New Negro Movement and the Harlem Renaissance

Prohibition ( ) Helps Nightclub Scene Explode Ethel Waters; Lena Horne

Billie Holiday a.k.a. “Lady Day,” ZyuULy9zs

Southern trees bear strange fruit Blood on the leaves and blood at the root Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze Strange fruit hanging from the popular trees Pastoral scene of the gallant south The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh Then the sudden smell of burning flesh Here is fruit for the crows to pluck For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop Here is a strange and bitter cry [ From : fruit-lyrics.html ]

Anita O’Day a.k.a. “Jezebel of Jazz,” ( ) eoSAPaThWJE

(Spoken) Anita: Hey Joe Roy: What d'ya mean Joe, My name's Roy Anita: Well come here Roy and get groovy You bin uptown? Roy: No, I ain’t bin uptown but I've bin around Anita: You mean to say you ain't bin uptown? Roy: No, I haven't bin uptown, what's uptown? (Sung) Anita: If it's pleasure you're about And you feel like steppin' out All you've got to shout is Let me off uptown If it's rhythm that you feel Then it's nothing to conceal Oh, you've got to spiel it Let me off uptown Rib joints, juke joints, hep joints Where could a fella go to top it If you want to pitch a ball And you can't afford a hall All you've got to call is Let me off uptown (Spoken) Roy: Anita, oh Anita, say I feel something Anita: Whatcha feel Roy? The heat? Roy: No it must be that uptown rhythm I feel like blowin’ Anita: Well blow Roy, blow. (Roy's trumpet to finish)

Literary Arm of Harlem Renaissance: Jean Toomer, Cane (1923)

Most Famous of Renaissance Writers: Langston Hughes, Weary Blues, 1926

Langston Hughes ( ), “Dream Deferred” What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up Like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore-- And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over-- like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags like a heavy load. Or does it explode?

Claude McKay ( ), Jamaican-born poet and novelist awarded for building race consciousness and solidarity. Also recognized for showing multi-ethnic aspect of the African American experience beyond Jim Crow Culture

Patron of the Black Arts Movement: Carl Van Vechten

Harlem Renaissance went beyond music and literature to include the Fine Arts Archibald Motley, pictured next to his famous portrait entitled the “Octoroon”

The Black Vogue: The allure of blackness