In class the other day, we watched a clip about Phillis Wheatley from "Great African American Authors." Towards the end of that clip, this notion was articulated: Phillis Wheatley founded the American, Black, and Women's poetic traditions simultaneously. And when thinking about what these intersections look like, one can't help but think of writers like Maya Angelou, Gwendolyn Brooks, or Audre Lorde (more on her next week perhaps). Furthermore, one can't help but think of hip-hop and the liberatory fervor and attitude that was part of its inception.
So where am I going with this? What I see is a difference in attitude between early Wheatley (circa 1772) and later Wheatley (To the Right Honorable William, Earl of Dartmouth). The latter poem is contextualized in a specific space (America on the dawn of revolution) -- "No more, America, in mournful strain / Of wrongs, and grievance undress'd complain,..." This sort of move reminds me of Kanye West's lyric in Jesus Walks: "You know what the Midwest is? / Young and Reckless." This contextualizes West's song in Chicago in order to make some sort of plea or statement. And that's just what Wheatlye's doing. She's contextualizing her poem in revolutionary America in order to make a claim that while the revolutionary effort might be a good thing,one ought not forget that Black folks are still enslaved.
I can definitely see how Wheatley and West both use and used their stage and works to contextualize and make a claim, and since, like the "Great African American Authors" video stated, Wheatley founded the three movements: American, Black, and Women's poetic traditions. I think it's very cool and interesting to see something that see started still being used in art today, still in sort of the same manner.
ReplyDeletespellcheck Phillis Wheatley.
ReplyDeleteThank you. Got it.
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