Harlem Renaissance

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 an event that started during World War One and lasted until the 1930’s. The Harlem Renaissance reshaped art, music, literature and theatre in the African American community. One debated during the Harlem Renaissance was whether folk art or high art best represented racial pride. Folk art best represents racial pride because it does not imitate other people’s art it shows the lives of everyday people, and people could relate to it.

There were many notable events taking place in the years 1900-1940, some being Pablo Picasso painting one of the first cubist paintings is 1907 , the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 , the 18th Amendment being added to the Constitution (prohibiting the use of intoxicating liquors) and then being repealed in 1933 , the 19th Amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote in 1920 , Amelia Earhart becoming the first woman to fly across the Atlantic in 1928 , and the list continues. Undoubtedly one of the most influential of events during this time was the Harlem Renaissance. Even with its many leaders and innovators, it wouldn’t have been nearly as effective had it not been for Alain LeRoy Locke: black writer, philosopher, and teacher who influenced black artists to look to African sources for pride and inspiration. Without Locke’s contribution, the Renaissance would not have flourished as much as it did, and black pride would have taken longer to develop and accept.

The Harlem Renaissance was a time period where African American influencers of the arts found cultural identity in a white domain in the city of Harlem New York. The Harlem Renaissance is the rebirth of African American culture in the United States. The rebirth of the African American Culture was not limited to Harlem, because it also took root in other places, such as Washington DC, Chicago, and Illinois. The positive culture of the Harlem Renaissance pointed out some of the injustices African Americans were experiencing throughout the United States, and it was portrayed in their literary arts. Original leaders in the Harlem Renaissance included James Weldon Johnson. James Weldon Johnson was one of the first publishers of contemporary black poetry of the 20th century. The name of the book he published titled “The book of American Negro Poetry” was a reflection of the writings of African American poets in the 1920s. James Weldon Johnson helped revitalize African American culture through his literary works and poetry; the Harlem Renaissance continues to influence the African American culture through the literary arts, poetry, and the influence of the originators of the Harlem Renaissance.

The early 1900s was a time marked with tragedy in America. Started and ended with the Great Depression in between, it was not America 's finest moment. Prohibition was in place, the Klu Klux Klan was still marching, and the Lost Generation was leaving for Paris. But despite the troubling times, people still found beauty and meaning in the world around them. They still created art and celebrated life. The Harlem Renaissance was an artistic and literary movement that developed a new black cultural identity through artistic expression. It fused African traditions with slave history and American culture, and revealed to the world what life was like as a black person in America.

The Harlem Renaissance and the Hip-Hop Movement are a culmination of co-related cultural art forms that have emerged out of the black experience. White people understood black people more through their expression of art during both movements. Both movements brought about a broad cross-racial following and, ironically, in both instances brought about a better understanding of the black experience for white America. The bridge between Be-Bop and Hip-Hop was made by Quincy Jones with the “Back on the Block” project; which featured such artists as Dizzie Gillespie, Miles Davis, Sarah Vaughn, Ella Fitzgerald, Tevin Campbell, Ice Tea, Big Daddy Kane, Al B Sure, Barry White and many

There are many ways people can express their race and ethnicity. For example; art, music, dancing and even acting. These are all ways to show your racial pride, and the best place to do it was at the Harlem Renaissance. However, is it high art or folk art that best expresses racial pride?

The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural, social, and artistic movement that took place in Harlem, New York. This mainly took place starting from the end of the First World War until the mid-1930s. Harlem, at this time, was the center of the African-American culture, and Harlem appealed lot of black artists, writers, scholars, musicians, poets, and photographers. Lots of these artists had fled from the South because they needed to get away from their oppressive caste system so that they could express themselves freely, and display their talents. The Harlem Renaissance was considered to be the “rebirth of African-American arts”. This movement mainly started around 1918 and ended during the mid-1930s. Some of the major writers during this time of the Harlem Renaissance were Langston Hughes, W.E.B. Du Bois, Countee Cullen, Zoe Neale Hurston, and Marcus Gravey. Lots of these themes that these writers wrote about are themes that to this day artists try to make a point of emphasis, including the American Dream, effects of racism on the black population, black identity, and human rights (Wormser).

Does High art of Folk art Best Express Racial Pride ? What was the Harlem Renaissance? And why was this time period such a great time to express your racial pride? In what ways did African American artists celebrate racial pride?

The Harlem Renaissance Period was a time in history when many African Americans migrated to a sub community in Manhattan, NY, called Harlem, during the late 1910’s to the 1930’s. These people were seeking newer opportunities in the North, escaping the deep racism still embedded in the South, and were developing two different versions of art that represented racial pride. One version was high art, which was influenced by the techniques of European writing and artistry, and showed that the African American race can be seen as intelligent and educated as well. The other version was folk art, which depicted the everyday struggles of the African American life. However, which form best expresses African American pride?

The “Harlem Renaissance” which we also refer to as “The Jazz Age” and/or “New Negro Movement” was the time where underprivileged African Americans migrated to the north mostly to Chicago and New York in search for a better life. This was a time of a cultural, social, and creative movement that enhanced the African American Community mostly in New York and Chicago between the years of 1917 and 1935. The Harlem Renaissance was the defining moment when African American photographers, writers, musicians, poets, artists, actors, scholars, dancers, composers and etc. migrated from the south to escape the oppression of Caucasian supremacy and poor conditions. They traveled in order to be able to express their talents freely. The movement allowed oppressed African Americans to express their creativity, skills, intelligence and determination. The Harlem Renaissance is the movement that contributed a fundamental part of the culture we know today. During this time African Americans started to embrace things of their culture such as music, theatre, and art.

In order to get a better understanding on how the Harlem Renaissance began, one must start with the Great Migration from the South to the North. Considered the largest migration in U.S. history, record numbers of African Americans started arriving in large numbers in urban areas from many parts of the rural South. This period was also known as the period of economic growth. Due to poor conditions in the South, the North represented hope and progress. As America was in conflict from World War I, the goal of the nation was to support the fight for democracy. And as the war progressed, there was a growing need to fill jobs due to labor shortages in the North. The North being the primary industrial, caused many jobs to become available, and large

The Harlem Renaissance represents the rebirth and flowering of African-American culture. Although the Harlem Renaissance was concentrated in the Harlem district of New York City, its legacy reverberated throughout the United States and even abroad, to regions with large numbers of former slaves or blacks needing to construct ethnic identities amid a dominant white culture. The primary means of cultural expression during the Harlem Renaissance were literature and poetry, although visual art, drama, and music also played a role in the development of the new, urban African-American identity. Urbanization and population migration prompted large numbers of blacks to move away from the Jim Crow south, where slavery had only transformed into institutionalized racism and political disenfranchisement. The urban enclave of Harlem enabled blacks from different parts of the south to coalescence, share experiences, and most importantly, share ideas, visions, and dreams. Therefore, the Harlem Renaissance had a huge impact in framing African-American politics, social life, and public institutions.

I always found the 1920’s a very interesting decade as it went from a lively moment to a depressing and struggling one within a split second. Therefore, I believe that I learned all of the concepts pretty well. For instance, I learned about the Harlem Renaissance, the cause and effect of The Dust Bowl, and the lasting political argument of the New Deal in the United States. First of all, the Harlem Renaissance was a time period where African Americans began to embrace their roots and create art/works to reflect their experience living in US society. However, during the Great Depression many Americans were left unemployed. In addition to drastic unemployment rates, the environmental disaster, also known as the Dust Bowl, contributed to many

Harlem Renaissance, a blossoming (c. 1918–37) of African American culture, particularly in the creative arts, and the most influential movement in African American literary history. Embracing literary, musical, theatrical, and visual arts, participants sought to reconceptualize “the Negro” apart from the white stereotypes that had influenced black peoples’ relationship to their heritage and to each other. They also sought to break free of Victorian moral values and bourgeois shame about aspects of their lives that might, as seen by whites, reinforce racist beliefs. Never dominated by a particular school of thought but rather characterized by intense debate, the movement laid the groundwork for all later African American literature and had