Harlem Renaissance Research Paper

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The Harlem Renaissance was one of the most popular eras of American history. It sparked and uprise in Jazz, Blues, Arts, and new poetry. Today Harlem is looked as a symbolic figure and was a major impact to culture today and later generations. It all began in the “negro capital of America,” Harlem, New York, home to some of the biggest artist, musicians, writers, and speakers (Lewis). “The relationship of music to the Harlem Renaissance was hard for reasons exactly similar to it’s view of Garveyism and evangelism” (Lewis). The Harlem Renaissance began somewhat as a forced phenomenon. “The population of African Americans rapidly urbanized and the literacy rate climbed.’’ The Harlem Renaissance was considered to have begun in 1917 (Lewis). Harlem was a place and time of rapidly increasing African American music genres, like Blues and Jazz. Classic Jazz composers all over the United States were drawn to New York as the nation’s music center. “The movement was shaped significantly by Alain Locke, a Howard University Philosopher’’ (Baughman). Langston Hughes was one of the most famous writers along with James Weldon Johnson and Zora Neale Huston. “Accomplished as a writer of fiction and drama, but known …show more content…

“However, despite the ongoing debates about whether or not the Harlem Renaissance was this an misnomer” (McLendon). Whether it was a successful movement at all or not, Harlem became a symbolic figure. “It was resonated across time and space, as well as across gender, racial, and cultural boundaries” (McLendon). Today there are hundreds of thousands of Black musicians, artists, and writers. Due to the Harlem Renaissance and outbreak of new music and type of art began. “Many writers of European and Asian as well as African descent have found the idea of Harlem to be relevant to their preoccupations and employed the figure of black Harlem in significant ways”

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