The Harlem Renaissance was a literary, artistic, and intellectual movement that kindled a new black cultural identity, spanning the 1920s and to the mid-1930s. While reading the article “Black Renaissance: A Brief History of the Concept” I learned that the Harlem Renaissance was once a debatable topic. Ernest J. Mitchell wrote the article, explaining how the term “Harlem Renaissance” did not originate in the era that it claims to describe. The movement “Harlem Renaissance” did not appear in print before 1940 and it only gained widespread appeal in the 1960s. During the four preceding decades, writers had mostly referred to it as “Negro Renaissance.”…
Alain Locke said that African artist should reconnect with their roots. Locke’s writings were a major force behind the Harlem Renaissance movement. Sargent Johnson is a reflection of the ancestral arts with works like forever free, that show very pronounced African features on raw wood. Jacob Lawrence studied the ancestral arts of Africa and then produced his own version. He used his new style of African painting to create 41 paintings showing the revolt that led to Haiti’s independence. Archibald Motley went a decidedly different way by painting everyday Negros doing normal everyday activities. He wanted to tell the story of his people and what it meant to be Negro. Langston Hughes felt like Motley in that he wanted to tell the story of the…
Zora Neale Hurston was an influential author, which impacted and influenced the Harlem Renaissance. The wonderful composer was born on January 7, 1891, in Notasulga, Alabama, and died on January 28, 1960. She was the daughter of two former slaves John Hurston, who was a pastor, and Lucy Ann Hurston. At an early age, the magnificent writer and her family moved to Eatonville, Florida and soon after her mother died. Most of her compositions takes place in Eatonville, Florida, since it was the place where she grew up and experienced most of her childhood. After the death of Zora Neale Hurston, her father remarried and sent Zora Neale Hurston to a boarding school in Jacksonville, Florida. However, her family could not afford to pay her tuition…
Henry Ossawa Tanner was an African American pioneer of art who painted images that displayed tranquil scenes of religion and racial injustice. Tanner used his paintings as nonviolent weapons to fight against the stereotypes that characterized African Americans during the 1800s. He expressed his beliefs with serene paintings that endured messages of peace and devotion.…
Later, in 1954, we had the Civil Rights Movement. Civil rights activists used nonviolent protest and civil disobedience to bring about change, thus us having the Voting Act of 1965 and the Civil Rights Act of 1968. So, the Harlem Renaissance let the African Americans express themselves and have more demand for freedom. And yes, more black rappers and artist in the music world still expressing themselves in the United States. Whites thought blacks should not be involved and that they were non important.…
The Harlem Renaissance was a period in history where the arts in the African American community flourished. The Harlem Renaissance took place after the end of World War I and expanded into the middle of the 1930s. The Harlem Renaissance brought out African American writers, poets, artists, composers, singers, and dancers. These arts were influenced by artistic development and racial pride. The Harlem Renaissance was a time where the arts became popular and many forms of literature and music were created. Jazz and the blues were popular music stylings in the Harlem Renaissance. Theater also became popular. The first musical written, produced, and performed by African Americans, Shuffle Along, was also created and made it’s Broadway debut in…
Black artist previously were producing art that reflected European Influence. However it was during the Harlem movement that the artist own identity took on a new meaning. The Harlem Renaissance which began in the 1920’s finally allowed artists to analysis their own selves, their ethnic, and their culture by utilizing their heritage. This ethnic expression developed a realistic movement of cultural and Americanism. African American artists during this period began to gain self-confidence, pride, self-value, and self-admiration while they struggle for community and ethnic independence. Harlem was the place that every African American wanted to be including the Caribbean’s. Southerners took…
While the three main figures travel to an advanced society, they leave behind those who are who are in chains. The ethnicities of these two economic classes are not completely clear, but the viewer can assume the painting contrasts the social positions of enslaved African Americans and free whites. Douglas was a prominent African-American leader of the Harlem Renaissance (Coleman, n.d.). In addition, he painted the hands of the slaves with a darker tone than the bodies of the individuals that are free. While this painting was effective in renewing awareness of the plight of the African Americans during the Harlem Renaissance, the idea that Douglas did not give the people a definite ethnicity allows the work to last beyond its…
Undoubtedly, the notion of blackness influenced the development of the Harlem Renaissance. African Americans wanted to find a new value of their skin color in order to brake with old stereotypes. As E. Patrick Johnson states, during the time of Harlem Renaissance, blackness was perceived as a sort of a weapon to fight with the white dominance. During the time of slavery, African Americans were excluded from political and cultural life and, that is why, they decided to actively stand up against this subordination and exclusion (Johnson, 2003).…
Harlem Renaissance was African-American’s cultural movement that began in 1920, it was blossoming of African American culture in terms of literature and art starting in the 1920 to 1930 reflecting the growth of Black Nationalism and racial identity. Some universal themes symbolized throughout the Harlem Renaissance were the unique experience of thralldom slavery and egressing African-American folk customs on black individuality. African American population of United States highly contributed in this movement; they played a great role to support it. In fact, major contribution was made by black-owned businesses and publication of their literary works. Nevertheless, it relied on the patronization of whites.…
In the two decades preceding the Harlem Renaissance socialism was appealing to many African American intellectuals who not only felt the invasion and the effects of capitalism, but also sought to draw a connection to the motherland, Africa, where socialism was widespread at the time. Socialist ideology caused many intellectuals of the Harlem Renaissance to join the socialist movement. In 1911, Du Bois (1995) joined the Socialist Party and supported many of its positions over the years. Such socialist tendencies usually help advocate the revival of nationalism in literature that is a common goal for virtually all colonized countries. The revival of nationalism, which helps demarcate the boundaries of cultural and political entity, is usually…
During the Harlem Renaissance the African Americans were trying to identify themselves in a new manner. They were moving into their new home, America. Their old image needed to be wiped away. Their answer to the problem was resolved through art. In The Harlem Renaissance art was used as a specific depiction of the African American changing culture.…
The Harlem Renaissance was the revival of African American culture. Though the 1920 movement is over, the words and messages that were spread are still used today. The Harlem Renaissance ultimately led to new genres of literature and philosophical ideas concerning problems that African Americans went through during the early twentieth century in the United States. Most authors that originated from the harlem renaissance wrote about their own personal experiences, the alienation and marginalization in American society. From that stemmed new genres and historical literature that is still referenced today. Some examples can be Their Eyes Were Watching God by Janie Crawford, where she talks about her early life with her grandmother, and Cane by…
Many of the artists described impose “modern” and cultural aspects into their pieces to present the black Harlem culture during that particular time. Although, as Powell clearly states on several occasions, African American art and their ideas remain unrecognized by some despite the role these works have played in the construction of modernity (Powell, 20). Powell continues his discussion by listing and describing several artist who contributed towards the Harlem Renaissance such as: James VanDerZee, Archibald J. Motley Jr., Aaron Douglas, Miguel Covarrubias, and much more. Overall, the combination of all forms of art are what made the Harlem Renaissance such an amazing period in time. Men and women who were going through similar hardships, in approximately the same area create beautiful works for art (literature, music, and visual art) focused their pain and sadness in a very creative manner which inspired other to do the same. Those who were not able to copy, did what they were capable of doing. For me, this is an amazing topic to consider because of how these African Americans used their hardships to create…things, beautiful things. What amazes me even more is that it was a cultural event, where large masses of people used art to express themselves instead of violence (even though that still existed during the Harlem…
The Harlem Renaissance was an iconic movement of the nineteenth century. It was a social and intellectual eruption that was located in Harlem, New York. Legends such as Duke Ellington, Zora Neale Hurston, Aaron Douglas, and many more, all originated from this extraordinary movement. Claude McKay is one of the most legendary authors that contributed the Harlem Renaissance. McKay wrote many iconic pieces. To name a few, he wrote poems titled, “If We Must Die”, “Harlem Shadows”, and “America”. By doing the impossible and being heard when he could not speak, Claude McKay has used his voice for social justice and has changed the world for the better.…