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VSJ100 Paper Topics

What was it Like to Have Attended the Harlem Cultural Festival?

This assignment requires a HULU account.

More than 300,000 people attended six free concerts in Harlem in the Summer of 1969 as part of the Harlem Cultural Festival.

HULU released a documentary titled  Summer of Soul (...or When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) 

Imagine that you had just moved to New York City in 1969 and attended the concerts.  Write a letter to someone back home describing the experience.

 

Tips

  • Immerse yourself in the film. 
  • Stay in the era, but you can use the World Wide Web to look up factual information--for example, if you wanted to learn more about a performer.
  • Since the subtitle of the documentary refers to the revolutionary nature of the festival, you might want to capture what that means. 
  • Be careful not to over-assert, however. Try to stay true to what a letter written by you in 1969 would look like.