Ramona La Roche

Unit: Harlem Renaissance

Arts Integration
Grade 4

Literature in PreK-12 School

ICL 7154
April 12, 2009
 Integrated Curricula Concepts
• Language Arts: narrative, story elements, main
idea/details, poetry
• Social Studies: relationships, roles in society,
cultural context within history
• Visual Arts: shape, color, space, rhythm,
repetition, visualization of sound, art history,
• Music: auditory relationship to creativity in
performing and visual arts; specifically Jazz.
 South Carolina Art Standards
• IV. Understanding the visual arts in relation to history and cultures
• Students will compare and contrast a variety of art objects, artists, and
resources specific to South Carolina.
• VI. Making connections between visual arts and other disciplines
• Students will compare and contrast the characteristics of works in two or
more art forms that share similar subject matter, historical periods, or
cultural context

•
 Unit: Harlem Renaissance
Questions Lesson Plan(s)
Assess student’s prior knowledge
by using a KWL (Know, Want Standards 4(a), 5(a) will be addressed
to Know, Learned) Chart. by creating Collage in the style of
Romare Bearden.
Further or later consideration Related Topics.
• Quilt making
• Jazz
• Who were key figures of this
period in in American history?
• 5th graders will learn correlation of
• What was the reason for this
art, history, and music by viewing
Renaissance? materials and concepts related to
• How did this era influence quilts; creating collages while
Bearden’s works? listening , and exploring jazz..
 Romare Bearden
• Born Charlotte, NC on
September 2, 1911
• Died March 12, 1988

• Graduated DeWitt Clinton

High School
Bronx, NY
• Played professional baseball •
Collagist
in Negro League
• Political Cartoonist
• Writer
 Romare Bearden
Lesson Plan Era: Harlem Renaissance
Standards 4(a), 5(a) will be addressed
by creating Collage in the style of
Romare Bearden. Questions to consider.
Related Topics.
• Quilt making
• Who were key figures of this
• Jazz period that influenced
Bearden’s works?
• 5th graders will learn correlation of • What was the reason for this
art, history, and music by viewing
materials and concepts related to Renaissance?
quilts; creating collages while
listening , and exploring jazz..
The Conversation
This picture by Romare Bearden is a
story-telling or narrative artwork.
The Conversation
•Narrative
A settingworks oftenwhere
that shows have
and when the story happened.

• Characters who may be

people or animals.

• Events or actions that tell

what is happening.
What details do you notice in the image?

• What objects do you

recognize?
• What things do you not
recognize?
• Is this artwork reality or
fantasy?
• Why do you think that?
 Related Historical Periods which
influenced Bearden’s work.
UNDERGROUND RAILROAD
• Coded collages compared to historical quilt making

HARLEM RENAISSANCE peers

• Langston Hughes
• W. E. B. DuBois
• Duke Ellington – one of Bearden’s 1st patrons

MIGRATION - African Americans south to north.

 Underground Railroad
• Bearden’s collages are often compared to the
expressive artistry of African American quilt
making.
• During slavery, quilts served as communication
devices to pass coded information to enslaved
persons on the run from slavery along the
Underground Railroad.
 Show Way by Jacqueline Woodson
• “Show Way provides readers with a rich historical and cultural framework of the significance of the quilting
folk art tradition. Woodson’s use of poetic narrative depicts a seven year old African American girl who is
separated from her parents and sold into slavery. She is left with memories and a piece of muslin cloth fabric
that her mother gives her to hold on to. She finds herself on a living on a plantation in South Carolina.
Despite the loss of parents, she is connected and supported through the archetypal Big Mama. This elder
woman is the plantation children’s caretaker by day and their Freedom Storyteller by night. She is the teacher,
passing on the traditional quilt making folk art. She shows the children and women how to sew secret
messages and directions into quilt patterns for those escapees seeking freedom. These quilts become a way to
communicate to the captured. They are a significant metaphor for both physical and expressive freedom” (La
Roche, 2009, p. 3-4).
• “The book covers years of African American history, from being sold during slavery and growing up on the
plantation, to freedom marches during the Civil Rights era, up until today. Years after emancipation, many
generations of women in this family, as well as in many others, stay connected through this art form. The
needle and thread become a means of support and a creative outlet for these women” (La Roche, 2009, p. 3-4).
• Author Woodson later shares with the reader that this book is actually about her own family lineage. “Her
words became books that told the stories of many people’s Show Ways.” (Publishers Weekly Review,
September 2007)
• “The cut out book jacket design, and Talbott’s mixed media collage art work make this an exquisite piece in
itself. The media include chalk, watercolors and muslin. The illustrator’s use of big triangles, squares, and
curve emphasize portraits, landscapes, and shows connections and courage. The tactile experience serves at
yet another way to explore our senses as we take this work into our very being” (LaRoche, 2009, p. 3-4).
 HARLEM RENAISSANCE
• Negro expression of American experiences
through literature, music, visual, and
performing arts during the 1920s.

Bearden was highly influenced by this era, his

southern background, as well as his own
experiences as an African American man. He
was a lover of Jazz, as is often indicated by the
subject matter in many of his works.
 Harlem Renaissance Literature
• Claude McKay, Countee Cullen, James Weldon
Johnson, Jean Toomer, Jessie Faucet, Rudolph
Fisher, Carter Woodson, Zora Neal Hurston
• More books published by Negro authors during
the 20s than in any other decade of American
history. (Dennis, p. 134)
 Langston Hughes
• Born February 1, 1902 in Joplin, Missouri.
• Died May 22, 1967.
• “Chose life experience over academic
education” (Dennis, p. 138).
• 1st book of poems – The Weary Blues
• Also wrote novels, children’s stories, lyrics for
musicals, plays, short stories, newspaper
columns, and anthologies.
 Langston’s Poems
• Mother to Son • Harlem (Dream Deferred)
• Juke Box Love Song • Hold Fast to Dreams
• Motto • Song for a Dark Girl
• Life is Fine • Afro-American Fragment
• Theme for English 3 • Dream Variations
• Harlem Night Club • Song for Billie Holiday
• The Negro Speaks of Rivers • One Way Ticket
• Justice • Ballad of the Gypsy
• Still Here • Be Bop Boys
• Cross • Quiet Girl
• Flatted Fifths • Epilogue
 Zora Neal Hurston
Author, Anthropologist, Folklorist,
Ethnologist, Playwright

• Elements of storytelling as passed on

through the elders, stories and songs.

• Zora documented from the Everglades of Florida,

to the drums of Haiti. The Drum is the heart,
the center, the root of the rhythm of life.

Jamari’s Drum (Bynum, Jackson

& Diakite, 2004) provides readers with a
wonderful story which highlights the
importance of retaining culture as means to
maintain order and balance within a society.
 Speak, So You Can Speak Again: The
Life of Zora Neal Hurston
• An extraordinarily wonderful compilation of
Hurston’s work. The book features
memorabilia and writing in Zora’s hand. A CD
of her interview and songs, and unpublished
poetry accompanies the book.

• The book was compiled by Zora’s niece,

Lucy Anne Hurston.
 MUSIC
Composers, Writers and Arrangers
• W.C. Handy
• “Jelly Roll” Morton
• J. Rosamond Johnson
• James Weldon Johnson – “Lift Every Voice
and Sing” Negro National Anthem. Rosamond
and James were brothers. The latter was
Florida’s 1st Black attorney.
Musical Productions

• Josephine Baker
debuts in Eubie
Blake and Noble
Sissle’s
Chocolate
Dandies (1923)
“Duke” Ellington
• Edward Kennedy Ellington,
April 29,1899 – May 24, 1974.

• Composed thousands of
compositions, played Swing
music, jazz form; including
ballet and film scores,
orchestral suites, musicals,
and chorale works.
 Music & Art Style
Juxtapositions
• Improvisation
• Does art have a voice like sound?
– “Duke told his band to play whatever came to
mind- to improvise their solos. To make the music
fly! Each instrument raised its own voice. One by
one, each cat …….. With his own special
way…….”
(Pinkney, 1998, p. 14)
“…on his sleek brass sax, curling his notes like a
kite tail in the wind”. (Pinkney, 1998, p. 18)
 Musical Styles & Concepts
• Ragtime
• Improvisation
• Swing
• Blues
• Folk Music
• Marches
 Vocalists
Bessie Smith – The Blues

Ethel Waters

Take The A Train

recorded with Duke Ellington

Billie Holiday

Strange Fruit, Gloomy Sunday

Jammin’ at the Savoy
 Performing Arts
• Katharine Dunham – Dancer, anthropologist,
ethnologist, and choreographer. “The Dunham
Technique” combined ballet, modern and Afro-
Cuban style.
• Florence Mills stars in Dixie to Broadway
(1924) and Blackbirds (1926).
• Paul Robeson appears in The Emperor Jones
by Eugene o’Neill’s (1921)
 THE GREAT MIGRATION
• “Around the time when I was born, many African
Americans from the south left home, and travelled to
cities in the North in search for a better life. My family
was a part of this great migration. In the South, there
was little opportunity for education, and children
labored in the fields. These were more reasons for
people to move north, leaving some communities
deserted.”

• JACOB LAWRENCE, ARTIST

 Related Arts Jobs
• Illustrator, Graphic Artist
• Author: Writer, Poet, Novelist, Author,
Lyricist, Playwright, Columnist,
• Musician, Composer
• Songwriter – Billy Strayhorn – Take the “A”
Train (1941), hired by Duke Ellington 1939.
• Singer, Songstress
 Famous Quotes
• "Well, it [artistic method] is like jazz; you do
this and then you improvise."
~ Romare Bearden
 Bibliography
• Bynum, Eboni, Jackson, Roland & Diakite, Baba
Wague. 2004. Toronto: Groundwood Books
• Dennis, Denise. 1984. Black History for Beginners.
NY: Writers and Readers Publishing.
• Duggleby, John. 1998. Story Painter: The Life of
Lawrence Jacob. NY: Chronicle Books.
• Flourney, Valery and Pickney, Jerry. 1985. The
Patchwork Quilt. NY: Dial Books for Young Readers
• Gourse, Leslie & French, Martin. 2007. Sophisticated
Ladies: The Great Women of Jazz. NY: Dutton’s
Children’s Books.
• Greenberg, Jan. 2003. Romare Bearden:
Collage of Memories. Harry Abrams
• Hopkinson, Deborah. 1993. Sweet Clara and
the Freedom Quilt. NY: Alfred A. Knopf.
• Hughes, Langston. 1997. First Book of Jazz.
NY: Echo.
• Hurston, Lucy Anne and the estate of Zora
Neal Hurston. 2004. NY: Doubleday.
• Igus, Toyomi, Freeman Ellis, Veronica, Patrick,
Diane, & Wilson Wesley, Valerie. 1991. Book of
Black Heroes Volume II: Great Women in the
Struggle. NJ: Just Us Books, Inc.
• La Roche, Ramona. 2009. Jacqueline Woodson:
Children’s Author Research Paper, p. 3-4.
• Lawrence, Jacob. 1995. The Great Migration: An
American Story. NY: Harper Collins.
• Lee-Harris, Stephanie. A2006. Teaching Early
Childhood African American Studies Through Fine
Arts. Retrieved April 8, 2009 from
http://www.educationfund.org/uploads/docs/Publicatio
ns/Curriculum_Ideas_Packets/Teaching_African-Ame
rican_Studies_with_Fine_Arts.pdf
• Lyman, Darryl. 1999. Great African American
Women. NY: Random House.
• Onyefulu, Ifeoma. 2000. A Triangle for
Adaora: An African Book of Shapes. NY:
Dutton Children’s Books.
• Perdomo, Willie, Collier, Bryan. 2002. Visiting
Langston. NY: Henry Holt and Company.
• Pinkney, Andrea Davis and Brian, 1999. Duke
Ellington, NY: Scholastic, NY
• Ringgold, Faith. 1996. Tar Beach. NY: Random
House
• Smith, Ernie. Portrait of The Swing Era, a preface to
Miller, Norma (2001). The Memoir of a Jazz
Dancer. Retrieved April 9, 2009 from
http://www.temple.edu/tempress/chapters_1100/121
4_ch1.pdf

• Woodson, Jacqueline. 2005. Show way. New York:

G. P. Putnam's Sons.
• Watson, Steven. 1995. The Harlem Renaissance:
Hub of African-American Culture, 1920-1930. NY:
Pantheon Books.
 Bearden Electronic Resources
• Romare Bearden lesson plans. Retrieved April 5,
2009 from
http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/lessons/mid
dle/bearden.htm#Know

• National Gallery of Art. The Art of Roman Bearden:

A Resource for Teachers. Retrieved April 5, 2009
from

http://www.nga.gov/education/classroom/pdf/bearde
n-tchpk.p
df
• Ulaby, Neda. (2003) National Public Radio: All
Things Considered. Retrieved April 5, 2009 from
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyI
 Websites
• Jazz Books for Kids: An Annotated Bibliography by
Craig S. O’Connell. Retrieved April 5, 2009 from
http://homepage.mac.com/crocon/jazz/Jazz_Books_f
or_Kids.html
• Curriculum of Jazz exposure for primary grades.
Retrieved April 6, 2009 from
http://www.firstgradejazz.com/
• Explore Jazz history through one photograph.
Retrieved April 5, 2009 from
http://www.harlem.org/
• Jazz Books for Children. Retrieved April 6,
2009 from
http://www.smithsonianjazz.org/bibliography/ja
zz_books_k_6.pdf

• Musical Harlem Lesson Plan. Retrieved April

6, 2009 from
http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/content/2258
/

• Faith Ringgold, Tar Beach Lesson Plan.

Retrieved April 6, 2009 from
http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/lessons
 Filmography
• Jacob Lawrence: An Intimate Portrait [VHS]
(1993)
• Moore, Carol. The Art of Romare Bearden DVD
(2003)
• Art of Romare Bearden. 2004. Retrieved from

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=romare+b
earden&www_google_domain=www.google.com
&hl=en&emb=1&aq=0&oq=romare
+#
Interviewer: Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel.
1980. Part of the Diamonstein-Spielvogel Video
Archive in the Duke University Libraries:
http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollec... interviews
Romare Bearden. Retrieved April 9, 2009 from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zcp1pW8I_tI

“Duke” Ellington. 1931. It Don’t Mean A Thing.

Retrieved April 9, 2009 from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDQpZT3GhDg