1. “Harlem is indeed the great Mecca for the sight-seer; the pleasure seeker, the curious, the adventurous, the enterprising, the ambitious and the talented of the whole Negro world." - Alain Locke Enter

2. Harlem Renaissance What was it? Why? Foundation Writers Visual artists The Musical Element The Legacy Why did it end? Importance

3. What was the Harlem Renaissance? The Harlem Renaissance was a period of time in the early 20th century, particularly the 1920s and early 1930s, when African American thought and culture was redefined. African heritage and roots were embraced by the movement’s young writers, artists, and musicians, who found in Harlem a place to express themselves. The movement altered not only African American culture, but American culture as a whole. Take me home

4. What were two of the historical influences? MigrationWorld War I Ends Take me home

5. Migration African Americans moved in large numbers north from mostly rural locations to urban centers to: 1. Find better education for their children 2. Look for better employment opportunities 3. Escape the institutionalized racism of the South Take me home Why?

6. World War I ends Optimism that African- American contributions at home and abroad during the war would lead to more equality Return to focus on issues at home New emphasis on community building among African- Americans in the North Why? Take me home

7. How is it important to the American Experience? Validated and gave voice to the 20th century African-American experience Helped to shape and reshape black identity Source of racial pride Rejection of the “minstrel tradition” in American literature of the caricatured, stereotypical black “characters” Vital and creative period in American arts— literature, music, visual and performing arts. Take me home

8. Writers Novelists Poets Take me home

9. Novelists Zora Neale Hurston Alain Locke Writers Take me home

10. Zora Neale Hurston Lived in first “incorporated” black community in Eatonville, Florida Moved to Harlem in 1925 Graduated from Columbia University in 1928 Most famous book, Their Eyes Were Watching God was published in 1937. Her work focused on blacks living in rural Southern communities in the early 1800s She never addressed white racism in her writing. She focused instead on her belief that black Americans could attain sovereignty from the racism that existed in American society. Novelists Take me home “Mama exhorted her children at every opportunity to ‘jump at de sun.’ We might not land on the sun, but at least we would get off the ground.” Read an excerpt from How it Feels to Be A Colored Me

11. Excerpt of "How it Feels to be Colored Me” by Zora Neale Hurston But I am not tragically colored. There is no great sorrow dammed up in my soul, nor lurking behind my eyes. I do not mind at all. I do not belong to the sobbing school of Negrohood who hold that nature somehow has given them a lowdown dirty deal and whose feelings are all hurt about it. Even in the helter-skelter skirmish that is my life, I have seen that the world is to the strong regardless of a little pigmentation more or less. No, I do not weep at the world—I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife. Someone is always at my elbow reminding me that I am the granddaughter of slaves. It fails to register depression with me. Slavery is sixty years in the past. The operation was successful and the patient is doing well, thank you. The terrible struggle that made me an American out of a potential slave said "On the line!" The Reconstruction said "Get set!"; and the generation before said "Go!" I am off to a flying start and I must not halt in the stretch to look behind and weep. Slavery is the price I paid for civilization, and the choice was not with me. It is a bully adventure and worth all that I have paid through my ancestors for it. No one on earth ever had a greater chance for glory. The world to be won and nothing to be lost. It is thrilling to think—to know that for any act of mine, I shall get twice as much praise or twice as much blame. It is quite exciting to hold the center of the national stage, with the spectators not knowing whether to laugh or to weep. The position of my white neighbor is much more difficult. No brown specter pulls up a chair beside me when I sit down to eat. No dark ghost thrusts its leg against mine in bed. The game of keeping what one has is never so exciting as the game of getting. I do not always feel colored. Even now I often achieve the unconscious Zora of Eatonville before the Hegira. I feel most colored when I am thrown against a sharp white background. Back to Zora

12. Alain Locke In many ways, was a sort of father figure of the Harlem Renaissance, because without his support many black artists during this era would not have been successful Was the first African American Rhodes Scholar He had a vision that young black artists and writers should use African roots as the basis of their art and culture He was editor of “The New Negro” a very popular anthology magazine Click the picture to the left to read an article from the March 1925 edition of The New Negro. Many people have called it the manifesto of the Harlem Renaissance. (Read the 6 th paragraph beginning with “YET.”) Novelists Take me home

13. Countee Cullen Listen to Countee Cullen read Heritage Adopted by a pioneer black activist minister and his wife Well-educated (earned his Masters in English and French from Harvard) Wrote “white” poetry and often focused on racial concerns Won more major literary awards than any other black writer of the 1920s April 9, 1928, he married Yolande Du Bois (they divorced in 1930) Wanted to be known as a poetpoet Novelists Take me home

14. If I am going to be a poet at all, I am going to be POET and not NEGRO POET. This is what has hindered the development of artists among us. Their one note has been the concern with their race. That is all very well, none of us can get away from it. I cannot at times. You will see it in my verse. The consciousness of this is to poignant at times. I cannot escape it. But what I mean is this: I shall not write of negro subjects for the purpose of propaganda. That is not what a poet is concerned with. Of course, when the emotion rising out of the fact that I am a negro is strong, I express it. But that is another matter. Countee Cullen (Brooklyn Eagle, 10 Feb. 1924)

15. Claude McKay Was born in Jamaica on September 15, 1889 1920, published Spring in New Hampshire in England Many of the poems from Spring in New Hampshire were used in his Harlem Shadows (published 1922, in New York) Harlem Shadows showcased a new African American voice. It was bold and angry. It discussed the racial prejudices that McKay experienced when he arrived in America. Click here to read his poem “If We Must Die”Click here to read his poem “If We Must Die” PoetsPoets Take me homeTake me home

16. Poets Langston Hughes Countee Cullen Claude McKay Writers Take me home

17. Langston Hughes Known as the “Poet Laureate of Harlem” One of the first African Americans to support himself solely as a writer Blended the sounds of jazz into his poetry Emphasized lower-class Black life Focused on the need for artistic independence and racial pride Poets Take me home Read The Negro Speaks of Rivers

18. The Negro Speaks of Rivers By Langston Hughes I've known rivers: I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins. My soul has grown deep like the rivers. I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young. I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep. I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it. I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans, and I've seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset. I've known rivers: Ancient, dusky rivers. My soul has grown deep like the rivers. Back to Hughes

19. Visual Artists Aaron Douglass Palmer Hayden James Vanderzee Take me home

20. Aaron Douglass Often called the “Father of African American Art,” Douglass used traditional African style in his art He was supported by W.E.B. DuBois and Alain Locke when he first arrived in Harlem from Kansas Visual Artists Take me home God’s Trombone

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22. Palmer Hayden Extremely talented painter Early in his career he focused mostly on landscapes In 1927, he moved to Paris and grew greatly as an artist In 1932, he returned to the U.S., and changed his focus to small town African Americans He has been criticized for perpetuating stereotypes of African American physical features Visual Artists Take me home View one of Hayden’s paintings

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24. James Vanderzee His photographs of the people and places of Harlem are his most famous works. His pictures reflected pride, dignity, and idealism. He photographed many famous Harlem Renaissance artists. Visual Artists Take me home Click here to see some of Vanderzee’s photoshere

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26. Musical Element Duke Ellington Bessie Smith Take me home “Jazz and blues provided the background, the spirit, and the style for the achievements of the period’s literary and visual artists.” —Kelly King Howes, Harlem Renaissance

27. Duke Ellington Click here to listen to East St. Louis Toodle-oo (1926) Musical Element Take me home One of the most famous names in Jazz Altered the sound of jazz by blending the genre with African and Latin musical elements During the Harlem Renaissance, he and his band played at the hip Cotton Club, which only allowed white patrons. During the late 1920s, he was everywhere: touring, on Broadway, and in the movies

28. Bessie Smith The most successful black performing artist of her time Recorded with the biggest names in music at the time. Was over six feet tall and weighed more than 200 pounds. Starred in St. Louis Blues (1929) Died in a car accident in 1936 Musical Element Take me home Watch Bessie Smith sing St. Louis Blues

29. Why did it end? –Great DepressionGreat Depression –Harlem Riot of 1935 –End of Prohibition “I was there. I had a swell time while it lasted. But I thought it wouldn’t last long... For how could a large and enthusiastic number of people be crazy about Negroes forever?” —Langston Hughes in his autobiography Take me home

30. Great Depression Take me home European-Americans became less accepting of African-American art and culture Economic problems for all Americans but especially African- Americans Changes in optimism for African- Americans

31. Legacy and Influences It brought African-American arts to the foreground. Left an artistic foundation for later writers, painters, and musicians The themes and ideas expressed inspired future African American authors: Ralph Ellison Richard Wright Toni Morrison Alice Walker Take me home