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Transcription: [00:10:54]
{SPEAKER name="Eugene B. Redmond"}
Debt and the black as well as the national and international literary consciousness
[00:11:01]
the real question,
Folks is talking about the money, about the silver and the gold,
[00:11:10]
all the time the seasons changing and the days is getting cold,
[00:11:15]
and they's wondering about the metals whether we'll have one or two, while the price of coal is rising and there's two months rent that's due.
[00:11:24]
Some folks say that gold is the only money that's worth the name, then the others rise and tell them that they ought to be ashamed and that silver is the only thing that save us from the power of the gold buzz raging 'round and seeking who he may devour.
[00:11:42]
Well, you folks can keep on shouting with your gold and silver cries, but I tell you people [[hams?]] is scary and fouls is roosting high.
[00:11:53]
It ain't the sort of money that has pestering my mind
[00:11:57]
But the question I want answered is: how to get at any kind?
[00:12:03]
{SPEAKER name="Eugene B. Redmond"}
Dunbar lived to be to his mid 30 very tragic life unfortunately
[00:12:10]
{SPEAKER name="Eugene B. Redmond"}
but uh one of the major Afro American literary figures one of the major American figure literary figures he wrote in both the literary and the formal standard
[00:12:22]
{SPEAKER name="Eugene B. Redmond"}
excuse me literary English as well as the folk English as well as black dialect
[00:12:28]
{SPEAKER name="Eugene B. Redmond"}
but he wanted to be known for his poetry and literary English because he recognized the trap
[00:12:36]
{SPEAKER name="Eugene B. Redmond"}
that William Dean Howells who was the literary tsar of the united states and the last quarter of the 19th century had placed him in when he praised him purely on the basis of his dialect poetry,
[00:12:48]
{SPEAKER name="Eugene B. Redmond"}
in other words, he said you know this is a black man black man on the right dialect poetry and dialect poetry you know
[00:12:55]
{SPEAKER name="Eugene B. Redmond"}
is either comic or pitiful so this was part of the tragedy of Dunbar's life but Dunbar was so influential so devastating so impactful until literally schools of writing in Afro-America.

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