The Harlem Renaissance was a literary, artistic, and intellectual movement that kindled a new black cultural identity, spanning the 1920s and to the mid-1930s. While reading the article “Black Renaissance: A Brief History of the Concept” I learned that the Harlem Renaissance was once a debatable topic. Ernest J. Mitchell wrote the article, explaining how the term “Harlem Renaissance” did not originate in the era that it claims to describe. The movement “Harlem Renaissance” did not appear in print before 1940 and it only gained widespread appeal in the 1960s. During the four preceding decades, writers had mostly referred to it as “Negro Renaissance.”…
Alain Locke said that African artist should reconnect with their roots. Locke’s writings were a major force behind the Harlem Renaissance movement. Sargent Johnson is a reflection of the ancestral arts with works like forever free, that show very pronounced African features on raw wood. Jacob Lawrence studied the ancestral arts of Africa and then produced his own version. He used his new style of African painting to create 41 paintings showing the revolt that led to Haiti’s independence. Archibald Motley went a decidedly different way by painting everyday Negros doing normal everyday activities. He wanted to tell the story of his people and what it meant to be Negro. Langston Hughes felt like Motley in that he wanted to tell the story of the…
Erenberg’s essay “Steppin’ Out” in the book Major Problems in the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era. In “Steppin’ Out,” Erenberg speaks on the dance craze that swept throughout the cities from 1912 to 1916. “Steppin’ Out” takes place a few years prior to the Prohibition movement, but it still gives a precedent for the movement. Erenberg tells his readers that dancing in public places was scandalous, but when it became publicly accepted, nightclubs began to blossom like magic. Exhibition dancers were the first of the kind, but by 1912, most cabarets installed dance floors in order for their guests to partake in the festivities. Hotels soon followed closely behind, and dancing became a regular, and one of the most popular, forms of entertainment, especially when drinking was involved.…
Overview of the Harlem Renaissance: The Harlem Renaissance (also known as the New Negro Movement) was a literacy, cultural, artistic, and intellectual movement that began in Harlem, New York after World War 1 and ended around during the Great Depression. It took place because people were protesting for civil rights for African Americans and they received a better life in New York and were able to impact the society with ideas, styles, language, and culture.…
In the article “Clean Up the Dance Halls” Elisabeth Perry examines the age of the Progressive Era and the efforts by the reformers to get rid of unregulated dance halls. Perry adds how dance halls that provided “stylish drinks” and guaranteed popularity influenced many innocent girls to leave their households to embrace a life of alcohol, unmoral dancing, and eventually sexually relations with strangers. Perry also adds how the girls could not resist a man's love despite it meaning that they would loose their “girlhood.” One of the prominent reformers during this time was Belle Israels who sought to protect girls from being “played with” and sought to put an end to dance halls. As a result, the Progressive Era stirred together different social issues which usually led to controversy and tension as seen in the dance hall reform.…
My final topic that I chose is The Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance was the name given to the cultural, social, and artistic explosion that took place in Harlem. In a phase of the Great Migration, half a million African Americans or so moved to the cities of the North. Most of them moved from the rural South in hopes of escaping poverty and oppression of Jim Crow Laws. White Landlords refused to rent to African-Americans, this led many newcomers to cluster in all-black neighborhoods. In the 1920's Harlem became the center of African-American Culture.…
The Harlem Renaissance took place towards the end of World War I and The mid 1930s. It was a rebirth for African americans, allowing them to open up and to be a person. Not everyone agreed with this, it was actually illegal for a white and black person to communicate and to be in the same building. In Harlem, everyone was welcome, everywhere. African Americans were pretty happy about that, although it was hard to get a job, it wasn’t impossible. Black people were able to express themselves socially, through music, and literature.…
Langston Hughes was a predominant figure during the Harlem Renaissance. In Joplin, Missouri on February 1st of 1902, James Mercer Langston Hughes was born. His mother and father had separated, so the majority of his early life was spent with his Grandmother until she died. Langston’s passion for poetry began when he and his mother moved to Cleveland, Ohio. He would occasionally send in pieces of his poetry to many magazines, including his school’s magazine. After graduating from high school, Langston would then study at Columbia University for 1 year and would study poetry in many places such as Mexico and Paris. Through his poetry, Mr. Hughes wanted to highlight the black communities concerns and challenges that they faced during…
Black Americans were no longer seen with child-like existence, but as actual assets to society as equals.…
The Harlem Renaissance was a social,cultural, and artistic explosion that took place in Harlem, New York, stretching through the 1920s. During that time it was known as the “New Negro Movement”. One of the bigger aspects of this cultural explosion was that many Negroes were able to get better jobs and school chances. Making The Harlem Renaissance one of the biggest cultural events of the decade.…
Undoubtedly, the notion of blackness influenced the development of the Harlem Renaissance. African Americans wanted to find a new value of their skin color in order to brake with old stereotypes. As E. Patrick Johnson states, during the time of Harlem Renaissance, blackness was perceived as a sort of a weapon to fight with the white dominance. During the time of slavery, African Americans were excluded from political and cultural life and, that is why, they decided to actively stand up against this subordination and exclusion (Johnson, 2003).…
Harlem Renaissance was African-American’s cultural movement that began in 1920, it was blossoming of African American culture in terms of literature and art starting in the 1920 to 1930 reflecting the growth of Black Nationalism and racial identity. Some universal themes symbolized throughout the Harlem Renaissance were the unique experience of thralldom slavery and egressing African-American folk customs on black individuality. African American population of United States highly contributed in this movement; they played a great role to support it. In fact, major contribution was made by black-owned businesses and publication of their literary works. Nevertheless, it relied on the patronization of whites.…
I lived in a small town named Harlem, and it was nice in the summer, but it ends up getting too hot in the summers. Most people here are people hanging out windows, people on fire escapes, and anywhere trying to get a cool breeze. Harlem was a town that you could get a job for a day and that's it pretty much it. I loved playing the saxophone, so I tried to use that to get money but it didn't work as well as I planned. My dad says I should get a part-time job, but I wanted full time to get extra money. I finally got a job at this business and I finally thought it would have been great. Then after awhile, it started to get harder to wake up and get to work. Then I meet Fats and that's when everything went south. Fats was someone that had a bootleg…
The end of black Harlem is a 30 year love story that ends in heartbreak. Mr.Adams is watching the woman he loves change and he no longer recognizes her. She has new friends, plants flowers and traded in their favorite bodega for a Whole Foods Market. He was there before young wealthier whites thought she was good enough. When he goes to see her now, apart of their history has been erased. Places like The Renaissance where Duke Ellington performed, and Child's Memorial Temple Church of God in Christ where Malcolm X's funeral was held no longer exists. This is generfication, this is Harlem once know as "America's Black Mecca" now those same people can't even afford to live in their…
From the 1920s to the mid-1930s in Harlem, New York, the movement known as the Harlem Renaissance took place in which not only inspired many to young writers, singers musician and other artists to put themselves out there and to not be afraid to be themselves. Of the Harlem Renaissance, the ones who stood out the most were, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, Bessie Smith,and Lucille Bogan to name a few. In this list actually there is many whom consider themselves to be apart of of the LGBTQ community such as Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, Langston Hughes, Bessie Smith and Lucille Bogan. The African American Women of the Harlem Renaissance fought homophobia and heteronormativity by sharing their thoughts and feelings through their lyrics, about being bisexual, gay or lesbian.…