the movementthe movement “a literary, artistic, and intellectual movement that kindled a new...
TRANSCRIPT
Think about the word Harlem.
What associations do you have with this word? What images, ideas, thoughts
come to you?
The Harlem Renaissance
1917-1937 or so
Movement within Modernist Literature
Harlem Renaissance Overview
The Movement
“A literary, artistic, and intellectual movement that kindled a new black cultural identity”
Critic and teacher Alan Locke declared that through art, “Negro life is seizing its first chances for group expression and self determination”
Locke’s “New Negro” transformed “social disillusionment to race pride”
Background
As the American Civil War came to an end, African-Americans experienced a growth in educational and employment opportunities
Black middle class was created
1896 – Plessy v. Ferguson (court case that deemed segregation acceptable)
Boll weevils ruin cotton crops in the South, causing economic depression (less labor opportunities)
African-Americans began to move North by the millions to find work and to escape racial prejudice
Known as “The Great Migration”
Why Harlem?
Neighborhoods in Harlem were first built to house white workers commuting to the city
Housing developments grew faster than the transportation that would bring residents
White-middle class abandons Harlem; gentrification of Mid-town forced many blacks to leave the area
As a result, between 1900-1920, the population of African-Americans in NYC doubled
Many of the country’s best black artists, entrepreneurs and intellectuals settled in Harlem
Became known as “The Black Mecca”
Notable landmarks of
Harlem
Apollo Theatre
The Cotton Club
Striver’s Row
Notable LandmarksStriver’s Row The Cotton Club
Art of the Period
Jacob Lawrence –
“Street Life”
Archibald Motley“Nightlife”
Archibald Motley “The Jazz Singers”
Literature of the Movement
Whites fascinated by the world of Harlem
Publishing industry sought out black writers
Much of the literature focused on realistic portrayal of black life
Movement’s intent was not political, but aesthetic Any attempt to defy racial prejudice through writing
was “secondary to the expression of our dark-skinned selves” – Langston Hughes
A New Perspective Emerges Through Art
The Old Negro
Characterized by “implied inferiority”
Black artists/writers did not control means of production
Did not control editorial changes, etc.
The “New Negro”
Racially conscious
Self-assertive
Articulate/Intellectual
In charge of what they produced
Writers of the Period
Black urban migration, combined with the willingness of Americans to experiment during the 1920s and the rise of black intellectuals like Alan Locke and W.E.B. DuBois contributed to the writing styles of this era
Notable writers and poets of the period: Langston Hughes Countee Cullen Zora Neal Hurston Nella Larson Jean Toomer
Literary Characteristics
Creation of art and literature should serve to “uplift” the race
Some writers explored themes such as alienation and marginality
Some writers relied on the rich African-American tradition of folklore, black dialect, oral culture, jazz and blues music to create different forms of writing
Some writers wrote about the growth of the African-American into a more urban and sophisticated person
“Reflects the multiple ways the black experience was perceived and expressed”
Focus Poet – Langston Hughes (1902-
1967) Some of Hughes’
most famous poems: Harlem (A Dream D
eferred) I, Too Negro Speaks of Ri
vers Theme for English
B
Cultural and Political Impact
Politics:
NAACP founded in 1909 – (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) paved way for other political groups of the same nature
Negro Improvement Association founded by Marcus Garvey
Culture:
The introduction and transformation of the world of Jazz
Musicians such as Duke Ellington, Billie Holliday
Duke Ellington statue
End of the Renaissance
End of the 1920s brought the end of white infatuation with Harlem
The Great Depression hit black Americans especially hard
Leaders who came to rise in Harlem shifted focus from art and intellect to financial and social issues
Tensions mounted between blacks community and white shop-owners in Harlem and culminated in the Harlem Riots of 1935 – first modern race riot –
Violence shattered image of Harlem as a “mecca”
Paved the way for future African-American writers like Gwendolyn Brooks