HARLEM RENAISSANCE               

The Harlem Renaissance (early 1920's to 1930's), centered in the Harlem district of New York City. The Harlem Renaissance had a profound influence on both the US and the world. Through music: Louis Armstrong Eubie Blake Fats Waller Billie Holiday Through literature: Langston Hughes Zora Neale Hurston W.E.B. DuBois Through dance: Josephine Baker Through theater: Paul Robeson

Through art: Archibald Motley William H. Johnson Lois Mailou Jones Palmer Hayden Archibald Motley William H. Johnson Lois Mailou Jones Charles Aston Romare Beardon Aaron Douglas

“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    

                                            PALMER HAYDEN “The Janitor Who Paints”

                                            ARCHIBALD MOTLEY                                                                                                                               

                                                          WILLIAM H. JOHNSON

                                                                                                                           LOIS MAILOU JONES

                                               Charles Alston

                                              Romare Beardon

“Aaron Douglas (1898-1979) was the Harlem Renaissance artist whose work best exemplified the philosophy. He painted murals for public buildings; he produced illustrations and cover designs for many black publications, including The Crisis and Opportunity. In 1940, he moved to Nashville, Tennessee; there he founded the Art Department at Fisk University and taught for twenty nine years.” - http://www.eyeconart.net/history/Harlem.htm

Aaron Douglas, Idylls of the Deep South, 1934

Aaron Douglas, study for God's Trombones

“Between 1920-1930 an unprecedented outburst of creative activity among African-Americans occurred in all fields of art.” “Harlem attracted a prosperous and stylish black middle class from which sprang an extraordinary artistic center…it embraced all art-forms, including music, dance, film, theatre and cabaret.” “Harlem nightlife, with its dance halls and jazz bands, featured prominently in the work of these artists.” “More than a literary movement and more than a social revolt against racism, the Harlem Renaissance exalted the unique culture of African-Americans and redefined African-American expression. African-Americans were encouraged to celebrate their heritage and to become "The New Negro," a term coined in 1925 by sociologist and critic Alain LeRoy Locke.” “One of the factors contributing to the rise of the Harlem Renaissance was the great migration of African-Americans to northern cities (i.e. New York City, Chicago, Washington, D.C.) between 1919 and 1926. In his influential book The New Negro (1925), Locke described the northward migration of blacks as "something like a spiritual emancipation." - http://www.eyeconart.net/history/Harlem.htm