Chapter 8: The Jazz Age Lesson 4: Cultural Innovation Lesson 5: African American Culture and Politics
Art and Literature American Artists and writers challenged traditional ideas as they searched for meaning in the modern world Bohemian Lifestyle- artistic and unconventional Manhattan’s Greenwich Village Chicago’s South Side Individual, Modern experience Painters John Marin- drew urban dynamics of NYC Charles Sheeler- added cubism to rural American landscapes Georgia O’Keeffe-landscapes and flowers
John Marin Charles Sheeler Georgia O'Keeffe
Poets and Writers Diverse writers Individual ideas broken from tradition Expressed moments in time Realism, modern life, loss of spirituality Consumerism Writers Carl Sandburg Willa Cather Sinclair Lewis Edith Wharton Edna St. Vincent Millay Poets Amy Lowell Ezra Pound William Carlos Williams T.S. Elliot
T.S. Elliot Carl Sandburg
Artists who Criticized the modern American way of life Poets and Artists disillusioned by WWI moved to Paris, the center of artistic life Gertrude Stein dubbed the artists in America “The Lost Generation” Ernest Hemmingway A Farewell to Arms The War and it’s aftermath F. Scott Fitzgerald Great Gatsby A look a the superficial lifestyle of Americans
F. Scott Fitzgerald Hemmingway
Popular Culture Sports, Music, Theater, Movies, Radio Silent films and “talkies” (The Jazz Singer, the first talking picture) Creation of the celebrity Air conditioned theaters Radio made baseball more popular than ever National Community Shared Experiences https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j48T9BoKxlI
Lesson 5: African American Culture and Politics During WWI and the 1920s hundreds of thousands of African Americans joined the Great Migration from the rural South to the industrial Northern cities to work. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-ybTyhiaVY
The Harlem Renaissance Writers Claud McKay, Langston Hughes, Zora Neal Hurston Jazz Luis Armstrong, Duke Ellington Blues Bessie Smith The Apollo Theater in Harlem Shuffle Along, first African American Musical Emperor Jones, Show Boat
Claud McKay Langston Hughes 1922 poetry collection Harlem Shadows Expressed a proud defiance and bitter contempt of racism Leading voice of African Americans Zora Neal Hurston Wrote about African American woman
Claude McKay, 1889 - 1948 If We Must Die If we must die—let it not be like hogs Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot, While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs, Making their mock at our accursed lot. If we must die—oh, let us nobly die, So that our precious blood may not be shed In vain; then even the monsters we defy Shall be constrained to honor us though dead! Oh, Kinsmen! We must meet the common foe; Though far outnumbered, let us show us brave, And for their thousand blows deal one deathblow! What though before us lies the open grave? Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack, Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gcgeX20x3g
Langston Hughes Mother to Son Well, son, I’ll tell you: And turnin’ corners, Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair. And sometimes goin’ in the dark It’s had tacks in it, Where there ain’t been no light. And splinters, So boy, don’t you turn back. And boards torn up, Don’t you set down on the steps And places with no carpet on the floor— ’Cause you finds it’s kinder hard. Don’t you fall now— Bare. For I’se still goin’, honey, But all the time I’se still climbin’, I’se been a-climbin’ on, And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair. And reachin’ landin’s, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NX9tHuI7zVo
Luis Armstrong Edward “Duke” Ellington Bessie Smith Jazz and Blues Luis Armstrong Edward “Duke” Ellington Bessie Smith https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2VCwBzGdPM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDQpZT3GhDg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCDOr6au_H8
The NAACP National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Economic and political improvement Battled against discrimination Lobbying public officials Protested lynching and passed anti-lynching laws in the House of Representatives in 1922- Denied at the Senate- reduced the number of lynchings that took place Joined Labor Unions to overturn alleged racist politicians into office
Black Nationalism Black pride and heritage Some called for African Americans to separate from White Americans Jamaican, Marcus Garvey enthused millions of African Americans with his “Negro Nationalism” UNIA Black pride and unity Individuals can gain political power by educating themselves Separation and unity from whites…proposed leading them to Africa President Coolidge used Garvey’s immigrant status as a way to have him deported to Jamaica. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d08ZnxapXFQ