• The Harlem Renaissance was a flowering of African American social thought which was expressed through

•Paintings

•Music

•Dance

•Theater

•Literature

Where is Harlem?

The island of Manhattan

New York City is on Manhattan island

Neighborhoods

• Centered in the Harlem district of New York City, the New Negro Movement (as it was called at the time) had a major influence across the Unites States and even the world.

• The economic opportunities of the era triggered a

widespread migration of black Americans from the

rural south to the industrial centers of the north - and

especially to New York City.

• In New York and other cities, black Americans explored

new opportunities for intellectual and social freedom.

• Black American artists, writers, and musicians began to

use their talents to work for civil rights and obtain

equality.

5 Major Themes Emerged During the

Harlem Renaissance

• Black culture/heritage is a source of pride

• The development of the “New Negro”

• Resistance in the face of injustice

• The search for equality for African

American race

• The search for self and a personal identity

Writers: Langston Hughes

Zora Neal Hurston

Nella Larson

Arne Botemps

Countee Cullen

Claude McCay

Artists: Jacob Lawrence

Aaron Douglas

Palmer Hayden

Archibald John Motley, Jr.

Jacob Douglas

Musicians: Duke Ellington

Louis Armstrong

Bessie Smith

Billie Holiday

Places: The Savoy

The Cotton Club

The Apollo Theater

I've known rivers:

I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the

flow of human blood in human veins.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.

I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.

I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.

I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln

went down to New Orleans, and I've seen its muddy

bosom turn all golden in the sunset.

I've known rivers:

Ancient, dusky rivers.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

•What is the tone or mood of this poem?

•Why do you think the poem was written and for what audience?

•List two things in this poem that tell you about life in the United States at the time.

“Ascent from Ethiopia”, Louis Mailou Jones. 1932

Study the picture for 2 minutes. Form an

overall impression of the painting, then

start to focus on individual details.

Questions to think about:

1. What do you see?

2. What people do you see?

3. What objects do you see?

4. What colors do you see?

5. What actions/activities do you see?

6. What questions does this painting

raise in your mind?

7. How does this painting relate to the

Harlem Renaissance?

8. Based on what you have observed,

list what you may infer from this

painting.