Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance

Harlem Renaissance, first When you hear the word Harlem, what sort of things do you think of? (where is it? What connotations/stereotypes?) What about Renaissance?

Harlem Renaissance, origins In the 1920’s in New York, there was this wonderful coming together of African American poets, writers, artists, and musicians that was centered in Harlem, and Langston Hughes was one of the major writers involved. You’ll hopefully get a more thorough background on this when you do some poetry in your American lit and history classes, but these are some basics you should know for context.

John Green! Crash Course on Langston Hughes and Harlem Renaissance

My soul has grown deep like the rivers. The Negro Speaks of Rivers  LANGSTON HUGHES I’ve known rivers: I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins. My soul has grown deep like the rivers. I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young. I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep. I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it. I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans, and I’ve seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset. Ancient, dusky rivers.

Harlem Renaissance It began in Northern Manhatten, in Harlem New York Black writers, many of whom came from the South and other parts of the world like Jamaica came there

The First Writers… In 1921, Countee Cullen published “I Have a Rendezvous With Life” This was a take on Seeger’s “I Have a Rendezvous with Death” 6 months later, Langston Hughes published as well, and this sparked a huge burst of creativity in the community and other people soon joined the movement…

Who’s Who Claude McKay Jean Toomer Zora Neale Hurston In Music: Billie Holiday Duke Ellington Louis Armstrong Jellyroll Morton Josephine Baker

The movement was publicly recognized in March of 1924 It opened the doors for all black writers because now they have role models and issues/cultural ideas in poems that relate directly to them

Langston Hughes He was born Feb. 1st, 1902 and died in 1967 He’s originally from Missouri and was raised in the Midwest

Although he is most known for his poetry, and is extremely prolific (that means who wrote LOTS of poems), he also wrote plays, fiction, screenplays, and biographies

Education He moved to New York city to attend Columbia University, where he went for a year, but then left school to travel the world as a merchant seaman.

He traveled to Europe, especially France--where he lived for a time—and to Africa to gather inspiration, life stories, and observations. The Africa trip enabled him to get back to his cultural and historical roots, and inspired his poem, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers.”

Upon his return from these travels, he had his first volume of poetry published in 1926 Many of his poems are about his pride in his heritage

He provides a link for the black community to their cultural roots, and the promise of a better future.

The end!