HARLEM RENAISSANCE 1916-1929

Great Migration Millions of black farmers and sharecroppers moved to the urban North. Blacks were searching for opportunity and freedom from oppression and racial hostility. Thousands settled in Harlem. This became the cultural center of African-American life.

The Harlem Renaissance A flowering of African-American arts Expressions of what it meant to be black in a white-dominated world Came to an end with the Great Depression

Authors of the Harlem Renaissance Zora Neale Hurston Langston Hughes Countee Cullen Represented what came to be called “the New Negro” - A sophisticated, well-educated African-American with strong racial pride and self-awareness.

JAZZ – The Sound of the 1920s Called the “People’s” music Not accepted by the black “cultural elite” Created the birth of the “night club” The Cotton Club was one of the most famous during the Harlem Renaissance

DUKE ELLINGTON April 29, 1899 - May 24, 1974 Duke Ellington – Excerpts From Black, Brown And Beige Part 2 - Lighter Attitude – Listening & stats at Last.fm An American jazz composer, pianist, and bandleader Worked at the Cotton Club during the Harlem Renaissance

Countee Cullen May 30, 1903 –January 9, 1946 One of the leading American poets of his time and one of the lights of the Harlem Renaissance.

Countee Cullen THE BLACK CHRIST AND OTHER POEMS (1929) was criticized for the use of Christian religious imagery Cullen compared the lynching of a black man to Christ's crucifixion.

I Have a Rendezvous With Life I have a rendezvous with Life, In days I hope will come, Ere youth has sped, and strength of mind, Ere voices sweet grow dumb. Sure some would cry it's better far To crown their days with sleep Than face the road, the wind and rain, To heed the calling deep. Though wet nor blow nor space I fear, Yet fear I deeply, too, Lest Death should meet and claim me ere I keep Life's rendezvous. Countee Cullen (1903-1946)

Langston Hughes February 1, 1902- May 22, 1967 “Hold fast to your dreams, for without them life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly.”

“The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” one of Langston Hughes’ first poems. shows the life and pride of an African-American during the years of discrimination. YouTube - The Negro Speaks of Rivers

Zora Neale Hurston January 7, 1891- January 28, 1960 "I have the nerve to walk my own way, however hard, in my search for reality, rather than climb upon the rattling wagon of wishful illusions."

Grew up in Eatonville, Florida- the nation’s first incorporated black township Moved to New York and became famous for her part in the Harlem Renaissance Wrote Their Eyes Are Watching God in 1937

Zora Neale Hurson Anthropologist Folklorist Criticized for her portrayal of blacks as “common folks working bean fields.” Zora Neale Hurston