HARLEM RENAISSANCE

HARLEM RENAISSANCE A great migration to the north after World War I brought African American artists, writers, musicians, and performers to Harlem.

Context Jazz Age, “lost generation” Patronage of whites “Great Migration” Harlem as center for protest organizations

Themes alienation marginality the use of folk material the use of the blues tradition the problems of writing for an elite audience.

IMPACT OF THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE brought international fame to African Americans gave African Americans a new found respect for themselves and provided courage to take steps in other areas of society sparked a political transformation in the United States

HARLEM RENAISSANCE ART Aaron Douglas (1898-1979) Idylls of the Deep South (1929)

". Our problem is to conceive, develop, establish an art era "...Our problem is to conceive, develop, establish an art era. Not white art painting black...let's bare our arms and plunge them deep through laughter, through pain, through sorrow, through hope, through disappointment, into the very depths of the souls of our people and drag forth material crude, rough, neglected. Then let's sing it, dance it, write it, paint it. Let's do the impossible. Let's create something transcendentally material, mystically objective. Earthy. Spiritually earthy. Dynamic.” -Aaron Douglas

HARLEM RENAISSANCE ART Jacob Lawrence (1917 – 2000) Dreams

"I've always been interested in history, but they never taught Negro history in the public schools...I don't see how a history of the United States can be written honestly without including the Negro. I didn't [paint] just as a historical thing, but because I believe these things tie up with the Negro today. We don't have a physical slavery, but an economic slavery. If these people, who were so much worse off than the people today, could conquer their slavery, we can certainly do the same thing....I am not a politician. I'm an artist, just trying to do my part to bring this thing about....” -Jacob Lawrence, 1940

MUSIC AND THEATRE The Cotton Club – the most famous Harlem nightspot

MUSICIANS Louis Armstrong most famous jazz musician native of New Orleans brought jazz to St. Louis and Chicago before coming to Harlem

MUSICIANS Duke Ellington jazz musician whose career was launched at the Cotton Club

MUSICIANS Bessie Smith (1894-1937) “Empress of the Blues”

MUSICIANS Josephine Baker (1906-1975) first international African American star was a dancer and a singer

MUSICIANS Billie Holiday (1915-1959)

AUTHORS Claude McKay (1890-1948) works included gruesome depictions of racist acts ”The Lynching”

AUTHORS Langston Hughes (1902-1967) became a leading voice in the African American experience most successful black writer in America, most famous for his poetry “I, Too,” “Dream Deferred,” “A Negro Speaks of Rivers”

Describe the character in the poem. What issues are being addressed by the author? What message is the author trying to convey to his readers with the last line of the poem “I, too, sing America”?

AUTHORS Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960) wrote stories featuring African American females as the central characters (“Dust Tracks on a Road,” “How it Feels to be Colored Me”, Their Eyes Were Watching God)