1. Harlem Renaissance Project 2015  Background  Poetry, Art, Music Choices

2. America was at a turning point during the Roaring Twenties!
Old versus New
Farms to Cities
Prohibition Backfired
Stock Market Boomed
New Rights for Women
Radio & Movies
Harlem Renaissance

3. What is Harlem?
Harlem is a section of New York City where many African American artists, musicians, and writers gathered in the 1920s.
The neighborhood became a center of black culture through music clubs, art galleries, and literary events.

4. When did the Harlem Renaissance happen?
1865
End of Civil War
Lincoln Killed
13th Amendment (End of Slavery)
WW I
Great Migration
Harlem
Renaissance
1920s-1940
WWII
Plessy v. Ferguson
1896
Roaring Twenties
1920s
Great
Depression
1930s
Reconstruction

5. What’s so special about the Harlem Renaissance?
The Harlem Renaissance is important because African American art, music, and literature reflected life at the time for many Americans, black and white. It also laid the foundation for popular American culture from the 1920s until today.

6. How did the work of the Harlem Renaissance artists reflect the changes happening in America in the 1920s?

7. First, let’s hear some music…
Bullets and Bayonets
by John Philips Sousa
It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing
by Duke Ellington

8. Next, let’s look at some artwork…
American Gothic – Grant Wood
Street Life, Harlem – William H. Johnson

9. Other Paintings by William H. Johnson

10. Harlem Renaissance Poetry, Art, and Music
In this project, you will choose a poem that interests you from this presentation. You will also choose a piece of art of music that you feel complements the poem you chose. Next, you will write a mini-essay comparing and contrasting the two pieces. Finally, you will write a poem that reflects your personal response to the works you chose.

11. A few words about words…
The word “negro” is no longer an acceptable term for African American people or culture. However, the word was used by African American writers and artists during the Harlem Renaissance. You should not use the word “negro” in your project except when citing a title or quoting an example from an artist’s work.

12. Harlem by Langston Hughes
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?

13. Southern Mansion by Arna Bontemps
Poplars are standing there still as death
and ghost of dead men
meet their ladies walking
two by two beneath the shade
and standing on the marble steps.
There is a sound of music echoing
through the open door
and in the field there is
another sound tinkling in the cotton:
chains of bondmen dragging on the ground.
The years go back with an iron clank,
a hand is on the gate,
a dry leaf trembles on the wall.
Ghost are walking.
They have broken roses down
and poplars stand there still as death...

14. The White House
By Claude McKay
Your door is shut against my tightened face,
And I am sharp as steel with discontent;
But I possess the courage and the grace
To bear my anger proudly and unbent.
The pavement slabs burn loose beneath my feet,
A chafing savage, down the decent street;
And passion rends my vitals as I pass,
Where boldly shines your shuttered door of glass.
Oh, I must search for wisdom every hour,
Deep in my wrathful bosom and sore and raw,
And find in it the superhuman power
To hold me to the letter of your law!
Oh, I must keep the heart inviolate
Against the potent power of your hate.

15. Any Human to Another by Countee Cullen The ills I sorrow at
Not me alone
Like an arrow,
Pierce to the marrow,
Through the fat
And past the bone.
Your grief and mine
Must intertwine
Like sea and river,
Be fused and mingle,
Diverse yet single,
Forever and forever.
Continued…

16. Any Human to Another (continued)
Let no man be so proud
And confident,
To think he is allowed
A little tent
Pitched in a meadow
Of sun and shadow
All his little own.
Joy may be shy, unique,
Friendly to a few,
Sorrow never scorned to speak
To any who
Were false or true.
Your every grief
Like a blade
Shining and unsheathed
Must strike me down.
Of bitter aloes wreathed,
My sorrow must be laid
On your head like a crown.

17. The Negro by Langston Hughes
I am a Negro:
Black as the night is black,
Black like the depths of my Africa.
I’ve been a slave:
Caesar told me to keep his door-steps clean.
I brushed the boots of Washington.
I’ve been a worker:
Under my hand the pyramids arose.
I made mortar for the Woolworth Building.
Continued…

18. The Negro (continued) I’ve been a singer:
All the way from Africa to Georgia
I carried my sorrow songs.
I made ragtime.
I’ve been a victim:
The Belgians cut off my hands in the Congo.
They lynch me now in Texas.
I am a Negro:
Black as the night is black.
Black like the depths of my Africa.

19. Sympathy by Paul Laurence Dunbar
I know what the caged bird feels, alas!
When the sun is bright on the upland slopes;
When the wind stirs soft through the springing grass,
And the river flows like a stream of glass;
When the first bird sings and the first bud opes,
And the faint perfume from its chalice steals—
I know what the caged bird feels!
I know why the caged bird beats his wing
Till its blood is red on the cruel bars;
For he must fly back to his perch and cling
When he fain would be on the bough a-swing;
And a pain still throbs in the old, old scars
And they pulse again with a keener sting—
I know why he beats his wing!
Continued…

20. Sympathy (continued) I know why the caged bird sings, ah me,
When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore,—
When he beats his bars and he would be free;
It is not a carol of joy or glee,
But a prayer that he sends from his heart’s deep core,
But a plea that upward to Heaven he flings—
I know why the caged bird sings!

21. I, Too Sing America by Langston Hughes
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.
Continued…

22. I, Too Sing America (continued)
Tomorrow,
I’ll sit at the table
When company comes.
Nobody’ll dare
Say to me,
“Eat in the kitchen,”
Then.
Besides,
They’ll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed—
I, too, am America.

23. Choose a Poem to Study

24. Aspiration (1936)
Artist: Aaron Douglas

25. FIRE!! Magazine Cover
Artist: Aaron Douglas

26. The Ascent of Ethiopia (1932)
Artist: Lois Mailou Jones

27. Three Folk Musicians (1967)
Artist: Romare Bearden

28. The Migration of the Negro, panel 50
Artist: Jacob Lawrence

29. Nightlife (1943)
Artist: Archibald Motely, Jr.

30. Harlem at Night
Artist: Winold Reiss

31. Georgia Landscape (ca. 1934-1935)
Artist: Hale Woodruff

32. Couple in Raccoon Coats (1932)
Artist: James Van Der Zee

33. Tar Beach (1988)
Artist: Faith Ringgold

34. Music It Don’t Mean a Thing [instrumental plus incidental vocals]
[instrumental plus incidental vocals]
Recorded By: Duke Ellington & His Orchestra
Ivie Anderson – Vocals
It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing
It don’t mean a thing, all you’ve got to do is sing
It makes no difference if it’s sweet or hot
Just keep that rhythm, give it everything you’ve got

35. A Night in Tunisia Ella Fitzgerald
Music
A Night in Tunisia Ella Fitzgerald
The moon is the same moon above you
Aglow with its cool evening light
But shining at night in Tunisia
Never does it shine so bright The stars are aglow in the heavens
But only the wise understand
That shining at night in Tunisia
They guide you through the desert sand…

36. Struttin’ with Some Barbecue Louis Armstrong
Music
Struttin’ with Some Barbecue Louis Armstrong

37. Take the “A” Train Duke Ellington
Music
Take the “A” Train Duke Ellington

38. Strange Fruit Billie Holiday
Music
Southern trees bear strange fruit Blood on the leaves and blood at the root Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees
Pastoral scene of the gallant South The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh Then the sudden smell of burning flesh
Here is fruit for the crows to pluck For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop Here is a strange and bitter crop

39. St. Louis Blues Ella Fitzgerald
Music
St. Louis Blues Ella Fitzgerald
I hate to see that evening sun go down
Just because my baby, he has gone and left this town
If I’m feelin’ tomorrow like I’m feelin’ today
Feelin’ tomorrow like I’m feelin’ today
I’m gonna’ pack my truck and make my getaway
I went to the gypsy to have my fortune told
She said “Ooo, baby, all you need is a whole lotta’ soul…”

40. Choose a Piece of Art or a Song that you feel strongly relates to the poem you selected.