Created by Rose Ryan

“Harlem Renaissance”

The flourish of art, music, and poetry that took place

in Harlem during the 1920’s and 1930’s.

“The Niagara Movement”

• W.E.B. DuBois was a young man in search of a teaching job when he experienced the unfair disadvantages that African-Americans faced in the late 1890's and early 1900's.

• DuBois, Booker T. Washington, and Paul Laurence Dunbar all began traveling to speak out on the atrocious treatment that blacks were receiving.

• As whites and blacks seemed to separate more, DuBois left his job to go to Tuskeegee, Alabama (called “the capital of the Negro Nation”) to pursue a change in the African-American's role from subservient to the white race to a race of people strong and united.

• The Committee of Twelve was formed in 1904 to “oversee the movement of Negroes into influential society.”

• In 1905, 59 blacks from 17 states called for a meeting in Buffalo, NY, to discuss the need to organize intellectual blacks to move the race forward. (Due to financial issues, only twenty-nine men from fourteen states attended.)

•The "Niagara Movement" was incorporated January 31, 1906, in the District of Columbia.  It called for the following principles:1.Freedom of speech and criticism. 2.An unfettered and unsubsidized press. 3.The abolition of all caste distinctions based simply on race and color. 4.The recognition of the principle of human brotherhood as a practical present creed. 5.The recognition of the highest and best human training as the monopoly of no class or race. 6.A belief in the dignity of labor. 7.United effort to realize these ideals under wise and courageous leadership. •The first meeting was held in 1906, despite criticism, at the site of the John Brown raid in Harpers' Ferry, West Virginia. •The movement led to the creation of the NAACP.• These events enabled the Harlem Renaissance to happen.

•During the early 1900s, many African-Americans in the South moved North to find jobs.

•Many of these people came to Harlem, a large area of blacks in New York City.

•In the 1920s and 1930s, people in the Upper (Greenwich Village) and Lower (Harlem) sections of Manhattan converged to hold literary discussions.

•Those discussions led to a complete artistic movement in the African-American society: the "New Negro Movement."

•During this period of time, the African-American people intensified their pride in their culture and their yearning to be accepted as equals in the United States. •Civil rights leader Marcus Garvey was a leader in this movement against racism that originated during the Civil War “Say! Africa for the Africans,Like America for the Americans:This the rallying cry for a nation,Be it in peace or revolution.

Blacks are men, no longer cringing fools;They demand a place, not like weak tools;But among the world of nations greatThey demand a free self-governing state.”

-From Garvey’s “Africa for the Africans”Marcus Garvey

•African-American painters in the early 1900's usually had to travel to Europe to exhibit their works because many white Americans doubted the talent of the black artist.

•In a time where many art subjects were white, it was hard for the African-American to identify with the paintings he saw.

•Seeing this, many black artists who were still in America began to use their own people as subjects.

•The paintings usually contained aspects of African-American life, heritage, and/or history.

•Once white America understood that artists did not have to be white, black painters were given the respect they deserved.

Aaron Douglas (1898-1979) "...Our problem is to conceive,

develop, establish an art era. Not white art painting black...let's bare

our arms and plunge them deep through laughter, through pain, through sorrow, through hope,

through disappointment, into the very depths of the souls of our people and drag forth material

crude, rough, neglected. Then let's sing it, dance it, write it, paint it. Let's do the possible. Let's create

something transcendentally material, mystically objective.

Earthy. Spiritually earthy. Dynamic." - Douglas’s work could be found on public buildings or

on the cover of The Crisis, a magazine published by WEB DuBois.

Window Cleaning1935, oil on canvas

Palmer Hayden (1890-1973)

•Hayden is referred as a self-trained artist, but really studied at Cooper Union (New York) and Boothvay Art Colony (Maine) and in France from 1927 to 1932. •Hayden was famous for the way he used folklore and black historical events in his painting. •He was a forerunner in the art genre when it came to using African subject and design.

JeunesseDate unknown, watercolor on

paper

William H. Johnson (1901-1970)

•Came from South Carolina to Harlem in the midst of the Renaissance to study at the National Academy of Design

•Traveled around Europe and North Africa

•In 1926, he settled in Paris and studied the works of European Artists.

•Even though he was abroad, many of his paintings depicted the African-American lifestyle.

Street Life -- Harlem

ca. 1939-40Oil on wood

Lois Mailou Jones (1905-1998) •Never lived in New York; considered part of the Harlem Renaissance because paintings showed the world that art sees no skin color •Jones found true acceptance in Europe when she studied in Paris in 1937, where she created over 35 paintings. •Awarded numerous honorary doctorates and held many undergraduate and graduate degrees

Negro Shack I, Sedalia, North Carolina

1930, watercolor

Archibald J. Motley, Jr. (1891-1981) •Born in New Orleans, raised in

Chicago•Showed a love of art at an early age; therefore, he studied in the Art Institute of Chicago•Second black artist to have a one-man art show in New York City •The images he painted were of black people in non-stereotypical roles for that time; they gave white people a better understanding of black heritage. •Motley best summarized his own purpose as "personality, intensity and sympathy."

Nightlife

1943, oil on canvas

•The Harlem Renaissance sparked mainly from when W.E.B. DuBois published The Souls of Black Folks in 1903 about the "two-ness" in the United States.

“One ever feels his two-ness - an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled

stirrings: two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being

torn asunder." •After this, it was evident that literature was an art form that could bring the black people together. •Common themes in these works included alienation and marginality•Folk and blues traditions were included

Claude McKay (1890-1948)

•Moved to Harlem from Jamaica in 1914• “If We Must Die" (poem) set the tone for a majority of the literary works in the literary movement•Traveled the world speaking out against racism; used works to convey message•Works were known for their island culture and dialect•Wrote several novels before his death

"If We Must Die" (1919), A Long Way Home

(1937), Home to Harlem (1929), Banjo (1929),

Banana Bottom (1933), Songs of Jamaica (1912), Constab Ballads (1912),

Spring in New Hampshire (1920) and Harlem Shadows (1922).

Countee Cullen (1903-1946 )•New York native•One of the major contributors to the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920's•Works conveyed life as he saw it •Color, printed in 1925, was accredited with taking the movement to a new height because of its abilities to shed light on social realities•Awarded the Witter Bynner Undergraduate Poetry Prize from New York University

Copper Sun (1927), Color (1925), The Ballad of the Brown Girl (1927) and The Black Christ (1929).

Langston Hughes (1902-1967) •One of the best known of all Harlem

Renaissance figures•Born in Joplin, Mississippi; grew up listening to stories about Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth, which led to his desire to write•Moved to Harlem and attended Columbia University•Quit school and worked on a ship to travel the world•Came ”home” to New York; wrote poetry that included the jazz lyrics and African-American dialect he heard and told about the struggle of the poverty-stricken blacks

The Weary Blues (1926), The Negro Speaks of Rivers (1921), Dear

Lovely Death (1931), The Dream Keeper (1932),

Scottsboro Limited (1932), Not Without

Laughter (1930) ,Popo and Fifina (1932), The Ways of White Folks

(1934), and The Big Sea (1940).

Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960 )•Born in the all-black township of Eatonville, Florida in 1891•Novelist, folklorist, anthropologist, essayist, and playwright•Hung out with some of the Harlem Renaissance's best-known literary figures, yet was criticized by others for her outspokeness and dress•Criticized for ability to raise funds, although her critics usually benefitted from the patrons she raised from•Most active writing period was 30's-40's, after the bulk of the Harlem Renaissance

Jonah's Gourd Vine (1934), Mules and Men (1935), Their

Eyes Were Watching God (1937), Tell My Horse (1938), Moses, Man of the Mountain

(1936), Dust Tracks on a Road (1942), and Seraph on

the Suwanee (1948).

•Many musicians moved to the Harlem area in the 1920's-30’s•Even though they acknowledged the big names associated with jazz, the most popular music at the time, they could not identify with it. •They soon began to form their own types of music– ones with which their people could identify and enjoy•Soon the instrumentalists and vocalists were joined by other genres of music such as classical and sacred (religious)•With the Harlem musical scene, the Harlem Party scene grew. In clubs such as the Cotton Club and the Apollo Theatre, food and alcohol joined the loud music.

Louis Armstrong (1901-1971)•Oldest performer to ever have a No. 1 selling song on the music charts (Guiness Book of Records) •Armstrong received his very first music lesson with trumpet in a children's home.•In 1922, Armstrong moved to Chicago and joined King Oliver.•In 1925, he started to record under his own name after playing in Fletcher Henderson's band in New York. •Armstrong made two tours to Europe, which eventually led him into Africa. •Elected into the Down Beat Hall of Fame in 1953.

Hits include:I'm in the Mood for Love,

Solitude, Ain't Misbehavin', You Rascal You, Cabaret, Hello Dolly, Mack the Knife, Old Man

Mose, and Wild Man Blues.

Josephine Baker (1906-1975)•As a young girl in Missouri, Josephine Baker searched for food in garbage cans and slept in cardboard shelters. •At age 18, Baker moved out of Missouri and up into New York where she took part in numerous stage productions, including the Follies-Bergeres, Ziegfeld Follies, and Le Negre Revue in Paris. •During the early 1930s, Baker recorded songs, did a European tour, and also starred in two films, “Zou-Zou” and “Princess Tam-Tam.”

Hits include:Bye Bye Blackbird, Blue Skies, Always, He's the Last Word, Pretty Baby, Confessing, Suppose, and J'ai Deux Amours.

Duke Ellington (1899-1974) •Edward (Duke) Kennedy

Ellington received the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom by the U.S. government, and the Legion of Honor by the French government. •Ellington received his first piano lesson at the age of seven•Attended Armstrong Manual Training School to study commercial art instead of an academic school•Duke formed his first group in 1917: “The Duke Serenaders” which was later renamed ”The Washingtonians.”• First recording in 1923 in New York

Hits include:Rockin' in Rhythm,

Satin Doll, New Orleans, A Drum is a Women, Take the "A" Train, Happy-

Go-Lucky Local, The Mooche, and

Crescendo in Blue.

Bessie Smith (1894-1937) •First blues singer to have a major name with her recordings. •Born in Chattanooga, Tenn. and then moved north to Atlantic City where she performed in the early 1920s. •Became popular with her first recording in 1923, Alberta Hunter's "Downhearted Blues." •Performed with James P. Johnson, Coleman Hawkins, Louis Armstrong, Don Redman, and Fletcher Henderson.

Hits include:"Backwater Blues",

"Taint Nobody's Bizness If I Do", "St.

Louis Blues", "Nobody Knows You When

You're Down and Out", ''Down Hearted Blues",

and ''Gulf Coast Blues.''

Coleman Hawkins (1901-1969) •Recognized as the first great

saxophonist of jazz•Joined the band led by Mamie Smith in 1922 and was a part of some of her records until 1923•Made his first recording with Fletcher Henderson, when he joined the Henderson Orchestra and stayed with them for the next ten years•Recorded with McKinney's Cotton Pickers and Red McKenzie's Mound City Blue Blowers in 1929•Recorded his most famous record, Body and Soul, in 1940

Hits include: Broke But Happy,

Blues on the Delta, Dee Tees, The Man I Love, Hawk Talk, Pebbles, Lazy Butterfly, Cool

Blue, and Some Stretching.

Norah Jones and her album "Come Away With Me" won eight Grammys at the 2003 Grammy Awards:

Album of the Year Record of the YearBest New Artist Best Female Pop Vocal Performance Best Pop Vocal Album. In addition, "Don't Know Why" won three awards for:

Song of the Year Best Producer, non-classical Best Engineered album, non-classical

In “13 Step Boogie,” Sexton uses his voice to

imitate his instrument

.

In “Sucker,”

Mayer uses only guitar for music as well as rhythm. He also

does some

“scatting.”

In this version of “Who Will Save Your Soul,” Jewel varies her rhythm and also

does some “scatting.”

In “Busted Stuff,”

Matthews’s band employs

jazz-influenced

instruments, like the sax,

and Matthews does some “scatting.”

Robert Johnson

• Father of modern blues

• Influences rock and roll bands such as the Allman Brothers and Eric Clapton

• Said to have sold his soul at the “crossroads”

Eric Clapton

• Influenced by Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters.

• Considered today’s pre-eminent blues man