Black History Month Notes

Rehearse Monday, Wednesday, Friday during 5th and 6th periods
Rehearse after school Monday, Wednesday, Thursday from 3:30 to 5.

Construct a structure
Select the material: Music, dance, poems, speeches
Cast

Time Line:

Open with Martin Luther King or excerpt from the video

Dance Guard

Goldschein

Final Song from HAIRSPRAY

Close with Barack Obama

Students come out on stage with one piece of historical fact:
Another student comes out with song, dance, poem or speech commenting on fact

Frederick Douglass

Harriet Tubman - The Underground RailRoad

Sojourner Truth - Ain't I a Woman?

W.E.B. Dubois

The Harlem Renaissance
Langston Hughes


Malcolm X

Martin Luther King

Barbara Jordan

Maya Angelou "And Still I Rise"

Toni Morrisson

Oprah Winfrey

Barak Obama
Should include  Booker T. Washington - Spelman  and George Washington Carver - peanuts and agriculture

Structure of Presentation:

Music Up

Lights Fade

Video of Martin Luther King’s “I had a dream” 

Segue to the 1830’s with Frederick Douglass

Photo of Douglass

Brief biographical blurb about him

Short one minute speech from an excerpt of Douglass' writings
Transitional music with dance
Segue to Harriet Tubman
Photo of Harriet Tubman
Brief biographical blurb about Tubman
Short quotation from or about Harriet Tubman
Transitional music with dance
Transition to Sojourner Truth
Singer - Go Down, Moses or Sweet Chariot
Photo of Sojourner Truth
Brief biographical blurb about Sojourner Truth
Actor playing Sojourner Truth does "Ain't I a Woman?"
Transitional music with dance
Photo of George Washington Carver
Brief biographical blurb on Carver: importance, significance
Photo of Booker T. Washington
Brief biographical blurb on Washington
Transitional music with dance
Photo of W.E.B. Dubois
Brief biographical blurb on W.E.B. Dubois: importance, significance
Quotations
Transitional music with dance - Duke Ellington
"Harlem Renaissance" - brief information about what it was, significance
Shots of some of the art from the Harlem Renaissance
Photo of Langston Hughes
Brief biographical blurb on Langston Hughes
Poem - Mother to Son (?)
Two actors act it out
The Negro Speaks of Rivers - one person reads it during dance and music
Segue to Duke Ellington
Music and photo: brief biographical info
One person sings Ellington song during dance
Segue to Tuskegee Airmen
Photo and brief biographical blurb on Tuskegee Airmen
Segue to Bebop: Miles Davis, John Coltrane
Photos, brief biographical blurb on importance, significance
Music: "A Love Supreme" - John Coltrane
Kinda Blue - Miles Davis
Segue to Malcolm X
Photo, brief biographical sketch - importance, significance
Actor gives brief speech from Malcolm X
Segue to Martin Luther King
Photo, brief biographical sketch
"I had a dream" video
Transitional music
Brief biographical blurbs on Barbara Jordan, Thurgood Marshall
Segue to Alvin Ailey and Judith Jamison
Photo and brief biographical sketch on Ailey and Jamison: significance
Music/Dance
Music - segue to Maya Angelou
Brief biographical info about Maya Angelou
"And Still I Rise" - someone reads it while another dances to music
Song
Segue to Toni Morrison
Brief biographical info about Toni Morrison
Quotation
Segue to Spike Lee
Brief biographical info about Spike Lee
Film Stills  and maybe film clip
Segue to Neil Degrasse Tyson
Photo of the cosmos - dissolve to photo of Neil Degrasse Tyson
Brief biographical info about Tyson
Brief film clip of Tyson speaking about cosmos
Music segue to film clip of celebration after Obama's win of 2008 election
Dissolve to inauguration and then dissolve to clip to 2013 inauguration
Brief speech to Obama
Final, rousing song

Music segue -