-Zora Neale Hurston
The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement that started in the early 1920s. Some people referred to it as the “New Negro Movement”. Twas all centered in what was and is Harlem, New York. Lots of French speaking individuals who were of African and Caribbean descent who lived in Harlem were influenced by the Harlem Renaissance. People today converse about how they believe that the Harlem Renaissance ushered in the Civil Rights Movement of the later 1940s or the early 1950s. The Renaissance had many sources in Negro culture, basically in the United States, But, the Renaissance spread further than the United States. The Harlem Renaissance inspired Blacks to express themselves in unimaginable ways. Inspiring singers, jazz artists, even poets. African-Americans used art to portray their humanity and their rights for equality. Generally, if we dig deeper into the forced and perpetuating truth of the Harlem Renaissance, we see that not only was this the beginning of the rise of the Negros, but this was the beginning of a new nation. The renaissance had many representatives, 22 to be exact, who would go out onto the highways and hedges to tell of the uprising of the negros. Some wrote poems, newspapers, even books to prove their innocence for nonexistent crimes. Ordinary people doing extraordinary things. The Renaissance was much more than a literary or artistic movement, it possessed a quote on quote “Sociological development”. Without the Harlem renaissance, who knows what wouldn’t be around today. So I will end this with a short poem by world renowned poet, Langston Hughes. Titled, Harlem.
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over— like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
La Vie En Rose-Life in Pink
"La Vie en Rose" is "Life in Pink (Rose)".
"Je vois la vie en rose" means wordly "I see the life in pink" and the meaning is:
- "I am feeling happy about life"
- "I am optimistic"
- "I feel fine"
- "Everything is OK"
- "I forget about all worries and depression"
- "I am seeing life through rosa-pink eyeglases"
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