The Harlem Renaissance brought about many great changes in the 1920’s. It was time for the African-American culture to be expressed. Many things came about in the Harlem Renaissance such as jazz and blues, poetry, dancing, and musical theater. Harlem became one of the largest African-American communities in the United States. Many of people came to Harlem from all over the US, and other countries to witness some of the creative and interesting things the would change the outlook on the future of the African-American culture. Most of the things African-Americans did or started became popular around the world. Many great writers, artists, musicals, and the people that wrote them. Out of the many artists Aaron Douglas the painter, Claude McKay …show more content…
the writer, and the musical Shuffle Along. These are some big reasons African-American people became more equal and better known. Many artists came from the harlem renaissance.
Aaron Douglas was one particular artist, who was known for being called “The Father of the Black American Art.” He created powerful images of African-American life and struggles. Douglas was born in Topeka, Kansas on May 26, 1899. He attended a trade school in 1906, but the school was destroyed by an earthquake, and he was apprenticed to a cabinet maker. In 1907 douglas met a man called walter jekyll. Jekyll encouraged him to write dialect verse, and later jekyll put some of douglas’ verses into music. He moved to Lincoln, Nebraska in 1917 and pursued his passion in graphic arts. Douglas earned his bachelor's degree in fine arts in 1922 and three years after he graduated he moved to Harlem in the year 1925. In 1926 douglas married Alta Sawyer and they lived in Harlem together. He illustrated many books like God's Trombone, by James Weldon Johnson, and Paul Morand's Black Magic. Aaron Douglas passed away at the age of 79, on February 2, 1979 in a hospital in Nashville, Tennessee. (“”) Aaron douglas influenced many artists in the Harlem Renaissance, and his impact on the life of Harlem will never be forgotten. Art isn't the only positive thing that came from the Harlem Renaissance, there was also a lot of inspiring books that were
written. During the 1920s many writers wrote about the struggles of black life. Biography.com says that Claude McKay was a very different kind of writer, who explored more life styles than most other writers did. McKay had an interest in communism and he used that interest to help inspire some of the most famous writings.. McKay was born in Sunny Ville, Jamaica on September 15, 1889, and he grew up in poverty, and he constantly struggled. In 1912 he decides to go to trade school, He received award money from the Jamaican Institute of Arts and used it to move to the United States. He studied at Tuskegee Institute and Kansas State College. He moved to Harlem in 1914. He left the United States for 2 years for european travel for two years. While he was there he published a new collection of poems in 1920. He is known for his novels, essays, and poems such as If we must die, and Harlem Shadows. His very first published work was his book of verse, Songs of Jamaica, and Constab Ballads (biography.com). So many writers became famous during the harlem renaissance, and not only did writers become know, but many different kinds of music and musicals became well known during this time. The rush to visit Harlem in 1921 to see Negro entertainment started when an all black play Shuffle Along was written. It was completely written, produced and performed by negros. It became the broadway show to see (The Harlem Hotcha! 84). On May 23, 1921 in New York City, New York at the Howard Theater the show opened (“Shuffle Along(1921)”). The play Shuffle Along helped the status of African Americans on Broadway and helped the African American arts and literature known as the Harlem Renaissance. The play was set in Dixieland, it is about an election for mayor (“New Directions in the Broadway Musical”) The musical was a financial success. They showed more than 500 shows, and toured all over the country and sold out at almost every venue (“Meeting Blake and Creating ‘Shuffle Along’ ”). This all negro broadway show started the turning point of black entertainment in the US (“Musical of the Month: Shuffle Along”). Although the play was showed for more than a year they had more hit musicals on broadway in the years that would come. The 1920s The Harlem Renaissance was the turning point where African-American got to do more artistic things. The more and more they perfected, the more people loved to come from all over to see them in Harlem weather it be jazz, or paintings. Aaron Douglas was an illustrator for people who wrote books, and he expressed himself in his paintings about blacks. Claude Mckay was one of the first Harlem writers to publish, and his poetry spoke out about the injustice done to blacks. The musical “Shuffle Along” was a big hit on broadway all different races came to watch. This made white people respect the African-American people more than they did before from just watching the play. All these artistic, creative, and hard working African-American Made the turning point in time. It gave them a better look at the future at what was to come for the African-American and them being closer to being equal.
Between 1910 and 1930, Harlem began thriving with African- American arts such as literature, theatre and painting, and music. This era was soon known as the Harlem Renaissance. During this time racial pride became a very big thing among African- American artists, but the only problem was how to best show this pride. Both high art and folk art can give a good expression of racial pride.
An important person during the Harlem Renaissance was an artist named Jacob Lawrence. He is one considered one of the greatest painters of modern history. His best known paintings are his paintings based on Harriet Tubman and the Great Migration. For in his paintings he includes his emotions during the great migration. When African-Americans started to flee to urban north in look for jobs and get out of the rural south and the Jim Crow Laws.
The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement of blacks that helped changed their identity. Creative expression flourished because it was the only chance blacks had to express themselves in any way and be taken seriously. World War I and the need for workers up North were a few pull factors for the migration and eventually the Renaissance. A push was the growing discrimination and danger blacks were being faced with in the southern cities. When blacks migrated they saw the opportunity to express themselves in ways they hadn’t been able to do down south. While the Harlem Renaissance taught blacks about their heritage and whites the heritage of others, there were also negative effects. The blacks up North were having the time of their lives, being mostly free from discrimination and racism but down South the KKK was at its peak and blacks that didn’t have the opportunities to migrate experienced fatal hatred and discrimination.
The Harlem Renaissance is the name given to a period at the end of World War I through the mid-30s, in which a group of talented African-Americans managed to produce outstanding work through a cultural, social, and artistic explosion. Also known as the New Negro Movement. It is one of the greatest periods of cultural and intellectual development of a population historically repressed. The Harlem Renaissance was the rebirth of art in the African-American community mostly centering in Harlem, New York, during the 1920s. Jazz, literature, and painting emphasized significantly between the artistic creations of the main components of this impressive movement. It was in this time of great
That’s when I first gained an appreciation of the Harlem Renaissance, a time when African Americans rose to prominence in American culture. For the first time, they were taken seriously as artist, musicians, writers, athletes, and as political thinkers”(Kareem Abdul-Jabbar). African Americans writers during this time was capturing the beauty of black lives. Blacks were discovering many reasons to have pride in their race. Racial pride was helping them achieve equality in society. People were starting to write the way they wanted, instead of the ways whites wanted. Creating their
The Harlem Renaissance was a time of racism, injustice, and importance. Somewhere in between the 1920s and 1930s an African American movement occurred in Harlem, New York City. The Harlem Renaissance exalted the unique culture of African-Americans and redefined African-American expression. It was the result of Blacks migrating in the North, mostly Chicago and New York. There were many significant figures, both male and female, that had taken part in the Harlem Renaissance. Ida B. Wells and Langston Hughes exemplify the like and work of this movement.
The New Negro Movement, widely known as The Harlem Renaissance, rolled into Harlem, New York – and touched the whole of America – like a gale-force wind. As every part of America reveled in the prosperity and gaiety of the decade, African Americans used the decade as a stepping stone for future generations. With the New Negro Movement came an abundance of black artistic, cultural, and intellectual stimulation. Literary achievers like Langston Hughes, Zora Neal Hurston, Claude McKay, and Countee Cullen rocked the world with their immense talent and strove to show that African Americans should be respected. Musicians, dancers, and singers like Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Josephine Baker and Bessie Smith preformed for whites and blacks alike in famed speakeasies like The Cotton Club. Intellectuals like Marcus Garvey, W.E.B. DuBois, and Alain Locke stood to empower and unify colored people of all ages. The Harlem Renaissance was not just a moment in time; it was a movement of empowerment for African Americans across the nation, and remains as such today.
The Harlem Renaissance enriched America through its music. Countless African Americans became key figures in music during this time. The Harlem Renaissance was a time of African American expression in art, music, and literature. The Harlem Renaissance was instigated by the migration of African Americans to northern cities that was taking place in America at that time. (Hutchinson) The music of the Harlem Renaissance brought about a sense of equality among black and white Americans and was a sense of inspiration, which was made possible through African American migration and led to civil rights movement of the 1960s.
The Harlem Renaissance, originally known as “the New Negro Movement”, was a cultural, social, and artistic movement during the 1920’s that took place in Harlem. This movement occurred after the World War I and drew in many African Americans who wanted to escape from the South to the North where they could freely express their artistic abilities. This movement was known as The Great Migration. During the 1920’s, many black writers, singers, musicians, artists, and poets gained success including Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, Marcus Garvey, and W.E.B. Du Bois. These creative black artists made an influence to society in the 1920’s and an impact on the Harlem Renaissance.
During the Great Migration, an influx of African Americans fled to Northern cities from the South wishing to flee oppression and the harshness of life as sharecroppers. They brought about a new, black social and cultural identity- a period that later became known as the Harlem Renaissance. Originally the Harlem Renaissance was referred to as the “New Negro Movement” (Reader’s Companion.) It made a huge impact on urban life. The Harlem Renaissance played a major role in African American art, music, poetic writing styles, culture and society.
The months and even the years prior to the Harlem Renaissance was very bleak and the futures of life in America for African-Americans didn’t bode seem to bode very. Well progression towards and reaching the era known as the Harlem Renaissance changed the whole perception of the future of the African-American people as well as life for the group as we know it today. It can be best described by George Hutchinson as ”a blossoming (c. 1918–37) of African American culture, particularly in the creative arts, and the most influential movement in African American literary history [that took place specifically in Harlem]. Embracing literary, musical, theatrical, and visual arts...”. With an increase on the focus of “Black culture”, America seemed
During the 1920's and 30’s, America went through a period of astonishing artistic creativity, the majority of which was concentrated in one neighborhood of New York City, Harlem. The creators of this period of growth in the arts were African-American writers and other artists. Langston Hughes is considered to be one of the most influential writers of the period know as the Harlem Renaissance. With the use of blues and jazz Hughes managed to express a range of different themes all revolving around the Negro. He played a major role in the Harlem Renaissance, helping to create and express black culture. He also wrote of political views and ideas, racial inequality and his opinion on religion. I believe that Langston Hughes’ poetry helps to capture the era know as the Harlem Renaissance.
Occurring in the 1920’s and into the 1930’s, the Harlem Renaissance was an important movement for African-Americans all across America. This movement allowed the black culture to be heard and accepted by white citizens. The movement was expressed through art, music, and literature. These things were also the most known, and remembered things of the renaissance. Also this movement, because of some very strong, moving and inspiring people changed political views for African-Americans. Compared to before, The Harlem Renaissance had major effects on America during and after its time.
The Harlem Renaissance was a period of great rebirth for African American people and according to the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, the “Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned the 1920s and 1930s.” Wikipedia also indicates that it was also known as the “Negro Movement, named after the 1925 Anthology by Alan Locke.” Blacks from all over America and the Caribbean and flocked to Harlem, New York. Harlem became a sort of “melting pot” for Black America. Writers, artists, poets, musicians and dancers converged there spanning a renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance was also one of the most important chapters in the era of African American literature. This literary period gave way to a new type of writing style. This style is known as “creative literature.” Creative literature enabled writers to express their thoughts and feelings about various issues that were of importance to African Americans. These issues include racism, gender and identity, and others that we...
... The Harlem Renaissance was a time of growth and development for African-Americans. They wrote novels, performed in clubs, and created the genre of Jazz. However, the Renaissance was imprisoned by its flaws. Rather than celebrating the unique culture of African-American’s, it oftentimes caters to what the White Americans would want to see and hear.