From Harlem to Cleveland…Connecting Art and Literature
Authors:
Jennifer Lewis
Bill Rabel
Lakewood High School
Course:
English 10 – 20th Century American Literature
Grade Level: 10th grade English
Standards Met: Writing Conventions - D 4 b, D 4 c, D 4 d, D 4 e
Research - E 7, C 4, B 2
Communication: Oral and Visual - E 8, G 9
Reading Applications
Literary Text
Art Material Referenced: website—www.clevelandartandhistory.org
Goals: To understand poetry of the Harlem Renaissance
To look at and gain an appreciation for Cleveland works of Art
To connect themes in poetry and art
To create a visual display of end product
Objectives: To connect three separate poems to three different works of art by Cleveland African-Americans.
To analyze themes of poetry and art
To write a comparative paragraph on each poem and piece of art connection.
To create a gallery to display these connections.
Activities
From Harlem to Cleveland…Connecting Art and Literature
You have now become experts on many of the prolific voices of the Harlem Renaissance. Because of your amazing understanding of this era and its poetry, a small Cleveland art gallery has commissioned you to connect the Harlem Renaissance with Cleveland area African-American artists.
The art gallery has a major collection of Cleveland African-American artists and the curator of the gallery wants to connect literature and art. She feels that the themes that are present in much of the poetry of the Harlem Renaissance reflect many of the same themes evident in these selected works on display in her gallery.
The gallery’s curator wants you to research Cleveland African-American artists and select three works of art to connect to three of the many poems of the Harlem Renaissance that you have studied. To do this, you must find common themes in the art and poetry.
To receive your full commission, you must connect three poems to three separate works of art. You then must write a brief paragraph (3-4 sentences) that tells how you connected each poem to each work of art. After you have done this, you will be asked to create an artistic display of the three components, worthy of space on the gallery wall. Finally, the pieces will be open to the public, and the curator will award you for your job.
References:
Harlem Renaissance:
Poems discussed in class from the Elements of Literature book
www.nku.edu/~diesmanj/poetryindex.html
www.poets.org/exh/Exhibit.cfm?prmID=7
Poems handed out by instructor
Cleveland Art:
www.clevelandartandhistory.org
Transformations in Cleveland Art 1796 – 1946
Various Art works in Cleveland area
CD of Cleveland Artists
Tags: authors, jennifer, harlem, cleveland…connecting, literature