Folk Art Dbq

Does High Art or Folk Art Best Express Racial Pride?

Do you think high art and folk art express racial pride? Maybe they do however, you might think they don’t. Between World War I and the Great Depression, Harlem became a problem for African-American artists such as painters, dancers, musicians, playwrights, and poets. High art, folk art, and Harlem Renaissance are a huge part of racial pride. High art for me doesn’t express racial pride. You may ask why? Well I think this because black artists had to create high art proving themselves to be intellectual equal as whites. What this means for me is that they couldn’t just be themselves they had to in some way level up to the whites. Meaning that some African- American artists studied aboard to learn the techniques of European master artists. For instance, “ Heritage”(Doc A) my understanding of this poem is a reminder to some of what Africa is.” What is Africa to me: copper sun or scarlet sun, Jungle star or jungle track.” Having a different understanding is okay this is just how I’m seeing it.
My reason behind this is because folk art celebrated African-American culture and the lives of everyday people. Folk art was a way for writers to not worry about ordinary spelling and grammar, they wrote based on the way real people talked. Such as in (Doc D) “ Homesick Blues “ “ De railroad bridge’s A sad song in de air”. Do you see how the writer used the word “de” instead of the word we usually use “ the “. Another example would be “ Ma heart was in ma mouth”( Doc D ) the writer is once again using a word how we say it “ ma” instead of “ my”. Folk art gives you in some way freedom to write in the spelling and grammar you wish. This way you can give people a better understanding behind the words of the