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Not Southern: Emily Dickenson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Walt Whitman, Melville, Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Steinbeck, Salinger, etc. Southerners don't have a dominance on US literature.
Also, everyone seems to be forgetting the huge American contribution to the world in the creation of musical theatre known as Broadway. So many great American Broadway composers are actually products of NYC Jewish culture. Not Southern at all. US culture is known for Broadway all over the world. No one goes to Atlanta for Broadway, they go to NYC. NYC is a huge culture definer of the US around the world. People like Sinatra, Streisand, Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin, many great American playwrites, producers, directors, etc are from NYC or the Northeast or other areas outside the South.
This thread is another one of these "Oh how wonderful the South is compared to the rest of America blah blah". So tiring. City Data needs a sub forum for just Southerners to echo to each other how much they love the South. Every other thread it seems has some theme about what Southern really is.
I dont agree southerners have a dominance on literature by any means but americas greatest novelist is Faulkner in my opinion . I agree broadway is the center of theater in the US for now but the birth of professional theatre in America was in Williamsburg, Virginia, and the original Charleston dock street stage was the original stage in america.
Some of americas most amazing playwrights came from the south like Tennessee Williams ,August Wilson,the Booth family, Sam Shepard etc
Its not the center of theater or media for sure but The Houston Theater district is just behind nyc for a theater district for size in America , it just doesnt have the media coverage. Very few cities have the arts scenes Houston does, permanent professional resident companies representing opera, symphony , ballet, and theater.
Take a trip to Houston for the amazing theater , museum district, nightlife and great food , or New orleans, Tampa, Miami ,Charleston for spoleto festival, etc., amazing arts scenes and food and music and much better weather than up north
Last edited by floridanative10; 10-02-2016 at 09:33 PM..
This thread is another one of these "Oh how wonderful the South is compared to the rest of America blah blah". So tiring. City Data needs a sub forum for just Southerners to echo to each other how much they love the South. Every other thread it seems has some theme about what Southern really is.
Or maybe you're oblivious to realizing that the South is the most cultural region in the US.
Not Southern: Emily Dickenson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Walt Whitman, Melville, Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Steinbeck, Salinger, etc. Southerners don't have a dominance on US literature.
Also, everyone seems to be forgetting the huge American contribution to the world in the creation of musical theatre known as Broadway. So many great American Broadway composers are actually products of NYC Jewish culture. Not Southern at all. US culture is known for Broadway all over the world. No one goes to Atlanta for Broadway, they go to NYC. NYC is a huge culture definer of the US around the world. People like Sinatra, Streisand, Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin, many great American playwrites, producers, directors, etc are from NYC or the Northeast or other areas outside the South.
This thread is another one of these "Oh how wonderful the South is compared to the rest of America blah blah". So tiring. City Data needs a sub forum for just Southerners to echo to each other how much they love the South. Every other thread it seems has some theme about what Southern really is.
Dude. I don't think anyone is seriously arguing that Southerners are the dominant literary voice in American letters. But if you actually believe that Southerners aren't a hugely influential force throughout American literature then, hey, you just didn't pay attention in high school and college.
Moving on to theater, chiefly since you brought it up: Lillian Hellman, Tennessee Williams, Alfred Uhry, and Horton Foote, et al. We're not talking about Broadway musicals that come and go like the latest fashions. We're talking giants of the craft, writers who will be studied centuries from now. With that criteria, if you had to choose a top five of American playwrights of our era, Lillian Hellman and Tennessee Williams would certainly enter the discussion beside luminaries such as Arthur Miller, Eugene O'Neill, and David Mamet.
NASCAR is a national sport, it is not a southern sport. living in the south isn't about eating grits. it is just a n opition on breakfast menus. many southerners rarely or never eat grits. northerners define any little thing that isn't as common in the north as 'southern' , as though everything is relative to the north. why isn't it 'northern' that they don't have grits and sweet tea on menus.
hey, I was just taking it straight from OP's post. I did not come up with those examples on my own
Black people have defined the culture of the USA, as in most uniquely American art forms came out of Black America; jazz, blues, soul, rock, hip-hop, house and techno.
This is true. The south itself did not define the culture of the US, but black Americans as a whole, and a majority of them have always been southern, have contributed the most to what is known as American "popular culture."
I dont agree southerners have a dominance on literature by any means but americas greatest novelist is Faulkner in my opinion . I agree broadway is the center of theater in the US for now but the birth of professional theatre in America was in Williamsburg, Virginia, and the original Charleston dock street stage was the original stage in america.
Some of americas most amazing playwrights came from the south like Tennessee Williams ,August Wilson,the Booth family, Sam Shepard etc
Its not the center of theater or media for sure but The Houston Theater district is just behind nyc for a theater district for size in America , it just doesnt have the media coverage. Very few cities have the arts scenes Houston does, permanent professional resident companies representing opera, symphony , ballet, and theater.
Take a trip to Houston for the amazing theater , museum district, nightlife and great food , or New orleans, Tampa, Miami ,Charleston for spoleto festival, etc., amazing arts scenes and food and music and much better weather than up north
"African"-American culture as it has evolved today has little to do with African or Caribbean cultures and there's no disrespect about it. We have our own unique look and culture (music, lifestyle, food, dialect) and its spread throughout the world. That's why I prefer being called a Black American, not African-American.
Most White Americans with deep ancestral roots in American aren't referred to today as European-Americans, why should us in the Black community with the same roots have the tag African? I'll answer that, it's to keep us bastardized in this country. Not true Americans but AFRICAN-Americans.
/vent
Standing Ovation. I 1000% agree with everything you said.
I think black people have had more influence on American culture than any other group. Music, dance, sports, food, fashion, slang, black people dominate in nearly all areas. They take it to a whole other level. If it hadn't been for the influence of black music, I kinda doubt if rock and roll ever would've been invented.
White suburban kids from nearly all white suburbs pretty much adopt the black culture and try to make it their own. They look at it as a "cool" and a different way to live their life. White culture thru out America, north, south, east or west is all pretty much the same, but it's blacks that give American culture it's flair and makes things a little more interesting.
My theory is that the South was settled early on by colonists and slaves and then there was little immigration for a long period of time which allowed an isolated culture to develop. The north had so many immigrants that their cuisine is more European in nature (Italian/Irish mainly).
No longer is it European, really. There's a pizza place on every street corner in America nowadays. Pizza wouldn't have attained its global popularity without America -- specifically, Italian-Americans.
The submarine sandwich is another (Northeastern) Italian-American food item that is popular both throughout American and internationally.
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