U6 CH 29 | Harlem Renaissance

Claude McKay (poet)

1st important poet during the renaissance. wrote the poem "If We Must Die". published a volume of poems titled Harlem Shadows.

anthology

A collection of various writings, such as songs, stories, or poems

Harlem Renaissance

A literary and artistic movement celebrating African-American culture.

Duke Ellington

Born in Chicago middle class. moved to Harlem in 1923 and began playing at the cotton club. Composer, pianist and band leader. Most influential figures in jazz.

Cane (1923) book

Jean Toomer (the author) combined poetry and poetic prose to depict the lives of farmers in Georgia as well city dwellers in Chicago and Washington, D.C.

Louis Armstrong

Leading African American jazz musician during the Harlem Renaissance; he was a talented trumpeter whose style influenced many later musicians.

James Weldon Johnson (writer)

a writer and former diplomat, he took over the presidency of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Johnson was known in part as the author of the poem "Lift Every Voice and Sing," which, set to music by his brother, became known as "the Negro National Anthem." Lift every voice and sing, 'Til earth and heaven ring, Ring with the harmonies of Liberty....

carousing

acting boisterously or loudly, as if drunk

Langston Hughes (poet)

author of "The Negro Speaks of Rivers". his voice and writing formats varied. he is known to adopt the language and rhythm of jazz and blues in his works.

how did James Johnson think blacks should show that they are, in fact, not inferior to whites?

by producing great art and literature "The world does not know that a people is great until that people produces great literature and art. No people that has produced great literature and art has ever been looked upon by the world as distinctly inferior."

The New Negro (1925)

collected poetry and prose by many talented African American writers, including perhaps the greatest poet of the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes.

Palmer Hayden (painter)

depicted Harlem residents going about their everyday activities—working, tending to their children, dancing in nightclubs. He also depicted figures from black folklore, like John Henry, the "steel-driving man" who worked himself to death in a contest with a steam hammer.

Zora Neale Hurston (writer)

ficton writer who moved from FL to Harlem , Ny to participate in the movement. she cofounded the magazine called Fire!! shes best known for her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937)

after ww1, why did many African americans move from the rural south to north cities?

in hopes of escaping poverty and the oppression of Jim Crow laws.

how was living in harlem as an African American a immensely good thing?

it offered them the possibility of recognition—of getting their paintings and sculptures displayed in galleries, and their poems and stories published in magazines like The Crisis. In addition, there was a possibility for them to come in contact with prominent white New Yorkers—book publishers and wealthy philanthropists—who supported black equality and were eager to sponsor new developments in the arts.

Great Migration

movement of over 300,000 African American from the rural south into Northern cities between 1914 and 1920

Aaron Douglas (painter)

produced illustrations for magazines like Fire!! and The Crisis. author of Aspects of Negro Life. used an original style fusing European Cubism and the forms of African sculpture, by which he evoked the historical struggles and triumphs of blacks.

Aspects of Negro Life

series of oil paintings

Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937)

set in the Florida of her childhood, and depicts a black woman's struggle against sexism as well as racism.

what did writes if the age try to convey?

the breadth and diversity of African American life—middle class and poor, northern and southern, urban and rural, male and female.

Harlem, NYC

the center of African American culture in the 1920s and 1930s

what lead to the waning of the Harlem Renaissance?

the coming of the Great Depression in the early 1930s.

what started the Harlem Renaissance?

the struggle for black civil rights

forklore

the traditional beliefs, legends, customs, etc., of a people; lore (tradition) of a people.

what affect did the renaissance have on future generations?

the writers and artists of the Harlem Renaissance left models of creative boldness and deep racial pride. At the same time, their accomplishments enabled many whites to see the truth of Langston Hughes's assertion, "I, too, am America."

Countee Cullen (poet)

wrote elegant verse in traditional forms, expressing the conflict he felt between his racial identity and his love for European culture. author of "Heritage"