for their approbation and indulgence, were something of a theatrical convention at the time; for example, at the end of The Tempest Prospero speaks the epilogue, ending:
‘As you from crimes would pardon’d be,
Let your indulgence set me free.’ V. i, Epilogue
There is another example in All’s Well that Ends Well.
There have been two film versions of As You Like It. The 1936 version includes Laurence Olivier in the cast, and J.M. Barrie co-wrote the screenplay. The 1992 version turns the Forest of Arden into a London ‘cardboard city’ for the homeless.”
Excerpted from: Crofton, Ian, ed. Brewer’s Curious Titles. London: Cassell, 2002.
Posted in English Language Arts, Essays/Readings, Quotes, Reference
Tagged drama/theater, poetry
In response to a request from a student, I worked up this reading on Shakespeare’s 18th Sonnet and this vocabulary building and comprehension worksheet to accompany it. If you’re not familiar with this, one of the famous poems of all time, it begins with the line “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”
If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.
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