THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE FINE ART PERFORMING ART LITERATURE

The Great Migration African Americans looked to the North to find freedom and economic opportunities During World War I, African Americans found factory jobs in the North

Harlem By the early 1920s, about 200,000 African Americans lived in the city of New York. Blacks were allowed to live in the neighborhood of Harlem. It became the unofficial capital of African American culture

The Harlem Renaissance Transformations in the African American community contributed to a blossoming of black culture in Harlem, New York Numerous Black artists, musicians, and writers inspired one another to reach new heights of creativity It reflected a strong sense of racial pride

New York Customs House Museum of the American Indian The 4 statues represent the Four Corners of the World

FINE ART 1.What do you see in this painting or sculpture? 2.What is the figure doing? 3.What symbols do you see? 4.What is the message the artist is trying to communicate?

Asia (c 1904) by Daniel Chester French

Europe (c 1904) by Daniel Chester French

by By: Daniel Chester French 1.What do you see in this sculpture? 2.What is the figure doing? 3.What are the symbols? AMERICA

AFRICA by Daniel Chester French 1.What do you see in this sculpture? 2.What is the figure doing? 3.What are the symbols?

AFRICA

CONTRAST

Stereotype A stereotype is a commonly held popular belief about specific groups or types of individuals “Stereotype” and “Prejudice” are often confused

Stereotypes White men can’t ___________ Asians are really ___________ Asians can’t ___________ If you are Black, you must be really ___ If you are Mexican, you must be _____

Stereotypes Ethiopia Awakening (1914) by Meta Fuller Stereotypes of African Americans in the 1920’s portrayed in this sculpture

The Ascent of Ethiopia By Lois Mailou Jones (1932) 1.What do you see in this painting? 2.What are the figures doing? 3.What are the symbols? 4.What is the message?

Literature It has been argued that the Harlem Renaissance, or the New Negro Movement, is the defining moment in African American literature because of an unprecedented outburst of creativity among black writers. The importance of this movement to African American literary art lies in the efforts of its writers to exalt the heritage of African Americans and to use their art as a means to re-define African Americans.

What is a Negro? Term used to refer to people of African American ancestry Used in the 20th century through the Civil Rights Movement The term is no longer acceptable in contemporary speech

The Old Negro vs. The New Negro Mythology of Black people being backward Stereotypes of mammy, coon, sambo The black person believes these myths about himself Modern Has self-respect and self-dependence Excited about the future Leads boldly away from the past

If We Must Die (1919) Claude McKay Jamaican immigrant Poet at age 10 Novelist and Journalist Wrote about black life, violence, and political injustice

If We Must Die If we must die, let it not be like hogs Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot, While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs, Making their mock at our accursed lot. If we must die, O let us nobly die, So that our precious blood may not be shed In vain, then even the monsters we defy Shall be constrained to honor us thought dead! O kinsmen, We must meet the common foe! Though far outnumbered let us show us brave, And for their thousand blows deal one deathblow! What though before us lies the open grave? Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack, Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!

Pair - Share Describe the theme of “If I Must Die” How does this describe the “New Negro?”

Connection The Harlem Renaissance, or the New Negro Movement, was the kick-off to the Civil Rights Movement It was the inspiration and the motivation for change Notice the connection of the poem to pictures of the Civil Rights Movement four decades later