The Characteristics Of The Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement that sparked black modernization. This period in history introduced art, music, and the culture of people with African descent. Although all of these characteristics help to understand the African lifestyle, there are obstacles surrounding this topic. Without the Harlem Renaissance, people may not have experienced such things as rap music or hip hop. Through this movement, everyone has a better understanding of how African Americans lived at that point in time. However, there have been several altercations dating back to the 1900s, one of which involves the very popular Academy Awards. Numerous people have noticed that all of the nominees were white, which causes people

Clearly, the actions that took place during the Harlem Renaissance still affect the decisions made today. The Harlem Renaissance was a period that occurred in Harlem, New York between the end of World War I and the middle of the 1930s. Harlem became a culture center that enticed African American artists such as “Wallace Thurman, Langston Hughes, James Weldon Johnson, and Alice Dunbar-Nelson” (Henderson 516) to showcase their talents . According to Shadi Neimneh writer of many interracial novels assesses Claude McKay’s poem “If We Must Die” by saying that“[the author Du Bois] thought blacks could achieve through culture what could not be achieved through...violence or weapons”(153). Unfortunately, though African Americans did express themselves through the arts, many types of violence followed after. Their mentality evolved from being timid to becoming completely confident which became known as the “New Negro Mentality”(Neimneh 153). This mentality made African Americans realize that they can be whatever they want to be, it empowered them

The violence, inequality, and question of epistemology associated with the Harlem Renaissance is what triggers the controversy and is why the African American community still faces tough challenges to this day. Although this is a very difficult topic to openly discuss with people, it is necessary because there are definitely affairs that no one would have known about had there not been that cultural shift in Harlem. So the next time someone is listening to the radio and bobbing their head to the beat of the rap music, think about all the predicaments people have gone through to give them that