Courses: Session I

AFR 229 - Rap Music and the African American Poetical Tradition

Selwyn Cudjoe, Professor of Africana Studies and Sociology
This course examines the African American poetical tradition from its roots in African oral literature to its contemporaneous manifestation in rapping, a showcase for African American braggadocio, and the art of verbal dexterity and storytelling. The connection of this literary tradition with American cultural values will also be explored. The course will examine the works of Phyllis Wheatley, Langston Hughes, James Weldon Johnson, Melvin Tolson, Gwendolyn Brooks, Robert Hayden, Derek Walcott, Gill Scott-Heron, the Last Poets, NIkki Giovanni, Public Enemy, Run-D.M.C., Tupac, and other artists.

Credit 1.0
Course Fee $2000

Lectures: M,W,TH 1:20 - 4:00

Location: Green Hall 330

Selwyn R. Cudjoe is a Professor of Africana Studies at Wellesley College where he teaches courses on the African-American Literary Tradition, African Literature, Black Women Writers, and Caribbean literature. His most recent course is entitled "Caribbean Intellectual Thought." He is also a visiting scholar at the Afro-American Studies Department at Harvard University.

A graduate of Fordham University where he received both a B.A. in English (1969) and an M.A. in American Literature (1972), Professor Cudjoe earned a Ph.D. in American Literature from Cornell University (1976). Prior to joining the Wellesley faculty in 1986, he taught at Ithaca College, Cornell, Harvard, Brandeis, Fordham, and Ohio universities. He has been a lecturer at Auburn (N.Y.) State Prison and taught at Bedford-Stuyvesant (N.Y.) Youth-In-Action.

A producer and host of television programs for Trinidad and Tobago Television, he wrote the documentary, Tacarigua: A Village in Trinidad, produced by Cornell University. He recently completed a second documentary that focused on women writers of the Caribbean. It premiered at Wellesley College in April 1994





Courses

Registration & Admission

Applications

Tuition, Fees & Financial Aid

General Information

Local Links

Calendar

Home

Katherine Rooks
Date Created: January 15, 2003
Last Modified: April 8, 2008
Page Expires: December 31, 2006