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Hopes & Realities…. What do African-Americans from the South hope to find in the North? Do their hopes match their reality?. What We’ll Do Today. Look at clips from The Chicago Defender, a newspaper the urged men and women from the south to “Come join the ranks of the free.”
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Hopes & Realities… What do African-Americans from the South hope to find in the North? Do their hopes match their reality?
What We’ll Do Today Look at clips from The Chicago Defender, a newspaper the urged men and women from the south to “Come join the ranks of the free.” Read part of an autobiography that describes arriving in Chicago, full of hope and terrified of the future. Do a close reading of the poem “Kitchenette Building,” which talks about what happens when dreams meet reality. Begin to think about how much closer African-Americans in the north were to the American promise of “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
Richard Wright B. 1908, Mississippi Lived in Memphis, Tenn. and Roxie, Arkansas Published first story in 1923, had to leave school that same year to find work Left for Chicago in 1927 Wrote Native Son (novel), Black Boy (autobiography)
As You Read from Black Boy Read with a pen in your hand and…. Underline the one sentence that seems to sum up RW’s hopes for life in Chicago. Underline the one sentence that seems to sum up the fear and anxiety RW feels about his new, unfamiliar home. Circle three concrete details that seem to add to this fear and anxiety.
Gwendolyn Brooks B. 1917, grew up in Chicago. Published first book, A Street In Bronzeville, in 1945 Won the Pulitzer Prize in 1950, the first given to an African-American Named the Poet Laureate of Illinois in 1968, Poet Laureate of the U.S. in 1985
Before You Read: What’s a kitchenette? What, then, is a kitchenette building?
Break it Up! Two people in each group must read the poem aloud. Group 1: Collect concrete images that show real things in the kitchenette building Group 2: Collect images that are abstract or metaphorical, not tied to the “real world” of the kitchenette buildings. Group 3: Explain the Personification of “It” in stanza three. What’s “it” and what does “it” do? Group 4: Who is “We”? Be as specific as possible. Be ready to explain your reason. ALSO: All groups should write one sentence that they agree summarizes the message of the poem.
We are things of dry hours and the involuntary plan, Grayed in, and gray. “Dream” makes a giddy sound, not strong Like “rent,” “feeding a wife,” “satisfying a man.” But could a dream send up through onion fumes Its white and violet, fight with fried potatoes And yesterday’s garbage ripening in the hall, Flutter, or sing an aria down these rooms Even if we were willing to let it in, Had time to warm it, keep it very clean, Anticipate a message, let it begin? We wonder. But not well! not for a minute! Since Number Five is out of the bathroom now, We think of lukewarm water, hope to get in it. (http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/172080)
