A Work of Collaboration

Name______Date ______Period ____

Part I:

Directions: In partners, read the following poem and analyze it. Read the biographies on the back and then answer the questions.

“Forward to FIRE!!”

FIRE… flaming, burning, searing, and penetrating Far beneath the superficial items of The flesh to boil the sluggish blood. … FIRE… weaving vivid, hot designs upon an ebon Bordered loom and satisfying pagan Thirst for beauty unadorned…and Flesh is sweet and real…the soul An inward flush of fire…Beauty …flesh on fire – on fire in the furnace of life blazing. …

“Fy-ah, Fy-ah, Lawd, Fy-ah gonna burn ma soul!”

-Wallace Thurman and Langston Hughes

Questions:

1. What is the message? Use examples to back up your claim?

2. Read the poet background information provided. Explain how this poem reflects the lives of the poets, as well as the themes of the Harlem Renaissance historically and culturally. How can you see the combination of their ideas? Use specific examples to back up your ideas. Should be at least one paragraph. Wallace Thurman

Regarded as the leader of the literary and artistic bohemians of the day, Thurman lived in the rent-free domicile at 267 West 136th Street—a popular gathering place for creative minds such as Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Richard Bruce Nugent, Gwendolyn Bennett, and Aaron Douglas. These and other artists gathered to discuss publishing a magazine that would tackle topics ignored by the Talented Tenth: art for art's sake, jazz, blues, and homosexuality. Under Thurman's guidance, the group achieved its goal in November 1926, producing a quarterly titled Fire!! to signal its incendiary message. A financial flop, the first issue of Fire!! was also its last. Two years later, Thurman founded Harlem magazine. It was twice as successful as Fire!!—two issues came out before it folded. Thurman had played a key role in the Harlem literary scene and wrote about the vibrancy of Harlem life in his 1928 book, Negro Life in New York's Harlem. But he soon grew disillusioned with his environment. A dark-skinned black man, he felt ostracized both by segregationist white society and by black Talented Tenth circles—which, he claimed, favored light-skinned African Americans. In his 1929 novel, The Blacker the Berry, Thurman dissected the color hierarchy of the racism he had experienced. He continued to criticize Harlem in his 1932 novel, Infants of the Spring, which scolded black socialites who wrote for purely political purposes or rejected art that failed to mirror Talented Tenth ideals.

Langston Hughes

American culture and art, Hughes' writing vividly captures the political, social, and artistic climates of Harlem in the 1920s and 1930s. After a transitory adolescence, Hughes moved to Harlem in 1926, where he worked with and befriended such artists, writers, and scholars as Aaron Douglas, Countee Cullen, and Alain Locke. Infused and inspired by the jazz and blues that surrounded him at hot spots such as the Savoy Ballroom, Hughes weaved the rhythms of contemporary music into his poems. Often his writing riffed on the energy of life in Harlem itself. Part II: Collaborative Poem

Directions: With your partner, think of a statement you want to make about an issue of importance to you. Think about what you would like to say. Write a poem that blends both of your styles and ideas into one and that expresses your message. Your poem should be at least ten lines and use the poetic devices that we’ve studied.