1920s – 1930s jazzdanceartliterature: poetry, drama, novels
TRANSCRIPT
The Harlem
Renaissance
1920s – 1930s
JAZZ
DANCE
ART
LITERATURE: POETRY, DRAMA, NOVELS
World War I had just ended
The 18th Amendment made alcohol illegal
Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt were presidents
Radio hit the airwaves
What was going on otherwise?
Yup, twas the Roarin’ Twenties
That’s a radio. She’s a flapper.
What caused the Renaissance in Harlem?
Great Migration from the rural South, 1914-1918
Former slaves were heading North to find work in the urban centers/cities because Reconstruction had failed.
Created their own culture of music, art, literature, and fashion in response to their new surroundings
New York City, 1920
The Harlem Renaissancewas an explosion
of African-American culture that began with jazz, the only music indigenous to the United States
Type of jazz music
Charlie Parker, saxophone
Dizzy Gillespie, trumpet
Charles Mingus, bassist
Scat: Be de be do be do be do be do
Be Bop!
Technically Be Bop be do be do be do be do be dahhh…. Horns played cleanly, like a piano
Emphasis on 8th and 16th notes
Very fast, many solos in one song
Chords are a reference, not a melody
Integrated/quoted/sampled from other songs
Roots of Jazz in the
Southern Spiritual
And roots from Africa
They played their music here
Dance and music blended together…
Rented hall + flyers + cheap food, + good, live music + dime admission + red lights =
RENT! Parties in Harlem
Musicians like Charlie Parker or Billie Holiday would show up after their paid gig and play for free
These were called “Jumps!” or “Shouts!”
IT WAS THE JAZZ AGE
On a really good rent night
Just as colorful as the music
Art of the Renaissance
Some hearkened back to Africa
Characteristics of the Art
L i k e t h e w o r k o f A a r o n D o u g l a s
Much of the Art
This is theCharleston
Reflectedthedancing.
Were always in the back of their minds The reality: lynching and the Ku Klux
Klan
The struggles of these former slaves
This is Denver, COin 1930
Langston Hughes, Theme for English B:
The instructor said,Go home and write a page tonight. And let that page come out of you-Then, it will be true.
I wonder if it's that simple? I am twenty-two, colored, born in Winston-Salem. I went to school there, then Durham, then here to this college on the hill above Harlem. I am the only colored student in my class. The steps from the hill lead down into Harlem through a park, then I cross St. Nicholas, Eighth Avenue, Seventh, and I come to the Y, the Harlem Branch Y, where I take the elevator up to my room, sit down, and write this page:
The Literature Reflected this Dark Reality of Two Worlds: Black and White
It's not easy to know what is true for you or me at twenty-two, my age. But I guess I'm what I feel and see and hear, Harlem, I hear you: hear you, hear me-we two-you, me, talk on this page.
(I hear New York too.) Me-who? Well, I like to eat, sleep, drink, and be in love. I like to work, read, learn, and understand life. I like a pipe for a Christmas present, or records-Bessie, bop, or Bach. I guess being colored doesn't make me NOT like the same things other folks like who are other races.
This is what Langston wrote:
So will my page be colored that I write? Being me, it will not be white. But it will be a part of you, instructor. You are white--- yet a part of me, as I am a part of you. That's American. Sometimes perhaps you don't want to be a part of me. Nor do I often want to be a part of you. But we are, that's true! As I learn from you,I guess you learn from me--- although you're older---and white--- and somewhat more free.
And he finished his essay (poem)
This is my page for English B.
http://www.jazzwise.com/catalog/media/AeberHbk/37.pdf
http://www.robinurton.com/history/Harlem.htm
http://www.huntfor.com/arthistory/C20th/harrenaiss.htm
http://www.1920-30.com/ http://uptownflavor.files.wordpress.com/200
8/03/1996.jpg http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/h/harlemrenai
ssance.html
Bibliography