HARLEM RENAISSANCE
Throughout the history of African Americans, there have been important historical figures as well as times. Revered and inspirational leaders and eras like, Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement, Nat Turner and the slave revolt, or Huey Newton and the Black Panther Party. One such period that will always remain a significant part of black art and culture is the Harlem Renaissance. It changed the meaning of art and poetry, as it was known then. Furthermore, the Harlem Renaissance forever left a mark on the evolution of the black culture.
The Harlem Renaissance found its birth in the early 1920’s, in Harlem, New York. The period has been thought of as one of African Americans greatest times in writing. After War World I in 1918, African Americans were faced with one of the lowest points in history since the end of slavery. Poverty increased greatly in the South, as did the number of lynchings. The fear of race riots in the South caused large number of African Americans to move North between 1919 and 1926, to cities such as Chicago and Washington D.C.
The idea that an educated black person should lead blacks to liberation was first founded from the works of W.E.B. DuBois. He also believed that blacks could not gain social equality by imitating the ideas of white people. Equality would have to be achieved by teaching black racial pride with an emphasis on black cultural heritage. The Cultural Revolution began as a series of literacy discussions in bars and coffee shops of lower Manhattan (Greenwich Village) and (Upper Manhattan) Harlem.
Jean Toomer did one of the first and highly praised works. This would be Toomer’s only contribution to a time that he would later reject. Toomer is also known for his exquisite poetry like; Cotton Song, Evening Song, Georgia Dusk and Reapers. Jane Weldon Johnson had written the controversial “Autobiography of an Ex-colored Man” in 1924 and he had also edited “ The Book of American Negro Poetry.” This collection included many of the Renaissance’s most talented poets. Included was Claude McKay, a Jamaican born writer. Weldon’s collection also included a young talented poet named Langston Hughes. Hughes had a love for music, mainly the blues, which became a bridge between African American Literature and Folk music.
Zora Neale Hurston, an anthropologist originally...
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... Furthermore, with that knowledge going on to have racial esteem, to do great things and influence others, thus making a mark on the world.
The Harlem Renaissance taught future artist to look at art from an all-encompassing view. It knocked down barriers between literary and musical expression. The Renaissance added a new chapter in American History. A chapter that would highlight the African American thoughts and feelings as well as display their many talents.
Bibliography
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Reuben, Paul P. "Chapter 9: Harlem Renaissance - An Introduction." PAL: perspectives in American Literature- A Research and Reference Guide. URL: http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap9/9intro.html, 1999.
Roses, Lorraine E. Harlem Renaissance and Beyond: Literary Biographies of 100
Black women Writers, 1900-1945. Boston: Gik. Hall, 1990.
Tate, Claudia. Domestic allegories of political desire: The black heroine's text at the turn of the century. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.
According to www.PBS.org The Harlem Renaissance was a name given to the cultural, social, and artistic explosion that took place in Harlem between the end of World War I and the middle of the 1930s. During this period Harlem was a cultural center, drawing black writers, artists, musicians, photographers, poets, and scholars. Many had come from the South, fleeing its oppressive caste system in order to find a place where they could freely express their talents. The Renaissance was more than a literary movement: It involved racial pride, fueled in part by the militancy of the "New Negro" demanding civil and political rights.
The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement of blacks that helped changed their identity. Creative expression flourished because it was the only chance blacks had to express themselves in any way and be taken seriously. World War I and the need for workers up North were a few pull factors for the migration and eventually the Renaissance. A push was the growing discrimination and danger blacks were being faced with in the southern cities. When blacks migrated they saw the opportunity to express themselves in ways they hadn’t been able to do down south. While the Harlem Renaissance taught blacks about their heritage and whites the heritage of others, there were also negative effects. The blacks up North were having the time of their lives, being mostly free from discrimination and racism but down South the KKK was at its peak and blacks that didn’t have the opportunities to migrate experienced fatal hatred and discrimination.
The Harlem Renaissance is the name given to a period at the end of World War I through the mid-30s, in which a group of talented African-Americans managed to produce outstanding work through a cultural, social, and artistic explosion. Also known as the New Negro Movement. It is one of the greatest periods of cultural and intellectual development of a population historically repressed. The Harlem Renaissance was the rebirth of art in the African-American community mostly centering in Harlem, New York, during the 1920s. Jazz, literature, and painting emphasized significantly between the artistic creations of the main components of this impressive movement. It was in this time of great
Initially, the “Harlem Renaissance derives from the fact that Harlem served as a symbolic capital of the cultural awakening-- a dynamic crucible of cultural cross-fertilization. Harlem was moderately a new black neighborhood in New York City, NY at the time and was already becoming (virtually) a black city that attracted a remarkable concentration of intellect and talent. In addition, Harlem was more “liberal” in matters of race than most American cities (although, of course, racism was rampant), New York had an extraordinarily diverse and centered black social world in which no one group could monopolize cultural authority, making it ...
It was in Harlem that the seeds were planted. The Harlem Renaissance is a profound time for African Americans because, it was a literate, artistic and intellectual era that helped the African American culture found its distinctiveness.
The Harlem Renaissance was one of the most culturally important reformations in America. The Harlem Renaissance directly influenced many great civil rights leaders, and one could argue was the foundation for the battle of equality. Many great members of the Harlem Renaissance committed their whole life in order to improve race relations for themselves and for the future of the race.
The New Negro Movement, widely known as The Harlem Renaissance, rolled into Harlem, New York – and touched the whole of America – like a gale-force wind. As every part of America reveled in the prosperity and gaiety of the decade, African Americans used the decade as a stepping stone for future generations. With the New Negro Movement came an abundance of black artistic, cultural, and intellectual stimulation. Literary achievers like Langston Hughes, Zora Neal Hurston, Claude McKay, and Countee Cullen rocked the world with their immense talent and strove to show that African Americans should be respected. Musicians, dancers, and singers like Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Josephine Baker and Bessie Smith preformed for whites and blacks alike in famed speakeasies like The Cotton Club. Intellectuals like Marcus Garvey, W.E.B. DuBois, and Alain Locke stood to empower and unify colored people of all ages. The Harlem Renaissance was not just a moment in time; it was a movement of empowerment for African Americans across the nation, and remains as such today.
The Harlem Renaissance, originally known as “the New Negro Movement”, was a cultural, social, and artistic movement during the 1920’s that took place in Harlem. This movement occurred after the World War I and drew in many African Americans who wanted to escape from the South to the North where they could freely express their artistic abilities. This movement was known as The Great Migration. During the 1920’s, many black writers, singers, musicians, artists, and poets gained success including Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, Marcus Garvey, and W.E.B. Du Bois. These creative black artists made an influence to society in the 1920’s and an impact on the Harlem Renaissance.
...tunities, the Harlem Renaissance spanned a cultural movement which flourished art, music, and literature within the African-American community. When World War I ended, many African-American soldiers struggled with respect from white Americans when they returned home from days of battling and hard work they served developing an identity of the “New Negro.” The “New Negro” attitude challenged the intrusiveness and racism African-Americans encountered from the stereotypes white people shamed upon them. By rejecting and refusing to imitate the styles of Europeans and white Americans, the Harlem Renaissance was a movement to celebrate creativity and nobility throughout African-Americans. Without the powerful influences and creativity of the Harlem Renaissance, we wouldn’t have the films, music, fashion, excitement, and entertainment we see throughout the world every day.
Occurring in the 1920’s and into the 1930’s, the Harlem Renaissance was an important movement for African-Americans all across America. This movement allowed the black culture to be heard and accepted by white citizens. The movement was expressed through art, music, and literature. These things were also the most known, and remembered things of the renaissance. Also this movement, because of some very strong, moving and inspiring people changed political views for African-Americans. Compared to before, The Harlem Renaissance had major effects on America during and after its time.
Kellner, Bruce, ed. The Harlem Renaissance: A Historical Dictionary for the Era. Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1984
During the Great Migration, an influx of African Americans fled to Northern cities from the South wishing to flee oppression and the harshness of life as sharecroppers. They brought about a new, black social and cultural identity- a period that later became known as the Harlem Renaissance. Originally the Harlem Renaissance was referred to as the “New Negro Movement” (Reader’s Companion.) It made a huge impact on urban life. The Harlem Renaissance played a major role in African American art, music, poetic writing styles, culture and society.
The Harlem Renaissance was a period of great rebirth for African American people and according to the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, the “Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned the 1920s and 1930s.” Wikipedia also indicates that it was also known as the “Negro Movement, named after the 1925 Anthology by Alan Locke.” Blacks from all over America and the Caribbean and flocked to Harlem, New York. Harlem became a sort of “melting pot” for Black America. Writers, artists, poets, musicians and dancers converged there spanning a renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance was also one of the most important chapters in the era of African American literature. This literary period gave way to a new type of writing style. This style is known as “creative literature.” Creative literature enabled writers to express their thoughts and feelings about various issues that were of importance to African Americans. These issues include racism, gender and identity, and others that we...
The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual and literary period of growth promoting a new African American cultural identity in the United States. The decade between 1920 and 1930 was an extremely influential span of time for the Black culture. During these years Blacks were able to come together and form a united group that expressed a desire for enlightenment. This renaissance allowed Blacks to have a uniform voice in a society based upon intellectual growth. The front-runners of this revival were extremely focused on cultural growth through means of intellect, literature, art and music. By using these means of growth, they hoped to destroy the pervading racism and stereotypes suffocating the African American society and yearned for racial and social integration. Many Black writers spoke out during this span of time with books proving their natural humanity and desire for equality.
Although F. Scott Fitzgerald was one the best authors to portray the “roaring twenties,” but the 1920s were not all glitter