Map of Harlem – 1920’s

• In the early 1920s, African American artists, writers, musicians, and performers were part of a great cultural movement known as the Harlem Renaissance.

• The huge migration to the North after World War I brought African Americans of all ages and walks of life to the thriving New York City neighborhood called Harlem.

• Doctors, singers, students, musicians, shopkeepers, painters, and writers, congregated, forming a vibrant mecca of cultural affirmation and inspiration.

• The notion of "twoness" , a divided awareness of one's identity, was introduced by W.E.B. DuBois, one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and the author of the influential book The Souls of Black Folks (1903): "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."

W.E.B. DuBois

• Common themes: • alienation, • marginality, • the use of folk material, • the use of the blues tradition, • the problems of writing for an elite audience.

• HR was more than just a literary movement: it included racial consciousness, "the back to Africa" movement led by Marcus Garvey, racial integration, the explosion of music particularly jazz, spirituals and blues, painting, dramatic revues, and others.

1. Harlem Renaissance brought the Black experience clearly within the general American cultural history.

a. Remarkable coincidences and luck, provided a sizable chunk of real estate in the heart of Manhattan.

b. The Black migration, from south to north, changed their image from rural to urban, from peasant to sophisticate.

c. Harlem became a crossroads where Blacks

interacted with and expanded their contacts internationally.

d. Harlem Renaissance profited from a spirit of self-determination which was widespread after W.W.I.

2. The Harlem Renaissance had a huge significance in

American culture at the time and in the future. a. It became a symbol and a point of reference for everyone to

recall.

b. The name, more than the place, became synonymous with new vitality, Black urbanity, and Black militancy.

c. It became a racial focal point for Blacks the world over; it remained for a time a race capital.

d. It stood for urban pluralism; Alain Locke wrote: "The peasant, the student, the businessman, the professional man, artist, poet, musician, adventurer and worker, preacher and criminal, exploiter and social outcast, each group has come with its own special motives ... but their greatest experience has been the finding of one another."

e. The complexity of the urban setting was important for Blacks to truly appreciate the variety of Black life. The race consciousness required that shared experience.

3. Harlem Renaissance's legacy is limited

by the character of the Renaissance. a. It encouraged the new appreciation of folk roots and culture.

b. Peasant folk materials and spirituals provided a rich source for racial imagination and it freed the Blacks from the establishment of past condition.

c. Harlem Renaissance was imprisoned by its innocence. The Harlem intellectuals, while proclaiming a new race consciousness, became mimics of Whites, wearing clothes and using manners of sophisticated Whites, earning a variety of epithets from the very people they were supposed to be championing.

d. Harlem Renaissance could not overcome the overwhelming White presence in commerce which defined art and culture. What was needed was a rejection of White values; they had to see Whites, without awe of love or awe of hate, and themselves truly, without myth or fantasy, in order that they could be themselves in life and art.

Art from the Harlem Renaissance

Street Life, Harlem, by William H. Johnson

Jeunesse by Palmer Hayden

Langston Hughes1902-1967

Langston Hughes wrote,Langston Hughes wrote, ““Harlem was in vogue.Harlem was in vogue.””

Black painters and sculptorsjoined their fellow poets,

novelists, actors, and musicians in a creative

outpouring that establishedHarlem as the

international capital ofBlack culture.

Zora Neale Hurston1891-1960

American writer

Zora Neale Hurston was remarkable in that she was the most widely published

black woman of her day. She authored more than fifty

articles and short stories as well as four novels, two books on folklore, an autobiography, and some plays. At the height of her success she was known as the ““Queen of the Harlem Queen of the Harlem

Renaissance.Renaissance.””

In 1925, at the height of the jazz era in Paris, the

sensational cast of musicians and dancers

from Harlem, assembled as La Revue Negre,

exploded on the stage of the Theatre des Champs

Elysees. Its talented young star, Josephine

Baker (1906-1975), captivated audiences with a wild new dance called

the Charleston.

“Louis Armstrong’s station in the history of jazz is unimpeachable. If it weren’t for him, there wouldn’t be any

of us.” Dizzy Gillespie, 1971

Duke Ellington1899-1974 Duke

Ellington brought a level of style and sophistication to Jazz that it hadn't seen before. By the time of his passing, he was considered amongst the world’s greatest composers and musicians.

James Van Der Zee 1886-1983Couple, Harlem 1933silver print photograph

The visual art of the Harlem Renaissance was an attempt at developing a new African-

American aesthetic in the fine arts.

Thematic content includedAfrica as a source of inspiration,

African-American history,folk idioms, (music and religion of the South),

and social injustice.

Believing that their life experiences were valuable sources of material for their art, these artists

created an iconography of the Harlem Renaissance era.

Meta Warrick Fuller was a sculptor who looked to

the songs of black Americans and to Africanfolk tales for inspirational

themes that focused on pathos and joy in the

human condition. She introduced these subjects to

America long beforethe Harlem Renaissance.

Meta Vaux Warrick FullerSculptor

1877-1968

This sculpture by Meta Warrick Fuller, anticipated the spirit and style

of the Harlem Renaissance by symbolizing the emergence of the

New Negro.

The Awakening of Ethiopia1914

Fuller said she was thinking about the average African-American,

whom she envisioned “awakening, gradually unwinding the bondage of

his past and looking out on life again, expectant and unafraid.”

Henry Ossawa TannerThe Banjo Lesson, 1893

Tanner wanted to showa positive image of theAfrican-American byhighlighting the senseof dignity and in the

touching moment of theelder teaching the boy how to play the banjo. Tanner

also chose the banjo because of its African

origin and its being the most popular musical

instrument used by the slaves in early America

Window Cleaning, 1935

“I refuse to compromise

and see blacks as anything less than a

proud and majestic people.”

Aaron Douglas1898-1979

Johnson arrived inHarlem when the

Renaissance was in the making. While

there he created several paintings that dealt with

political and social Harlem. Chain

Gang is one example.

William H. Johnson1901-1970

Chain Gang. 1939

William H. JohnsonSwing Low, Sweet Chariot

1939

Johnson always showed great

devotion to painting themes that celebrated

Black Christianity. This painting is an example

of one based on a literal interpretation of a spiritual occasion.

Palmer Hayden, The Janitor Who Paints, 1937

In this symbolic self-portrait, Hayden is at work in his basement

studio, surrounded by the tools of his dual

professions, a palette, brushes and easel, and a garbage can, broom, and

feather duster. The painter’s studio is also his

bedroom, and his bed, night table, alarm clock, and a framed picture of a

cat are seen in the background.

Jacob Lawrence1917-2000

Jacob Lawrence was a painter who was inspired to focus his work on the historical development and struggle of people

from African descent. He used his canvas as a vehicle for making statements on

Freedom, Dignity, Struggle, and Daily Life among the

African-American peoples.

Jacob Lawrence Harlem Rooftops

Jacob LawrenceAspiration 1988

Lawrence commented,

“What did I see when I arrived in Harlem in 1930? I was thirteen years of age.

I remember seeing the movement, the life, the

people, the excitement. We were going through a great, great depression at that time,

but despite that, I think, there was always hope.”

Legend of John Brown, 1977

“I’ve always been interested in history, but they never

taught Negro history in the public schools…I don’t see how a history of the United

States can be written honestly without including the Negro. I didn’t paint

just as a historical thing, but because I believe these

things tie up with the Negro today. I am not a politician.

I’m an artist, just trying to do my part to bring this

thing about…”