1. What questions or comments do you have about the readings (please name two from two articles)?
2.What are claims about minstrelsy and US national identity that James Kennard makes in the essay “Who Are Our National Poets?” One common observation of this essay is that Kennard is satirizing audiences of his day who seemed to make the assumption that minstrel performers were actually black. What language in the essay suggests this, and what might explain this assumption from this period?
