From the September 2016 AARP Bulletin "A Dream Realized" by David Frank.
"I, too, am America." This is a line from Langston Hughes' 1925 poem "I, Too." It is prominently displayed at this new museum, slated to open in October 2016, in Washington, D.C..
This museum has been a hundred years in the making. In 1915, a group of black Civil War veterans attended a reunion in Washington, D.C., and called for the creation of a memorial there to recognize black achievements.
But, it wasn't until 2003 that the museum was established by Congress as part of the Smithsonian Institution and groundbreaking did not take place until 2012.
--Cooter
Showing posts with label poems. Show all posts
Showing posts with label poems. Show all posts
Saturday, March 3, 2018
Monday, January 11, 2016
Ten Things You Might Not Know About December Holidays-- Part 4: Nativity Scene, Mayor Daley on Mistletoe, "The Night Before Christmas"
8. The Christmas tradition of kissing someone under the mistletoe took on a decidedly Chicagp bent in 1975. The first Mayor Richard Daley was fiercely protective of his family.
Responding to criticism that he funneled city business to a company that employed his son, he responded, "There's a mistletoe hanging from my coattail."
9. St. Francis of Assisi is credited with making the nativity scene part of the Christmas tradition. In 1223, he organized a live creche to emphasize Jesus' humble beginnings.
10. We were all told that the poem "The Night before Christmas" was written by Clement Clarke Moore, a Manhattan scholar. But the facts are squishier. For starters, the poem was first published as "A Visit From St. Nicholas."
For another thing, Moore may not have written it. Literary sleuth Donald Foster investigated the poem and concluded that Moore was lying. Foster thinks the author was amateur poet Henry Livingston, Jr. of Poughkeepsie, N.Y..
Foster says the poem bears the style, outlook and cultural references of Livinsgton, not Moore. Moore didn't claim ownership until 1844, nineteen years after the poem's anonymous appearance in a Troy, N.Y., newspaper.
By that time, Livinston was dead. Before coming forward as the author, Moore wrote to that paper and asked whether anyone remembered the poem's author. The answer came back that anyone who might have known was dead or gone. Moore claimed it.
Twas the Night before Christmas and Who Did It? --DaCoot
Responding to criticism that he funneled city business to a company that employed his son, he responded, "There's a mistletoe hanging from my coattail."
9. St. Francis of Assisi is credited with making the nativity scene part of the Christmas tradition. In 1223, he organized a live creche to emphasize Jesus' humble beginnings.
10. We were all told that the poem "The Night before Christmas" was written by Clement Clarke Moore, a Manhattan scholar. But the facts are squishier. For starters, the poem was first published as "A Visit From St. Nicholas."
For another thing, Moore may not have written it. Literary sleuth Donald Foster investigated the poem and concluded that Moore was lying. Foster thinks the author was amateur poet Henry Livingston, Jr. of Poughkeepsie, N.Y..
Foster says the poem bears the style, outlook and cultural references of Livinsgton, not Moore. Moore didn't claim ownership until 1844, nineteen years after the poem's anonymous appearance in a Troy, N.Y., newspaper.
By that time, Livinston was dead. Before coming forward as the author, Moore wrote to that paper and asked whether anyone remembered the poem's author. The answer came back that anyone who might have known was dead or gone. Moore claimed it.
Twas the Night before Christmas and Who Did It? --DaCoot
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