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Harlem renaissance the black people in america
Harlem renaissance the black people in america
Build up of the Harlem Renaissance
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Born in Texas, on July 8th, 1902, Gwendolyn Bennett had always been interested and passionate for writing and art. Bennett was the child of two educators, who taught on a Native American reserve in Nevada, but was kidnapped by her father once her parents divorced and her mother was awarded custody. She then settled in Brooklyn where she became the first African-American member of the Girl’s High School’s theatre and literature student organizations. Bennett was highly successful at her school; she was awarded first place in a school-wide art competition, wrote a play and acted in it, while writing her class graduation speech and song. She blossomed alongside the Harlem Renaissance, becoming of age as the Harlem Renaissance gained traction.
Originally referred to as the “New Negro Movement”, the Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement during the early twentieth century. It was started by the Great Migration of blacks to the North during World War I. This period resulted in many people coming forth and contributing their talents to the world, inspiring many. One of the poets of this time, Jessie Redmon Fauset, was one of those who wrote about the life of blacks and life in general during this time period. She used her good and bad past experiences as influences for her works.
Gwendolyn Brooks was born on June 7, 1917 in Topeka, Kansas, to KeziahWims Brooks and David Anderson Brooks. Brooks’ family didn’t have much income. Her father David Brooks was a janitor. Keziah Brooks, Gwendolyn’s mother was a school teacher. Soon after Gwendolyn was born her family moved away from Kansas. The Brooks family relocated to Chicago, Illinois, where Brooks remained the rest of her life. Brooks, as a child, loved to read. She was encouraged by her family and friends to do so. She spent most of her childhood immersed in her writing. Gwendolyn became a published poet at an early age. At age 13, Brooks’ poem Eventide was published. Her poem appeared in “American Childhood.” Brooks’ poems were frequently published in the Chicago Defender. At age 16, Brooks had written over seventy poems (J.Williams 28).In Brooks’ early years of writing she spoke on a lot. She talked about racial discrimination and praised African American heroes. Also, Brooks satirized both blacks and whites (A.williams1). In 1993, Gwendolyn meet poet James Weldon Johnson and writer Langston Hughes. The two influenced Brooks’ writing tremendously. The influence lead her to write over seventy poems (Bloom 12).
Foster, Frances Smith (1993). Written By Herself: Literary Production by African American Women, 1796-1892. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indian University Press.
Alice Walker was greatly influenced by her literary predecessors, the Harlem Renaissance writers. Harlem Renaissance was a movement of literature and culture that began in 1919 and lasted till 1930. The mass of African Americans had been slaves in South till the end of civil war. Even though the long-term enslavement ended after the civil war, the liberated African Americans had to struggle for civic participation, equality in political, financial and cultural independence. The whites recaptured power in the southern region in late 70’s and their domination disenfranchised majority of the Negroes and may poor whites, since powerful whites made and enforced laws. This followed the Jim Crow segregation by the white supremacist and discrimination
Toni Cade Bambara, otherwise known as Miltonia Mirkin Cade, was born on March 25, 1939. When she was five years old, she told her mother that she wanted to be called “Toni,” and by the time she finished college, all of her professors called her Toni Cade. She changed her name legally to Toni Cade Bambara in 1970 (Stone, Jennifer). She was born shortly after the Harlem Renaissance, a huge cultural movement that took place in the New York neighborhood of Harlem. This movement was mostly African American (“Biography of Toni Cade Bambara”). This greatly influenced Toni as a child and is why she wrote later in her life (Stone, Jennifer). Her parents also influenced her. Her father would take her to the Apollo Theatre and her mother would take her to The Speakers Corner, which was a political event (“Biography of Toni Cade Bambara”). When she went to the theatre with her father, this inspired her in an artistic way. When she went to the political event with her mother she was inspired to take on and learn more about politics.
Gwendolyn Brooks is the female poet who has been most responsive to changes in the black community, particularly in the community’s vision of itself. The first African American to be awarded a Pulitzer Prize; she was considered one of America’s most distinguished poets well before the age of fifty. Known for her technical artistry, she has succeeded in forms as disparate as Italian terza rima and the blues. She has been praised for her wisdom and insight into the African Experience in America. Her works reflect both the paradises and the hells of the black people of the world. Her writing is objective, but her characters speak for themselves. Although the idiom is local, the message is universal. Brooks uses ordinary speech, only words that will strengthen, and richness of sound to create effective poetry.
Born in Princess Anne, Maryland on June 27, 1894, Crystal Bird Fauset was born to the late Benjamin Oliver Bird and Portia E. (Lovett) Bird (“The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed”). She was orphaned and raised in Boston by her maternal aunt, Lucy Groves, where she attended public schools and excelled as an outstanding student despite the tragic passing away of her parents at an early age (“World Black History”). Later on in life, she studied at Teachers College, Columbia, University, in the late 1920’s and earned her degree in 1931(“The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed”).
1920’s Harlem was a time of contrast and contradiction, on one hand it was a hotbed of crime and vice and on the other it was a time of creativity and rebirth of literature and at this movement’s head was Langston Hughes. Hughes was a torchbearer for the Harlem Renaissance, a literary and musical movement that began in Harlem during the Roaring 20’s that promoted not only African-American culture in the mainstream, but gave African-Americans a sense of identity and pride.
The author, Elizabeth Brown Pryor, wrote her biography of Clara Barton with the intent to not only tell her life, but to use personal items (diary and letters) of Clara’s found to help fill information of how Clara felt herself about incidents in her life. Her writing style is one that is easy to understand and also one that enables you to actually get pulled into the story of the person. While other biographical books are simply dry facts, this book, with the help of new found documents, allows Pryor to give a modern look on Barton’s life. This book gave a lot of information about Ms. Barton while also opening up new doors to the real Clara Barton that was not always the angel we hear about. Pryor’s admiration for Ms. Barton is clear in her writing, but she doesn’t see her faults as being a bad thing, but rather as a person who used all available means to help her fellow soldiers and friends along in life.
Gwendolyn Brooks grew up in a racist time period; encouraging her writings to be about the life of a black during this time period. She grew up during one of the hardest time periods known as the Great Depression. Brooks was known for her writing poetry about racism and life of being a black American; she was often criticized for her works but also honored for showing encouragement and hope in her writings.
3. Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 51: Afro-American Writers from the Harlem Renaissance to 1940. A Bruccoli Clark Layman Book. Edited by Trudier Harris, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The Gale Group, 1987. pp. 133-145.
The Harlem Renaissance refers to a prolific period of unique works of African-American expression from about the end of World War I to the beginning of the Great Depression. Although it is most commonly associated with the literary works produced during those years, the Harlem Renaissance was much more than a literary movement; similarly, it was not simply a reaction against and criticism of racism. The Harlem Renaissance inspired, cultivated, and, most importantly, legitimated the very idea of an African-American cultural consciousness. Concerned with a wide range of issues and possessing different interpretations and solutions of these issues affecting the Black population, the writers, artists, performers and musicians of the Harlem Renaissance had one important commonality: "they dealt with Black life from a Black perspective." This included the use of Black folklore in fiction, the use of African-inspired iconography in visual arts, and the introduction of jazz to the North.[i] In order to fully understand the lasting legacies of the Harlem Renaissance, it is important to examine the key events that led to its beginnings as well as the diversity of influences that flourished during its time.
Zora Neale Hurston was a phenomenal woman. At the height of her success she was known as the “Queen of the Harlem Renaissance.” She came to overcome obstacles that were placed in front of her. Hurston rose from poverty to fame and lost it all at the time of her death. Zora had an unusual life; she was a child that was forced to grow up to fast. But despite Zora Neale Hurston’s unsettled life, she managed to surmount every obstacle to become one of the most profound authors of the century.
Harlem Renaissance was a period where the black intellectuals comprised of the poets, writers, and musicians explored their cultural identity. This paper will explain what the Harlem Renaissance period was really about , as well as the artists that were associated with this practice including Marian Anderson, James Weldon Johnson, and Romare Bearden.
Jones, Sharon. Rereading the Harlem Renaissance: Race, Class, and Gender in the Fiction of Jessie Fauset, Zora Neale Hurston, and Dorothy West. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2002.