House Burning Down Essays - Startup Cult, David Meece,

House Burning Down It was in the middle of winter on a dark smoggy night, chills were running through the house in and out of my room like a quiet ghost silently coming and silently going. As I lie awake in my bed thinking of what the next day should bring, my eye's start to grow heavy as I doze off. In the distance I hear a faint booming sound, soon it starts getting louder and louder and still louder until I could hear nothing but the noise. I was unpleasantly startled and hurried over to my window. As I look out I could see nothing but smoke and fire, catching this by surprised I ran to my little brother's room, finding no one. Then in the distance I could hear faint voices of terror calling my name. It sounded as if it was coming from out side, so I ran as fast as my Nike slippers could carry me down the stairs and outside into my front yard. I find the rest of my family there, along with my neighbors and their son, my best friend. I just stood there in horror with the rest of my family and friends. We had no idea what had happened. The next morning I really don't remember very clearly, but what I did was reading the news paper and coming across an article about a house burning down not to far from mine. I really didn't know what exactly to think at that time until it all clicked upstairs. The noise the night before had been the house burning down and the natural gas line exploding. Later in the article it said that our block of houses wouldn't have any natural gas heating until the line was repaired. The first thing I did was run to the kitchen, finding my Mother and Father there fixing breakfast. I started talking so fast I really don't even know what came out. My Mom told me to calm down and sit at the table. Doing so she gave me a glass of milk, and seeing that I was distressed sat down next to me and asked me what was on my mind. Taking full advantage of her attention I told her as slowly and detailed as possible at the time being. As soon as I had finished my frantic attempt to sler all that out, she didn't laugh at me but just got that look in her eyes where you know that she didn't believe a word of it. The fist thing she said in response was "Where did you hear about this?" I answered her as fast as possible "In the news paper" Stunned at my at my quick answer she told me to bring her the article. So I ran back up the stairs and snatched the paper from my red race car shaped bed. When I got down stairs I laid the article out flat in front of my mom's face. A subtle but shocked look arose on my mother's face, as she sank deeper into her chair. Shutting off the radio, I sat down next to my dad asking him what we were going to do for heat, he just answered "I don't know I just don't know." shaking his head in resistance. Later that day I was over at a friend's house who had heat. We were playing a video game and eating chips in his living room. The walls had many game heads on them, one of the nicer ones was a whole stuffed mountain lion that his dad once had a special tag to hunt. The whole time I was there I was brainstorming on how to get heat in our house. Soon I was in the back seat of our extended cab black GMC pickup. My little brother was on my mom's lap and my dad was just starting to drive onto the onramp. Which is not an easy task on a daily basis, when you live in New York. As soon as we started getting close to the freeway there was a huge traffic jam. I think we must have been there for about and hour and a half. I don't really remember because I was trying to go to sleep. When I woke up we were on the freeway driving about 40 m.p.h. because there were so many cars. But soon we were back in my neighborhood. We stopped at the local McDonald's to get some lunch. Luckily my dad had gotten his pay check

Arna Bontemps, Documenting the Harlem Renaissance

Arna Bontemps, Documenting the Harlem Renaissance In the introduction to the poetry anthology Caroling Dusk, Countee Cullen described the poet Arna Bontemps as being, ...at all times cool, calm, and intensely religious yet never takes advantage of the numerous opportunities offered them for rhymed polemics. Bontemps might have published poetry, childrens literature, and plays during the Harlem Renaissance but he never gained the fame of Claude McKay or Cullen. Yet  Bontemps  work as an educator and librarian allowed the works of the Harlem Renaissance to be revered for generations to come. Early Life and Education Bontemps was born in 1902 in Alexandria, La., to Charlie and Marie Pembrooke Bontemps. When Bontemps was three, his family moved to Los Angeles as part of the Great Migration. Bontemps attended public school in Los Angeles before heading to Pacific Union College. As a student at Pacific Union College, Bontemps majored in English, minored in history and joined the Omega Psi Phi fraternity. The Harlem Renaissance Following Bontemps college graduation, he headed to New York City and accepted a teaching position at a school in Harlem. When Bontemps arrived, the Harlem Renaissance was already in full swing. Bontemps poem The Day Breakers was published in the anthology, The New Negro in 1925. The following year, Bontemps poem, Golgatha is a Mountain won first prize in the Alexander Pushkin contest sponsored by Opportunity. Bontemps wrote the novel, God Sends Sunday in 1931 about an African-American jockey. That same year, Bontemps accepted a teaching position at Oakwood Junior College. The following year, Bontemps was awarded a literary prize for the short story, A Summer Tragedy. He also began publishing childrens books. The first, Popo and Fifina: Children of Haiti, was written with Langston Hughes. In 1934, Bontemps published You Cant Pet a Possum and was fired from Oakwood College for his personal political beliefs and library, which were not aligned with the schools religious beliefs. Yet, Bontemps continued to write and in 1936s Black Thunder: Gabriels Revolt: Virginia 1800, was published. Life After the Harlem Renaissance In 1943, Bontemps returned to school, earning a masters degree in library science from the University of Chicago. Following his graduation, Bontemps worked as the head librarian at Fisk University in Nashville, Tenn. For more than twenty years, Bontemps worked at Fisk University, spearheading the development of various collections on African-American culture. Through these archives, he was able to coordinate the anthology Great Slave Narratives. In addition to working as a librarian, Bontemps continued to write. In 1946, he wrote the play, St. Louis Woman with Cullen.   One of his books, The Story of the Negro was awarded the Jane Addams Childrens Book Award and also received the Newberry Honor Book. Bontemps retired from Fisk University in 1966 and worked for the University of Illinois before serving as curator of the James Weldon Johnson Collection. Death Bontemps died on June 4, 1973, from a heart attack. Selected Works by Arna Bontemps Popo and Fifina, Children of Haiti, by Arna Bontemps and Langston Hughes, 1932You Cant Pet a Possum, 1934Black Thunder: Gabriels Revolt: Virginia 1800, 1936Sad-Faced Boy, 1937Drums at Dusk: A Novel, 1939Golden Slippers: An Anthology of Negro Poetry for Young Readers, 1941The Fast Sooner Hound, 1942They Seek a City, 1945We Have Tomorrow, 1945Slappy Hooper, the Wonderful Sign Painter, 1946The Poetry of the Negro, 1746-1949: an anthology, edited by Langston Hughes and Arna Bontemps, 1949George Washington Carver, 1950Chariot in the Sky: a Story of the Jubilee Singers, 1951Famous Negro Athletes, 1964The Harlem Renaissance Remembered: Essays, Edited, With a Memoir, 1972Young Booker: Booker T. Washingtons Early Days, 1972The Old South: A Summer Tragedy and Other Stories of the Thirties, 1973