Intro to US 2 27 March 2012 The Harlem Renaissance The Harlem Renaissance was a time in American history when African American culture could finally intermingle with the culture already established in America. Starting after World War 1, the HR was “about creating art that could be shared with others—both whites and blacks” (Rau 5). The influx of African Americans moving to Harlem was caused by the increasing hostility towards African Americans in the South. Around the start of the Great Migration, which was the movement of six million African Americans from the South to the North, there was a surge in Klu Klux Klan activity. Even thought there was not much more opportunity in the North, at least there was racial tolerance, something the African Americans of the South were craving.
Harlem Renaissance: Outburst of Creativity The Harlem Renaissance was an artistic movement in American history wherein the uniqueness and creativity of African American culture was celebrated. Situated in the black community in uptown New York, the Harlem Renaissance developed a body of artistic talent which had never been seen in America (Ferguson, 24). Instead of wallowing in self-pity, African Americans ignited an explosion of culturist pride. They asserted themselves by embracing their racial identity, appreciating their heritage. Harlem became home to black people, many of whom had dreams and aspirations of expressing their individual artistic talents.
AFRICAN-AMERICAN LITERATURE African-American literature is the body of literature produced in the United States by writers of African descent. It begins with the works of such late 18th-century writers as Phillis Wheatley and Lucy Terry, reaching early high points with slave narratives of the nineteenth century. The Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s was a time of flowering of literature and the arts. Writers of African-American literature have been recognized by the highest awards, including the Nobel Prize to Toni Morrison. Among the themes and issues explored in this literature are the role of African Americans within the larger American society, African-American culture, racism, slavery, and equality.
Rachael Darrabie Professor Doku Freshman Composition 26 October 2011 “The South” “The South”, a poem written by Langston Hughes, represents the mindset that many migrants held during this time; an attitude that was the sole inspiration and motivation for the powerful racial pride that initiated the Harlem Renaissance. It was a demeanor developed from the social constructions in the South fused with the hopes and dreams of life in the North. The years between World War I and the Great Depression were good economic times for the United States, and jobs were plentiful in cities, especially in the North. Many southern blacks took advantage of this economic period which led to the start of the Great Migration; this gave Harlem its geographical importance. The Harlem Renaissance, also known as the New Negro Movement, was direct product of the Great Migration through location, racial pride, and social construction.
W.E.B. Du Bois played a very important part in the creation of the NAACP. Mr. Du Bois was the association’s director of research and editor of its magazine, The Crisis. As the editor of the magazine and the director of research he was able to influence the middle-class blacks and whites as the person who publicized the black protest from 1910 until 1934. When you look at the work of W.E.B.
Bontemps moved to New York City shortly after his first poem “Hope” was published in THE CRISIS: A RECORD OF THE DARKER RACES (August 1924). Bontemps was an influential and significant member of the Harlem Renaissance. Many of the themes of his work had an integrative approach to African American writings; his attitude toward folk material and Africa, and his racial protest, reflect the primary concerns of Harlem Renaissance literature.
Its artistic and unique styles assisted with breaking down racial barriers by proving a voice that resonated throughout America and the world. As African-Americans transitioned to more urban areas and their social and economic status began to change, so did their musical progression. Many different “negro sounds” emerged around the same time of Rhythm and Blues, but of all those genres it had and still has one of the most profound sounds in the music industry. Sure, Rhythm and Blues originated from genre styles such as gospel, jazz and blues, but what made it so refreshing was that it combined all of those styles and made a brand new sound to give back to the people. This new style of music consisted of constant rhythms (as stated in the name of the genre) and different instruments such as; saxophones, drums, bass guitars, and the human voice, simultaneously playing together to generate a sound that focused on the failures and triumphs of African-American culture as a whole.
The Harlem Renaissance was a time period where culture became a big issue in the African American community. More writers, poets, play wrights and other artistic figures came into place. Through this time (early 20th century) the term New Negro became more developed. The term originated from the 19th century as a sort of nick name for newly arrived slaves. The New Negro term included “violent resistance to oppression and the conservative anti-protest orientation of Booker T. Washington.” (Ferguson, 3) Writers had a big influence on the community throughout newspapers, magazines, etc; and most writers believe d that the New Negro should exemplify creativity, independence, strength, power, equality, and improvement.
This essay will discuss Norwood’s notion of hip hop and its ability to aid racial freedom and Black Nationalism. Slave narrative is a literary account of a slave’s life; Norwood states that hip hop is a modern day slave narrative that brings to light the problems African Americans have to face in the 21st century. As well as hip hop being a slave narrative for modern day African Americans globalisation has enabled other minorities and oppressed peoples to use this culture as tool and a political weapon. Minorities such as Pacific Islander’s and Māori of Aotearoa, New Zealand have adapted hip hop and its culture (Mitchell). Songs such as Patea Maori club 1984 "Poi E" combine African American style with Maori language and tradition, some groups such as Upper Hutt
The emergence of the Negritude Movement in the 20th century brought about awareness of the oppression and marginalization of African-Americans as members of the modern American society. What makes this movement unique is that the primary method of protest is through literary works, wherein African and African-American writers discussed, elucidated, and interpreted their experiences of being oppressed, prejudiced, and discriminated through prose and poetry.Negritude was both a literary and ideological movement led by French-speaking black writers and intellectuals. The movement is marked by its rejection of European colonization and its role in the African diaspora, pride in "blackness" and traditional African values and culture, mixed with an undercurrent of Marxist ideals. Its founders (or les trois pères), Aimé Césaire, Léopold Sédar Senghor, and Léon-Gontran Damas, met while studying in Paris in 1931 and began to publish the first journal devoted to Negritude, L'Étudiant noir (The Black Student), in 1934. The term "Negritude" was coined by Césaire in his Cahier d’un retour au pays natal (1939) and it means, in his words, "the simple recognition of the fact that one is black, the acceptance of this fact and of our destiny as blacks, of our history and culture."