STEP 1:

Visit the following links to listen to songs by several of the

aforementioned musicians. As you listen, write what each song makes you think, feel and wonder about in a journal or on a separate piece of paper.

STEP 2:

The Academy of American Poets describes Jazz Poetry in the following way:

Jazz poetry is a literary genre defined as poetry necessarily informed by jazz music—that is, poetry in which the poet responds to and writes about jazz. Jazz poetry, like the music itself, encompasses a variety of forms, rhythms, and sounds.

Read the following 2 poems, "The Weary Blues," by Langston Hughes and American History by Michael S. Harper.

Notice any forms, rhythms and sounds that the poets use. Then think about the content or topics in the two poems. What historical events, and/or social attitudes do you think the poets are responding to?

The Weary Blues

Langston Hughes (1902-1967)

Droning a drowsy syncopated tune,

Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon,

I heard a Negro play.

Down on Lenox Avenue the other night

By the pale dull pallor of an old gas light

He did a lazy sway ...

He did a lazy sway ...

To the tune o' those Weary Blues.

With his ebony hands on each ivory key

He made that poor piano moan with melody.

O Blues!

Swaying to and fro on his rickety stool

He played that sad raggy tune like a musical fool.

Sweet Blues!

Coming from a black man's soul.

O Blues!

In a deep song voice with a melancholy tone

I heard that Negro sing, that old piano moan—

"Ain't got nobody in all this world,

Ain't got nobody but ma self.

I's gwine to quit ma frowninl

And put ma troubles on the shelf."

Thump,thump, thump, went his foot on the floor.

He played a few chords then he sang some more—

"l got the Weary Blues

And I can't be satisfied.

Got the Weary Blues

And can't be satisfied—

I ain't happy no mo'

And I wish that I had died."

And far into the night he crooned that tune.

The stars went out and so did the moon.

The singer stopped playing and went to bed

While the Weary Blues echoed through his head.

He slept like a rock or a man that's dead.

American History

Michael S. Harper (1938-2016)

Those four black girls blown up

in that Alabama church

remind me of five hundred

middle passage blacks,

in a net, under water

in Charleston harbor

so redcoats wouldn't find them

Can't find what you can't see

can you?

STEP 3:

• Consider some of the difficult issues your community, town, state or nation are possibly being confronted with today. (Some examples include the effects of climate change, lack of affordable housing, racism, access to health care, etc.)

• Choose the issue that interests you most and jot down words/images that come to mind when you think about that issue.

• Respond to your issue creatively. This means that you can create a poem, a piece of visual art such as a drawing, or photograph, or collage, or painting, or write a song or one act play about your issue. The sky's the limit. Be sure to share your creative response with rockyourworld@creativevisions.org or submit your work to our international youth gallery.