Teaching Multicultural Literature: A Workshop for the Middle Grades
Historical and Cultural Context: Langston Hughes and Christopher Moore
Stanlee Brimberg and his students in New York City study the important contributions of African Americans to the United States and the recent discovery of the African Burial Ground in Manhattan through factual texts, video, art, photography, and poetry. The students interview writer, historian, and documentary filmmaker Christopher Moore to learn more about the everyday experiences of African slaves in early New York. They examine the works of Langston Hughes, and then — drawing on all of the texts — they write their own poetry and engage in peer review. As a culminating activity, the students take a field trip to the African Burial Ground Memorial, and then design their own postage stamps to commemorate the site.
Video Summary
The following is a summary of the activities featured in Workshop video 6. The activities were part of a larger unit on the African Burial Ground in New York City. In adapting them to your own classroom, students, and overall curriculum, you may choose to vary the sequence or timing presented here.
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- Stanlee Brimberg begins his class by reminding the students of the previous week’s discussion on freedom and rights. He prompts a new discussion by asking, “Are people born with rights?”
- Brimberg shows the class a variety of books by African Americans, from Maya Angelou to Julius Lester to Frederick Douglass, and asks the students what they know about the books or authors. He assigns a reading from the bookBreaking Ground, Breaking Silence for homework.
- The class screens the documentary The African Burial Ground: An American Discovery. Brimberg has assigned each student a particular year or span of time about which to take notes while watching. Later, using everyone’s notes, the class creates a composite time line of events depicted in the film.
- The students prepare to interview Christopher Moore, historian and screenwriter of The African Burial Ground: An American Discovery, by writing open-ended questions. When Moore comes to speak to the class, they ask him about the African Burial Ground, his own family history, the lives and work of the slaves in the city, and the relationship of the slaves with the Native Americans. (See Teaching Strategies: Interviewing.)
- The students examine and answer questions about photographs of skeletons exhumed from the African Burial Ground.
- Brimberg introduces the poetry of Langston Hughes. The students choose poems to read aloud and explain the reasons for their choices.
- Brimberg asks the students to write a poem about a person from one of the photos from the African Burial Ground. He gives the students a handout that provides guidance for creating their poems. (See Teaching Strategies: Connecting Poetry and History.)
- Brimberg and the students meet to read the draft poems aloud and discuss their writing process.
The students read Barbara Chase-Riboud’s poem “Africa Rising” aloud and examine individual lines. (The poem accompanies Chase-Riboud’s sculpture of the same title, at the African Burial Ground memorial site.)
- The class takes a field trip to Trinity Church, where white citizens of New Amsterdam were buried, and to the site of the African Burial Ground. The students answer questions on their trip sheets (PDF). Brimberg asks additional questions to help them make connections to the poems by Langston Hughes and Barbara Chase-Riboud.
- When the students return to the classroom, Brimberg engages them in a whole-class discussion about memorializing the past. Drawing on what they’ve learned during this unit, the students create their own designs for an African Burial Ground commemorative stamp.
Video Materials & Standards
Materials
- Breaking Ground, Breaking Silence, by Joyce Hansen and Gary McGowan
- The African Burial Ground: An American Discovery, video written by Christopher Moore
- Poems by Langston Hughes (Available in Workshop 6: Readings) PDF
- “Africa Rising,” by Barbara Chase-Riboud
- Poetry writing guide sheet (PDF)
- Trip sheets for field trips (PDF)
- Sample commemorative stamps
- Art materials for students to create their own commemorative stamps
Standards
Standards for the English Language Arts
General Resources
Additional Resources
Books
Baker, Houston A., Jr. Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987.
Baker argues that the Harlem Renaissance was a crucial social and political movement that put forth an expression of self-identity that is still relevant today.
Harris, Leslie. In the Shadow of Slavery: African Americans in New York City, 1626-1863. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003.
Harris offers a history of slavery in New York City and describes what the African Burial Ground tells us about the everyday lives of African Americans in that period.
Hill, Laban Carrick. Harlem Stomp! A Cultural History of the Harlem Renaissance.Singapore: Megan Tingley, 2004.
This book, aimed at young adults, describes the cultural influences in Harlem in the early 20th century and discusses the idea of the “New Negro” that brought so many people to the North.
Huggins, Nathan Irvin. Voices from the Harlem Renaissance. London: Oxford University Press, 1976.
A collection of essays and other works by prominent figures from the Harlem Renaissance that depict the political and social struggles African Americans had to face.
Katz, William Loren. Black Indians: A Hidden Heritage. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997.
Katz traces the relationship between people of African descent and Native Americans, and brings forward a hidden part of U.S. history.
——. Proudly Red and Black: Stories of African and Native Americans. New York: Atheneum, 1993.
This book for a wide range of readers includes brief biographies of people of mixed African and Native American ancestry who have overcome many social obstacles in their lives.
Lewis, David. When Harlem Was in Vogue. New York: Penguin, 1997.
Lewis examines the far-reaching effects of the Harlem Renaissance for African Americans.
Lewis, David, ed. The Portable Harlem Renaissance Reader. New York: Viking, 1994.
This collection features poems, stories, and essays from important journals of the Harlem Renaissance that are often not readily available.
Wintz, Cary D., and Paul Finkelman, eds. Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance.New York: Routledge, 2004.
This set of articles about the Harlem Renaissance reflects the diverse range of scholarship on the subject.
Books
Baker, Houston A., Jr. Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987.
Baker argues that the Harlem Renaissance was a crucial social and political movement that put forth an expression of self-identity that is still relevant today.
Harris, Leslie. In the Shadow of Slavery: African Americans in New York City, 1626-1863. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003.
Harris offers a history of slavery in New York City and describes what the African Burial Ground tells us about the everyday lives of African Americans in that period.
Hill, Laban Carrick. Harlem Stomp! A Cultural History of the Harlem Renaissance.Singapore: Megan Tingley, 2004.
This book, aimed at young adults, describes the cultural influences in Harlem in the early 20th century and discusses the idea of the “New Negro” that brought so many people to the North.
Huggins, Nathan Irvin. Voices from the Harlem Renaissance. London: Oxford University Press, 1976.
A collection of essays and other works by prominent figures from the Harlem Renaissance that depict the political and social struggles African Americans had to face.
Katz, William Loren. Black Indians: A Hidden Heritage. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997.
Katz traces the relationship between people of African descent and Native Americans, and brings forward a hidden part of U.S. history.
——. Proudly Red and Black: Stories of African and Native Americans. New York: Atheneum, 1993.
This book for a wide range of readers includes brief biographies of people of mixed African and Native American ancestry who have overcome many social obstacles in their lives.
Lewis, David. When Harlem Was in Vogue. New York: Penguin, 1997.
Lewis examines the far-reaching effects of the Harlem Renaissance for African Americans.
Lewis, David, ed. The Portable Harlem Renaissance Reader. New York: Viking, 1994.
This collection features poems, stories, and essays from important journals of the Harlem Renaissance that are often not readily available.
Wintz, Cary D., and Paul Finkelman, eds. Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance.New York: Routledge, 2004.
This set of articles about the Harlem Renaissance reflects the diverse range of scholarship on the subject.
Web Sites
African American Odyssey
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/
This Library of Congress exhibition displays a collection of primary documents and other materials about slavery and the African American experience throughout U.S. history.
Harlem: 1900-1940: An African American Community
http://www.si.umich.edu/CHICO/Harlem/
The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture offers an online exhibition of photographs from the Harlem Renaissance as well as information about key figures and movements of the era. This site also offers suggestions to educators for lesson plans and additional resources about the Harlem Renaissance.
African Burial Ground
http://www.africanburialground.com
The African Burial Ground’s official Web site contains articles and documents that trace the events following the discovery of the burial ground in Manhattan.
The African Burial Ground — Africans in the Americas: Celebrating the Ancestral Heritage
http://www.nypl.org/research/sc/afb/
The General Services Administration and Schomburg Center collaborated to create a site that contains video clips and information about the rites and ceremonies performed during the uncovering and researching of the burial ground, as well as information about the artifacts found there.
Periodicals
Blakey, Michael L. “The New York African Burial Ground Project: An Examination of Enslaved Lives, a Construction of Ancestral Ties.” Transforming Anthropology, 7 (1): 53-58 (1998).
Blakey, director of the New York African Burial Ground Project and scholar from Howard University, writes about the history of the site, the struggle the African American community went through to ensure its preservation, and information about the slaves he has deduced from his research.
Film/Video
Bones of Our Ancestors. PBS, 2001.
In this unique documentary by Orlando Bagwell, teenagers delve into history while they do research for a story about the lives of people who were buried in the African Burial Ground in New York.
From These Roots. William Greaves Productions, 1974.
This film documents the Harlem Renaissance through the social, political, and artistic movements of the period.
I’ll Make Me a World: A Century of African American Arts. PBS, 1999. (See Hour 2: “Without Fear or Shame”)
This film is about African American artists throughout the 20th century. “Without Fear or Shame” focuses on the role of art in social protest during the Harlem Renaissance.
Slavery and the Making of America
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/
This four-part television series focuses on the history of slavery in the United States. The series uses personal narrative and contemporary scholarship to document the central role that African Americans played in the development of the nation.
African American Odyssey
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/
This Library of Congress exhibition displays a collection of primary documents and other materials about slavery and the African American experience throughout U.S. history.
Harlem: 1900-1940: An African American Community
http://www.si.umich.edu/CHICO/Harlem/
The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture offers an online exhibition of photographs from the Harlem Renaissance as well as information about key figures and movements of the era. This site also offers suggestions to educators for lesson plans and additional resources about the Harlem Renaissance.
African Burial Ground
http://www.africanburialground.com
The African Burial Ground’s official Web site contains articles and documents that trace the events following the discovery of the burial ground in Manhattan.
The African Burial Ground — Africans in the Americas: Celebrating the Ancestral Heritage
http://www.nypl.org/research/sc/afb/
The General Services Administration and Schomburg Center collaborated to create a site that contains video clips and information about the rites and ceremonies performed during the uncovering and researching of the burial ground, as well as information about the artifacts found there.
Periodicals
Blakey, Michael L. “The New York African Burial Ground Project: An Examination of Enslaved Lives, a Construction of Ancestral Ties.” Transforming Anthropology, 7 (1): 53-58 (1998).
Blakey, director of the New York African Burial Ground Project and scholar from Howard University, writes about the history of the site, the struggle the African American community went through to ensure its preservation, and information about the slaves he has deduced from his research.
Film/Video
Bones of Our Ancestors. PBS, 2001.
In this unique documentary by Orlando Bagwell, teenagers delve into history while they do research for a story about the lives of people who were buried in the African Burial Ground in New York.
From These Roots. William Greaves Productions, 1974.
This film documents the Harlem Renaissance through the social, political, and artistic movements of the period.
I’ll Make Me a World: A Century of African American Arts. PBS, 1999. (See Hour 2: “Without Fear or Shame”)
This film is about African American artists throughout the 20th century. “Without Fear or Shame” focuses on the role of art in social protest during the Harlem Renaissance.
Slavery and the Making of America
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/
This four-part television series focuses on the history of slavery in the United States. The series uses personal narrative and contemporary scholarship to document the central role that African Americans played in the development of the nation.
