It took some of the greatest minds of the time to bring about freedom. The Harlem Renaissance brought notice to great works that might otherwise have been lost or never published. The results were unusual. The artists, authors, poets, and musicians of the Harlem Renaissance definitely transformed African American culture. However, American culture had an equally strong impact.
Many noted that “the jazz of The Jazz Age was black Americans’ most powerful influence on Americans” (Baughman). Musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Martin, Bessie Smith, and Duke Ellington used their extraordinary to talent to travel the world with their music in order to show the world their pride in their African American culture. Prominent authors such as Langston Hughes, W.E.B. Debuois, Countee Cullen, and Zora Neale used this era as an advantage to publish novels, short stories, and poems about their history. In addition to being a brilliant author, he was also the founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Assignment 2: Project Paper World Cultures II – HUM 112 The Harlem Renaissance was a renewal and flourishing of black literary and musical culture during the years after World War I which started approximately around 1914 and ended around 1919, in the Harlem section of New York City. This topic is also very historical, and creative, literally and figuratively. But, overall it is something different instead of writing about World Wars and the Civil Rights Movement; it is imperative to know the history of where “black arts” comes from. The Harlem Renaissance was the most influential times of cultural black history, in so many different aspects. (Bontemps, 1972) The Harlem Renaissance helped “black folk” in ways that catapulted them to a higher level in the arts, music, and literature.
Melissa Cox P:1 The Harlem Renaissance was a rebirth during the 1920’s. I found the two poems, “From the Dark Tower” by Countee Cullen and “As I Grew Older” by Langston Hughes. Both of these poems originated from the Harlem Renaissance Era and they deal with the difficulties African Americans faced in society beginning during the 1920’s. Hughes and Cullen attached these ideas in two different methods; however, the underlying messages were quite similar. When I first read the poems, I noticed how both speakers identified the tremendous challenges all African Americans were confronted with.
Writers, poets, painters, and musicians joined together to protest in there own way against the quality of life for black folks in the United States. Out of this grew what has been called the “Harlem Renaissance” or the “The Black Renaissance” or “The Black Renaissance” or “The Negro Movement”. But James Johnson informally inaugurated the movement with his publication of Fifty Years and Other Poems. His title poem referred to the fifty years that elapsed since the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation which was suppose to bring first class citizenship to Negroes (Johnson 1968). Other books soon followed with collections of poems, novels written by Claude McKay, Langston Hughes, James Johnson, and
Let me say, from the onset that my understanding was that the Harlem Renaissance was a literacy, artistic and intellectual movement that reignited a new cultural black identity through expressions of art that transformed a social disillusioned group of people into a group full with, for want of a better word, black pride. It was a time when African-Americans were able to truly express themselves freely through the heritage in a mostly white community. It was a movement that spanned 1920s-30s during which the publishing industry became awed by the excitement of black expressions which in my view was like a living organism expressing their raw and real life energies and behaviours in writings, music and art, to the extent that white publishers
As a literary movement it had a significant impact on black literature and consciousness worldwide. The Harlem Renaissance succeeded in destroying some racist stereotypes through brilliant works in song, dance, paint and print. A lot of today’s music were all made and based off old slave songs. 2. Nativism Nativism is an opposition to immigration which originated in United States politics.
The Harlem Renaissance included more than the emergence of strong black literary voices. Painting, sculpture, music, theater, and dance were affected, too. Painter Aaron Douglas, actor Paul Robeson, dancer Florence Mills, bandleader Duke Ellington, sculptor Richmond Barthe, playwright Willis Richardson, and composer R. Nathaniel Dett were products of, as well as contributors to, the fabric and depth of the movement. These were people during this time period that weren’t afraid to strive and to make a difference in their community by reaching out to individuals. In conclusion, the African American’s during the time will never be forgotten or not acknowledge for their right being.
However, many consider the Harlem Renaissance relative to African American culture and political affairs movements of time immemorial in black individuality and political activism. Dorman argues “Harlem of the Harlem Renaissance was always a symbolic abstraction that has overwhelmed scholars who have neglected the history of operative individuals who lived in conjunction with the jet set cultural movement. His similes of everyday life in Harlem were vivid and compelling”.
It was a time of “Separate, but Equal”. With these dreary times, the African American community somehow found an outlet for their frustrations. They did this through poetry and music. Langston Hughes is one of the most famous poets of the Harlem Renaissance. He wrote many poems describing the plight of the black man of the time.