Category: brother ali

Brother Ali and P.O.S. and the American Dream

The past couple of posts have touched on the American Dream, and after talking about Lecrae’s “Welcome to America,” I want to take the opportunity to share a couple of more songs with you that may be beneficial when discussing the topic with students in the classroom. The first song is Brother Ali’s “Only Life I Know.” In the video above, Ali breaks down … Read More Brother Ali and P.O.S. and the American Dream

Arna Bontemps’s "Drums at Dusk" and the Middle Passage

Over the past few months, I’ve been reading the works of Arna Bontemps. Just recently, I finished Drums at Dusk, Bontemps’s 1939 novel about the Haitian Revolution. Rather than focusing entirely on Toussaint and the slave rebellion as he did with Gabriel Proser in Black Thunder, the novel centers on white Creoles and their response to the opening moments of the revolution. Some of the … Read More Arna Bontemps’s "Drums at Dusk" and the Middle Passage