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Music Recordings

September 8, 2006

Lesson Plan: Laviera’s Bilingual “AmeRíca”

September 08th 2006 Posted to Teaching Immigration Issues, Lesson Plans, English 104A, Latino / Latina American, Literature, Film, Music Recordings

Assigned Reading:
“AmerRícan” by Tato Laviera

american.jpgDiscussion Questions:
1.La Bomba and La Plena: The influence of music on Laviera’s poetry.
In “AmeRícan” Laviera makes several references to traditional Puerto Rican music. He mentions the composer Pedro Flores (13), “sweet soft spanish danzas gypsies” (15), “beating jíbaro” (18) and “walking plena-rhythms in new york” (32).

Watch the film clip of Los Pleneros de los 21 playing “Testigo” at the Smithsband_photo_2005.jpgonian Folk Folklife Festival, 2005. Also watch Los Pleneros’ demonstration of how the drums are played in Plena music. Los Pleneros de los 21 are a New York-based music group that plays Bomba and Plena, two African-based music styles that have flourished among the black communities of Puerto Rico proper and American Puerto Rican neighborhoods. Bomba and Plena are the result of the blending of various influences, including West African music, European music and Native Taino music. (Read the article)

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September 1, 2006

Lesson Plan: “The Weary Blues”: Langston Hughes and Bessie Smith

September 01st 2006 Posted to Lesson Plans, English 104A, African American, Literature, Music Recordings

“The Weary Blues” by Langston Hughes
weary-blues.jpgLangston Hughes was one of the first of the Harlem Renaissance poets to incorporate jazz, spirituals and the blues into his writing. In the 1920’s Hughes steeped himself in the jazz culture of Harlem and began to weave the rhythm and feeling of Harlem jazz into his poetry. Perhaps the most obvious example of Hughes’ experimentation with new musical forms appears Hughes’ poem “The Weary Blues,” published first in 1923 in New York’s Amsterdam News and two years later in Hughes’ first collection The Weary Blues. (Read the article)

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August 28, 2005

Defining Race and Pedagogy

August 28th 2005 Posted to Teaching Immigration Issues, UCSB Courses, Lesson Plans, Syllabi, English 104A, Writing 2, English 197, English 10AC, English 165HR, English 50, English 103A, External Resources for Teachers, Specific U.S. Racial Groups, African American, Asian American, Latino / Latina American, Native American, Type of Resource, Literature, Film, Photographs, Visual Art / Posters, Music Recordings, Maps, Recordings of Speeches, Legal Documents, Panels and Lectures, Biography, Other

Although these terms are often used as though they signified clear and well-bounded meanings, both words have complex histories and implications that are frequently only discernable once one considers the contexts in which they are used. For the purposes of this site, we offer the following definitions: (Read the article)

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