Gwendolyn Brooks and Claude McKay Spun Gold From Fibers of Words
A period of “outstanding literary vigour and creativity,” (1, 911) which took place in the 1920’s wasreferred to as “the Harlem Renaissance” or better known as the Second Renaissance, according to C.W.E. Bigsby. (1) The writers of this time explored the sophisticated Negro culture full of people protesting confidently with a deep-seated sense of racial pride fueling their motivation to survive. Literary artists such as Gwendolyn Brooks and Claude McKay spun gold from fibers of words using sincerity and passion to make the messages they penned, glimmer appealingly. These two creative expressionists were recognized for their diverting from any ‘stereotypical norms’ or ‘dainty’ American literature that might have sugar-coated some brutal truths.
Theirs were works of written expertise much less conventional than the material currently made available to interested readers. It seemed more important to be outspoken and help re-define the nature of the black Americans debate with himself and the culture he has been thrown into”, states Richard Wright the first black writer to place his roots in the Second Renaissance. The imagination unfolding within the mind of two literary genius’s is one to behold and the sense of realism about the movement was made so clear that it put Harlem ghetto on the map making the center of New York City very culturally challenged.
Both writers were surrounded by racism while growing up and shed light on their experiences with grim details. Yet, as a city with diversity comes series of events that pit same race-against same-race over and above simple unnecessary acts of prejudism and hate. In the 1920’s the competition in Harlem was to stay alive in an economy that served little purpose and offered even less hope. The Depression hit hard and everyone knew hardship, but mostly their own ‘white-plight’ until the fantastic writings of Brooks and McKay. Plight no longer had color to it.
Harlem is a district of New York City which populates most of the northern Manhattan Island. Its neighborhoods have no ‘fixed boundaries’; however, there are several ‘territorial lines’ that are drawn with the intent to keep unwelcome crossovers out and protecting the territory when that contract is breached in some way. Yet, each neighbor understood the importance of survival and in an unknowing way, nourished unity. Even though Harlem stretches for miles to the east, west, south and north, the fact that it houses many different socio-economic personalities that cluster under the same influence: survival, is well-documented in these writings. What emerged out of the 1920’s bridges a gap and sends a message that past emotional influx and truth-telling can pave the way for future generations to come together and stomp out oppression, racism, hatred and inequality.
“Negro literature, coming of age during the last days of the Depression and the beginning of WWI, impressed hundreds of European whites who [then] lived under the cruel domination practises of Hitler’s regime.(1,4) For the first time the voice of the Negroes struck a chord deep within the hearts of men [and women] living with pain and terror. Literary leaders, such as Brooks and McKay, emerged from this Harlem ghetto sharing their experiences and providing mutual support for other writers who sensed pain was real no matter what color you were.
Gwendolyn Brooks was the first black American writer awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1950 for her second book of poetry, “Annie Allen”. (3) Her poems read like a sensitive journey through urban life with a ‘universal’ undertone that are void of hidden statements. These words encouraged rebellions to forge through with courage. Her material explained her truth about suffrage from a womans perspective; but it was not solely focused on the plight of being just an ordinary black person. Her poems appealed to all who felt persecuted and in a very emotionally-touching approach she stimulates a person’s emotional insight and plights become a unified concern.
I feel her poetry is vital to young black women growing up all over the world as it gives them power in realizing others’ pains and that knowing, finding another way to cope is almost as good as relieving the despair permanently. It offers avenues filled with pride and courage so these women can stand up for themselves against all of the variables working against the mother of all creation: the woman. “Brooks writes intense, rhythmic verse that contains the metaphysical complexities of John Donne and the word magic or Appollinaire, Eliot, and Pound” (2) states Houston A. Baker, poet and critic of 1972.
Her poems are about daily adversities in which she dispenses intimate intuition about cause, effect and reaction. The family unit did not need material wealth to thrive under the relentless pursuit of squashing happiness, it was found in the wealth of communication and love of that communication as sincere and heartfelt. Her only novel, Maud Martha written in 1953 was penned upon her experiences as a maid in 1937. The book focused on the main character who struggled with keeping dignity amongst discrimination, a precious thing. Her work appealed to both white and black who saw past their own plight and began to feel for another.
Ms. Brooks had goals to reach, primarily to have her words be absorbed by as many black folks and white folks alike who could learn and teach one another a few things about survival and the need to nourish unity through diversity. As she revaled in a 1974 interview, she wants, “…to develop a style that will appeal to black people in taverns, gutters, schools, offices, factories, prisons, and even the consulate. ” ” I wish to reach folks in pulpits, mines, farms, on thrones.” (2) Since 1985-86, Brooks has continued to travel and read her works throughout the United States. She still carries the awarded title, “poet for many people and many generations as her stature will surely continue to grow”, stated George Kent, a child-hood friend who honored their friendship immensely. Ms. Brooks left this earthly realm quietly in her home Sunday December 3rd, 2000 from cancer. She will always be read. (3)
The second renaissance had yet another predominant black writer who not only talked of artistic and intellectual achievements among blacks, but also revolutionized the black-American train of thought. Claude McKay wrote about the philosophical and ambitious efforts of the blacks who coped with the ‘evils of the western world.’ He, too, embraced emotion with strength of character that placed all of his actions behind his words, 100 %. A popular poem, If We Must Die was once used as a weapon of rage in defying and rebelling stirring a rebellion of individuals proclaiming the spirit and courage of the oppressed black individual was unbreakable; now it is just a poem of the past with a powerful message holding promise for the future. McKay was a Jamaican peasant who carried a sense of racial pride with him like an overcoat. This socialized view was a gift from his father who may have been part of the African enslavement, never had much good to say of it. The stories Claude heard developed an early distrust for whitefolk.
Unlike Brooks who measured pain and suffering by emotional and economic standards held against you because of the color of your skin, McKay felt pain and suffering were endured solely because of the difference in the color of his skin and seemingly glorified using anger to dissolve the harsh reality of inequality and oppression. His fearless exposure to open racism allowed him to identify better with his oppressors, they were as deluded as he was about moving forward in an economy that truthfully wanted no-one poor or unemployed, just rich and greedy. He acknowledged strongly the plight of black Americans, who according to McKays eyes, lived under predominantly white-control.
Being rather disgusted with the elite society of Kingston, Jamaica; McKay decided to move to the United States permanently to study agriculture. He established political affiliations with radical thinkers in Greenwich Village and through the aid of two prominent men of letters, Frank Harris and Max Eastman, the poem If We Must Die (4) was published. This poem describes power and the grimness of the Chicago race riots; although it hit home right in Harlem when brother-against brother fought to the death for equality and authority. With the troubles of racial prejudice already mounting, he received very negative initial feedback to these opinions.
Nevertheless, he focused on ordinary people who went about their business as they should have been, according to the signs of the times. It is evident that Claude Mckay was an observer of natural behavior when oppression is faced head-on. He wrote on what he saw, the many violent riots resulting in many needless deaths, bouts of rage causing unnecessary dissention among the ranks of survivors who fought without tooth and nail but rather by reading those, like him, who used weapons of pen and paper to elicit awareness through representing destruction of the worst kind.
He seized a very strong belief in esthetic values and put them in familiar words people of all class-status could comprehend and protect; however it took a long time for his works to be recognized as any real social achievement because it used the violence angle as a prosperous one. Nowadays it might be beneficial for young readers of all races to absorb this view of life McKay tried to teach us, in order to understand change is possible without violence. Claude McKay, or sometimes known as Eli Edwards a pseudonym for earlier poems, died in 1948 in Chicago but was buried and honored by thousands in a ceremony held in Harlem, New York City.
I feel both literary artists, Brooks and McKay, tried to depict the urban lives of blacks without blinders or leading readers astray. However, it is evident that McKay used more angry modernistic representations to awaken the thought of the average black [and white] American. The Harlem Renaissance if depicted on a canvas, would have been painted by the gentle hand of Brooks. Hers was always reaching out to console the many McKays out their who will stomp out oppression, replace segragation with integration and be served an equal opportunity to know the larger picture. Their combined effort to awake the ignorant mind of either race sends a message from the past that will help unify the future. Read and listen my friends . . .
EIH, originally composed 4-17-96edited for Academic print submission 11/7/05
References
(1)Bigsby, C.W.E. Black Literature Criticism. Vol 2. Westport, Connecticut. London, England: Greenwood Press 1989.
(2) “Harlem Renaissance.” Encyclopaedia Britanica: Micropaedia.
(3) researched from http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2000/12/04/obituary0944EST0496.DTL (4) researched from http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/m_r/mckay/mustdie.htm
