Are you dying to learn more about the individuals who influenced the Harlem Renaissance?

Then check out these famous names! Langston Hughes Countee Cullen Zora Hurston W.E.B Dubois Marcus Garvey Aaron Douglas Selma Burke Duke Ellington Bessie Smith

Archibald J. Motley, Nightlife, 1943.

A History/Overview of the Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance was a time period during the 1920s and 1930s in which talented African American writers produced literature and the creative arts flourished. This time period was significant because it brought about a new age of culture for African Americans. Although the years of this period were filled with racial segregation and economic instability, many creative minds emerged and the Renaissance is known today as one of the most influential movements in African American literacy history (artsedge.kennedy-center.org). The movement began in the streets of Harlem in New York City, but it spread throughout the country, inspiring African Americans to strive for equality. Participants sought to develop an original culture apart from stereotypes that had influenced African Americans relationship to their heritage and to each other (Harlem Renaissance, Encyclopedia Britannica).

Drawing in Two Colors, Winold Reiss.

THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE

THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE

Sophia White Honors CAP English 9 RED Group December 2, 2013

A Visitors Guide

Harlem is vicious Modernism. Bang Clash. Vicious the way it's made, Can you stand such beauty. So violent and transforming. - Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones)
Palmer Hayden, Jeunesse.

Art, Music, and Writing

The Harlem Renaissance centered around art, music, and writing. Some of the most well known writers include Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, and Zora Hurston. Poetry was a popular form of expression, and poets often tended to write about the issues of racism. This time period reinforced American progressivism in its belief in art and literature as agents of change (Harlem Renaissance, Perspectives in American Literature). Jazz was the iconic music representation of the Renaissance. Places such as the Cotton Club and other nightspots drew famous singers, dancers and jazz musicians. Artists of the Harlem Renaissance celebrated the cultural traditions of African Americans and produced bold and symbolic representations of the period from multiple perspectives (Richard J. Powell, African American Art).

Political Impact
Picture of Anne Spencer taken from
afropoets.net

Anne Spencer
Anne Spencer was a female AfricanAmerican poet during the Harlem Renaissance period. She was born in 1882 in Henry County, Virginia. Many of her poems address racism metaphorically and relate to a romantic concern with the human search for beauty and meaning (Keith Clark, About Anne Spencer).

The Harlem Renaissance also had a significant impact on politics. Leaders including Marcus Garvey and W.E.B DuBois contributed to political ideas that are still recognized today. The Renaissance in some ways ushered in the Civil Rights Movement of the late 1940s and early 1950s. It can also be seen that whites collaborated with black individuals, activists, and artists in a first attempt to transform a largely segregated and racist American society during this time period (Richard Powell, Harlem Renaissance).