Harlem Renaissance And Modernism

Claude McKay was a black man born in Jamaica, he choose literature very on in life and kept with it. He moved to the United States at age twenty three to study at Tuskegee Institute and was immediately shocked by the blatant racism prevalent in Charleston, South Carolina. He moved to New York and shortly after became co-editor of The Liberator, a famous abolitionist newspaper, he wrote some of his most revered poems while working there. He was part of the Harlem Renaissance a movement that was a reawakening of artistic and cultural talents of African American people in the United States and helped to reinvigorate their pride in being black.

Claude McKay’s poems reflect on American culture during a specific time in history, known as Harlem Renaissance. A time where racism was predominately a way of living for many, this was a beneficial time in history for African Americans. Bringing blacks together in a new movement that had not been present in America. Development in which blacks emphasized themselves by taking on their racial identity. It was a time period in which the black community helped each other to be able to express themselves as who they truly are, creating a true African American visual doing so

Second, there was an event that occurred from the Roaring Twenties or the Jazz Age, which was called the Harlem Renaissance. During the Harlem Renaissance, a numerous amount of African American put forth their talents and intellect. This is a prime example of a form of expression or cultural expression because a trend was set for more African Americans to start “Expanding their horizons and embracing the concept of the “new Negro” movement (P. Scott Corbett, et al). Even though discrimination was still around, this progressive movement helped African Americans contribute to literature, music, politics and more. In which helped shape and form a path for African-Americans to rediscover their black culture, for African American artists, writers, and other famous leaders to “formulated an independent black culture and encouraged racial pride, rejecting any emulation of white American culture” (P. Scott Corbett, et al).

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1912 , the 18th Amendment being added to the Constitution (prohibiting the use of intoxicating liquors) and then being repealed in 1933 , the 19th Amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote in 1920 , Amelia Earhart becoming the first woman to fly across the Atlantic in 1928 , and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.

 Claude McKay n.d., Poets.org, accessed 24 August 2015, .  Claude McKay n.d., Poetry Foundation, accessed 24 August 2015, .  Claude McKay n.d., Bio., accessed 24 August 2015, .  Lynching 2015, Wikipedia, accessed 24 August 2015, .  If We Must Die n.d., Genius, accessed 24 August 2015, .

Since time immemorial, art has been an integral tool in influencing a society, pushing forth ideas, expressing the general atmosphere amongst the party’s involved and fighting vices in the society. Art is fundamental in the transformation of any society through its ability to influence opinions and values. Through sound, vision any other form that art may take, communications is enhanced. Visual art, Music and poetry have always been the most used.

These great numbers of blacks along with economic aggressive black businessmen is how Harlem's newly developed real estate was seized from the white middle-class and was converted into the biggest and most elegant black community in the Western world (Huggins p.14). With this acquisition, Harlem had become a great concentration of blacks from all over the country within the most urbane of American cities (New York) just feeling its youthful strength and posturing in self-conscious sophistication. The growth and flourishing of Harlem came at just the right time for black Americans to rekindle dreams of innocence and a new start in America . An essay written by one of Harlem's most prominent leaders Alaine Locke stated that "without pretense to their political significance, Harlem had the same role to play for the New Negro as Dublin has had for the New Ireland or Prague for the New Czechoslovakia."(Knopf p.115). This idea spread like wildfire causing Harlem to be viewed by many as the "black metropolis or mecca".

The Harlem Renaissance was a time for vast cultural celebration. The article “The Decade That Roared” (2014) explains that African Americans had sustained centuries of compelled slavery and the endeavor for abolition. Abolitioning slavery gave hope to many African Americans. It gave them high hopes for a new life, one lead by independence. The article says that instead, caucasian supremacy was quickly, legally, and violently restored to the New South, where ninety percent of African Americans lived. The text then says starting in about 1890, African Americans migrated to the North in great numbers. This great migration eventually relocated hundreds of thousands of African Americans from the rural South to the urban North. According to the text, many discovered they had shared common experiences in their past histories and their uncertain present circumstances. Instead of wallowing in self-pity, the recently dispossessed ignited an explosion of cultural pride. Even though the African Americans had lost their short lived sense of freedom in America, they were not about to abandon all that they had worked for. This was known as the birth of the Harlem Renaissance.

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.

During the 1920’s a new movement began to arise. This movement known as the Harlem Renaissance expressed the new African American culture. The new African American culture was expressed through the writing of books, poetry, essays, the playing of music, and through sculptures and paintings. Three poems and their poets express the new African American culture with ease. (Jordan 848-891) The poems also express the position of themselves and other African Americans during this time. “You and Your Whole Race”, “Yet Do I Marvel”, and “The Lynching” are the three poems whose themes are the same. The poets of these poems are, as in order, Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, and Claude Mckay.

“The opportunity for passing during the colonial and pre-Civil War eras most often resulted from the mating of slave owner and slave followed by additional whitening and inbreeding of mulatto offspring who were then able to slip virtually unnoticed into the dominant society” (“The Passing of Passing”). “Passing” is a concept that has many connotations within the black community, which include a range of meanings such as preservation, assimilation and deception in the black community. During the period of American slavery and those that followed, passing began as a method of survival, but some would argue that it became a means of convenience. The ideas of double-consciousness and racial duality were common themes in literature during the

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

Scottish Politicians and Noblemen had assumed command of Scottish Society for centuries. But the Act of the Union changed this as Scotland’s political base migrated south to Westminster. With the lack of politicians, the need to pick a political side and the ever growing tolerance from the Presbyterian Church, the words spoken amongst intellectuals and scholars were spoken a little freer.

“Birds born in a cage think flying is an illness” said by Alejandro Jodorowski. Writing between the Harlem Renaissance and Post Modernism is very similar in that they both address social issues, from racism to self harm. The Harlem Renaissance poems, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” and “I, Too” can be compared to the Post Modernist poems “Cut” and “Manhattan Buddha” through the use of figurative language and subject material.

The new African American culture built a lifestyle so big that White America could not look away. The African American life advanced during the Harlem Renaissance, a time for a social, cultural, and artistic boom in Harlem, New York. After the abolition of slavery, African Americans did not find the freedom they envisioned in the South, but instead a rise in white supremacy (“The”). This new form of oppression pushed the African American communities into a Great Migration where they settled in Harlem and created a new life style centered in the arts. They felt a new sense of cultural pride in their new location and often depicted their new lives in their works. Artists, musicians, and writers made careers out of their craft by “glorifying African American traditions” (“The”). Painters such as Archibald J. Motley and Palmer C. Hayden were famous for conveying the settlement of African Americans during the Harlem Renaissance and the Great Depression. Motley’s “The Picnic” and Hayden’s “Midsummer Night in Harlem”, both completed in 1936, depicted the lives of the black communities and addressed racial stereotypes.