Pre-reading activities include

Which is the most effective paraphrase of the passage "six benches were left empty in every ship that evening when we pulled away from death. and this new grief we bore with us to sea: our precious lives we had, but not our friends" - the odyssey

According to the author, where can we find the answer to our nation’s “most pressing problem”? does that seem logical?

The harlem renaissance dawned in an era of pervasive racism and segregation. although legally "free," many african americans were still bound by ideas that had their roots in the slavery of earlier centuries. identity and freedom are important ideas presented in many of the poems from the harlem renaissance. furthermore, the values of identity and freedom are not unique to particular times and places. as hughes expresses in "dream variations," all humans want to be able to develop their identities in freedom. what role does freedom play in the poems you read in this unit? what is required of a society to enable each individual to be true to his or her identity and be free to live by that identity? write about at least three of the poems, describing how the poet uses imagery to depict freedom and identity, the lack of it, or the desire for it.