Download Constructing an Identity through Portraiture and Poetry: Re

Constructing an Identity through Portraiture and Poetry: Re-Imagining American Identities
While looking closely, make a list of at least ten
adjectives or descriptive phrases about the person
in the photograph.
After reading the passage, write down at least ten
adjectives describing the ideas, themes, and
emotions in the poem.
Using your observations of the portrait and ideas about the poem, construct a narrative description
(verbal portrait) or poem expressing the identity of the person photographed in the space below.
Humanities & Social Studies Connections and Suggested Research:
Carl Van Vechten
(1880-1964) American writer, photographer, and patron of the
Harlem Renaissance, who publicized many writers, artists, and
poets of the cultural movement.
The Harlem Renaissance
A literary movement in the 1920s that centered on the New
York neighborhood of Harlem, which was an early manifestation
of black consciousness in the U.S. Created a Used a new art
aesthetic that would bring forth social justice and equality. The
movement included writers such as Langston Hughes, Zora
Neale Hurston, Carl Van Vechten, Nella Larson, Jacob Lawrence,
Romare Bearden, and many others.
Jazz Poetry
Poetry that "demonstrates jazz-like rhythm or the feel of
improvisation".
Conceived in the 1920s, it heavily referenced the musical form.
Poets like Langston Hughes incorporated the syncopated
rhythms and repetitive phrases of blues and jazz music into
their writing. Poets like Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot, and E. E.
Cummings also participated in this form of poetry writing.
Langston Hughes
(1902–1967) American writer, poet, and leading voice of the
Harlem Renaissance. Important works include The Weary Blues
(1926), a series of poems on black themes, using blues and jazz
rhythms. Other poetry collections include The Negro Mother
(1931) and Shakespeare in Harlem (1941).
Idea of the “New Negro”
Through intellect, art, and music, one could challenge the
pervading racism and stereotypes to promote progressive social
politics as well as racial and social integration. See Alaine Locke.
Many Harlem Renaissance writers and poets like Langston Hughes, were especially concerned with
racial pride and with the conception of a purely African American style of poetry that could be easily set
apart from the writings by white poets. Since Jazz music was a popular and important part of AfricanAmerican culture at the time, Hughes and others like him tailored the jazz musical genre to craft their
own, essentially African-American voices. Many works by Langston Hughes are also greatly evocative of
spirituals.