No time and place in history encompasses the relationship between race and place so well as Harlem in the 1920s and 1930s. Artists and writers such as Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and countless others synergized to create a period of explosion of African American art and culture. Harlem provided a central location for many African Americans to reexamine their own culture, their place in America, and the life of the neighborhood of Harlem itself. Satin-Legs Smith, too, has his place in the thriving community of Harlem. Gwendolyn Brook’s characterization of Satin-Legs Smith is a perfect description of a zoot-suiter, or a so-called hep cat. According to the Merriam Webster online dictionary, a hep-cat is defined as a “a person who knows …show more content…
It is doubtless that Satin Legs Smith is fully aware of his king-like nature; we are presented with the visual of him slowly and beautifully waking himself next to his lover, as if in the beginning act of a great performance. “He wakes unwinds, elaborately: a cat/ Tawny, reluctant, royal. He is fat/ And fine this morning. Definite. Reimbursed” (Brookes). Indeed, much of “The Sundays of Satin Legs Smith” seems to be an intricate performance on the part of Satin Legs Smith. “He waits a moment, he designs his reign, /That no performance may be plain or vain” (Brookes). The intentionality of Satin Legs Smith’s every movement implies that this regality is not natural to him. Brookes confirms that Satin Leg Smith’s presentation is at least partially a façade in the 5th stanza- “But you forget, or did you ever know, /His heritage of cabbage and pigtails, /Old intimacy with alleys, garbage pails, /Down in the deep (but always beautiful) South “(Brookes). It is now confirmed for the reader that Satin Legs Smith is, at least partially, his own creation, and that we, the reader, are not privy to the truth about his …show more content…
In Satin Legs Smith’s morning ritual, we see this theme play out on a microcosmic level. First, we see his celebration of himself and of his body. “He looks into his mirror, loves himself— /The neat curve here; the angularity /That is appropriate at just its place; /The technique of a variegated grace” (Brookes). In this same stanza, we have Satin Legs Smith enhancing and altering his art with other things indicative of his proud identity. “These kneaded limbs receive the kiss of silk. /Then they receive the brave and beautiful /Embrace of some of that equivocal wool” (Brookes). Just as Satin Legs Smith has bestowed upon himself royalty, he has named himself art and adorns himself as such. The reader is left to decide for themselves whether Satin Legs Smith’s flamboyance and dedication to his “performance” can be deemed as art. However, Brookes, through the narrator, makes the argument that it can. “Here is all his sculpture and his art /And all his architectural design. /Perhaps you would prefer to this a fine/Value of marble, complicated stone./ Would have him think with horror of baroque, /Rococo. You forget and you forget” (Brookes). Brookes reminds us that though Satin Legs Smith’s art is not Shakespearean, and has no common ground with Michelangelo, it is his own, and it is still art. Satin Legs Smith’s art is bold and flashy, it eludes the white
The Harlem Renaissance is an important time in American literature. There were writers at this time like Wallace Thurman, Zora Neale Hurston, and Langston Hughes. Langston Hughes wrote many poems such as the “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” and “The Weary Blues.”
The Harlem Renaissance was a time period where African American culture flourished (326). There were several prominent composers in literature, art, and music. This time period lasted from 1917 until 1935. The Harlem Renaissance is important in history because African Americans finally received recognition for their talents. They now had the opportunity to influence others with their pieces of music, art, and literature.
The Harlem Renaissance, was part of the larger "New Negro" cultural and intelligent movement of the 1920s, remains one of the most studied and popular periods of American and African American literary and cultural history. It was also was a period between World War I and the Great Depression when black artists and writers flourished in the United States. Critics and historians have assigned varying dates to the movement 's beginning and end, but most tend to agree that by 1917 there were signs of increased cultural activity among black artists in the Harlem area of New York City and that by the mid-1930s the movement had lost much of its original vigor.
Relationships between races were very sketchy during the early 1900s. Racism was still very strong in the country, and ethnic groups settled in an area and created their own little communities. Harlem, New York was a black community in the north, many of the people having settled there because the north held many economic opportunities. Yet despite racism, cultures flourished. The Harlem Renaissance, a flowering of black culture in the 1920s, is a great example.
First, The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement throughout the 1920’s and 1930’s. The purpose of the Harlem Renaissance was that it created a new black cultural identity (Beth Rowen and Borgna Bower 2007).Next, this era was a time for people to find their identity in music, writing, plays, and much more.This was also a way for African - Americans to find their identity as individuals. This is where the African - American authors came to get their names known. The purpose of the Harlem Renaissance was to help the African- American culture find their identity as an individual instead of being labeled by other people’s opinions ( Rowen and Borgna , 2007 ). Because of all of the opportunities that Harlem presented, Zora Neale Hurston was able to leave a legacy during this era . Between 1920 and 1930: 750, 000 African- Americans migrated from the South to the North because of all the job opportunities and
In our era today, as you proceed through life, there is discrimination against races. As much as we would like to witness things change for the better we won’t due to some people not taking the chance to rewire their hatred. But in the early 1900’s, some black middle-class families immigrated to Harlem, New York, which at the time was an upper-class white neighborhood. The White’s tried to kick the African Americans out, but ultimately failed. In 1910-1930 African Americans in Harlem have changed what the city was like back then, now it is known for its African American culture. They also created a period called the Harlem Renaissance that is considered a golden age in African American culture. This was a time when they had an artistic explosion,
Serving as a backdrop for the stage that Zora Neale Hurston would place herself, the Harlem Renaissance was a culmination of young black artists striving to reinvent both themselves and their crafts and an explosion of cultural and artistic expression. Between 1918 and 1928 Hurston made leaps and bounds in developing and cultivating herself as both an individual and an aspiring writer. Her time at both Howard University and Barnard College, Columbia University while studying underneath anthropologist Franz Boas who helped to refine her skills as a writer and researcher. By maintaining a strong connection to her southern roots Hurston revived the strong vernacular of the communities she immersed herself within.
During the early 1920’s, African American artists, writers, musicians, and performers took part in a cultural movement known as the Harlem Renaissance. This migration took place after World War 1 and brought African Americans of all ages to the city of Harlem located in New York (Holt). There were many inspiring young artists; one of them in particular was Augusta Savage.
The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement in the 1920s that led to the evolution of African-American culture, expression through art, music, and literary works, and the establishment of African roots in America. Zora Neale Hurston contributed to the Harlem Renaissance with her original and enticing stories. However, Hurston’s works are notorious (specifically How it Feels to Be Colored Me and Their Eyes Were Watching God) because they illustrate the author’s view of black women and demonstrate the differences between their views and from earlier literary works.
The two authors, Langston Hughes and Sterling Brown, both have earned the right to be included in the same category as white poets. They were both very important members of the Harlem movements. This movement is defined as a style that compares the similarities of the two different races, back and white. Both poets are considered dominant black poets and their works consist of day-to-day life of a typical African American man. These two poets discuss in very different ways the differences between white men and black men of their time.
The Harlem Renaissance was a period of incredible poetic Genius originating in Harlem New York. The Harlem Renaissance took place from 1918 up until about 1937. Several Famous American writers were born during this era. Arguably the best female writer of the bunch was Zora Neale Hurston. (CHDR)
music. Langston Hughes living in Harlem was caught up in the new rhythm of music and based
Between 1910 and 1920, in a movement known as the Great Migration, hundreds of thousands of African Americans uprooted from their homes in the South and moved North to the big cities in search of jobs. They left the South because of racial violence and economic discrimination. Their migration was an expression of their changing attitudes toward themselves, and has been described as "something like a spiritual emancipation." Many migrants moved to Harlem, a neighborhood on the upper west side of Manhattan. In the 1920's, Harlem became the worlds largest black community; also home to a highly diverse mix of cultures. This unprecedented outburst of creative activity exposed their unique culture and encouraged
Black cultural nationalism was an international, less organized extension of the Black Nationalist movement. The movement focused on the embracing of African culture and values through various artistic forms, including poetry, drama, and music. Emphasizing the need to embrace one’s blackness, cultural nationalism was able to gain much mainstream attention because of the prominence of many of its members. The earliest organized display of cultural nationalism associated with Africa began with the concept of Négritude, “which was developed by French-speaking Negro intellectuals” (Irele 321) that had “developed far beyond the concept of the ‘African personality’…
Credited as being the most recognizable figure of the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes played a vital role in the Modernist literary movement and the movement to revitalize African American culture in the early 20th century. Hughes’s poems reflect his personal struggle and the collective struggle of African Americans during this cultural revival.