Voice of Houstons Past :: essays papers

Voice of Houstons PastFor most of American history, African-Americans aim been considered and inured as inferiors. Their folksongs and tales have been benignly lookedupon as harmless, meaningless expressions of a dull-witted stimulate whose onlycontri yetion to American life was a strong congest and a weak mind. Evenafter the Civil War, the ingrown prejudices go along to relegate thefreed homosexualpower to the bottom rung of a strict caste ladder. Their folklore wasrepeatedly ignored or belittled. Only since the coming of vitriolic awareness,pioneered by men like W. Dubois and Frederick Douglas, has the AfricanAmerican community realized that their culture is uniquely American andsingularly important to the showing and establishment of theAmerican ethnical and artistic scene. It is one of the few elements oftheir heritage that they can look masking on and recognize as valuable inAmericas development. This is the essence of the black folksongs,stories, and art they fill a vo id and force recognition of the AfricanAmerican contribution. These superstitions and folklore from the pastdemonstrate the influences wielded upon African Americans of today, aswell as pave the way for a new melodic line of folklore, which is told throughart.In order to effectively illustrate the progression and correlation ofearly African American folklore and the emergence of a new breed ofartist, a peculiar(prenominal) group of artist all utilizing the same type of art formwill be discussed. Therefore, the focus of this paper will be on recentAfrican American artist in Houston, Texas all of whom utiliseplace-specific art to convey their images and messages. Before discussingthe current art movement, it is vital to understand the history of thesuperstitions and folklore which are the inspiration for Houstonsplace-specific art.A Brief History of African American Superstition and Folklore Since theirarrival on American soil, African Americans have contributed to ourcollective cu lture. Their songs, poems, stories, spirituals, and proverbs,while at times reinforcing the white theory of supremacy, gave them afoundation of identity that was passed from generation to generation. Theghost stories and superstitions are probably the high hat known examples ofearly black culture. This is because white men used them as a means toprove the blacks innate inferiority to whites. They ignored the limpidfact all cultures posses similar superstitions, even their own.The problem in lay in and evaluating black folklore is themisinterpretation and lack of understanding of early black dialects. Wemoldiness read the transcriptions with some care and occasionally wonder whatthe white man did when they were confronted by sounds strange to theirears some tried to transcribe the actual sound, but others, assuming