Harlem Renaissance

1. Harlem Renaissance Anthony Deleon Breahna Alvarez Shaunta Minner Brian Vivar Period: 2

2. Harlem renaissance • Renewal of black literary and musical culture after World War I and through the middle of the 1930s Depression (early 1920s-1930s) • Took place in Harlem, New York • Black artists began creating work that represented black culture • First known as "The New Negro Movement" • 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

3. Paul laurencedunbar

4. Bio & notable works • “We Wear the Mask” • “A Death Song” • “Emancipation • “Sympathy” • 1872-1906 • Lived to be solemnly 33 years old • First African-American to gain national eminence as a poet. • Style is known for using 2 types of voices, standard English, and the evocative dialect of the turn-of-the-century black community in America.

5. “We Wear the mask” • We wear the mask that grins and lies,     It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—     This debt we pay to human guile;     With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,     And mouth with myriad subtleties. •     Why should the world be over-wise,     In counting all our tears and sighs?     Nay, let them only see us, while             We wear the mask. •     We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries     To thee from tortured souls arise.     We sing, but oh the clay is vile     Beneath our feet, and long the mile;     But let the world dream otherwise, • We Wear the Mask

6. Marcus Garvey

7. Bio & notable works • “Fire in the Flint” • “Hail, the United States of Africa” • “Africa for the Africans” • Marcus Garvey was born in Jamaica on August 17, 1887 and died on June 10, 1940- 52 years • Was self educated, attended Birkbeck College where he studied Law and Philosophy. • Poet, social activist, public speaker • Founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (1914) • Best known for the Pan Africanism Movement • Died of stroke

8. “Fire in the Flint” Oh yes, there's fire in the heart of man-A beast is he when'er it pleases him:He frowns upon the members of his clan,And oft the lives of hosts and friends bedim. A child of God as he was made to be,He changes soul and character to boot;And now he hates and kills with license free,And smiles at all, to rob, to cheat and loot. Not only does he plunder men for gain,But prejudices practice 'gainst the weak,He thus inflicts upon them awful pain,And forces them to hope, in groanings meek. The whites are great offenders 'gainst the Blacks;They steal, they rape, they kill and punish hardThe sons of Ham, and whip them on their backs:In hope alone they trust their gracious Lord. To call it mortal sin, is mild rebuke:It's man's most wicked way of treating man.To gain the ends, his laws and ways imputeThat men are different beings, and not one clan The centuries of life have left no seedOf goodly change toward the helpless weak;With all the pleas and woes, man fails to heed;But leaves the bending poor God's grace to seek. A life for life, is not with men all true;The strong corrupts, destroys and murders all;And white men lynch the ones of darker hue,Who have not rights nor laws on which to call. And should you doubt the story I do tell,I ask of you, investigate the facts:Go South and see the men who live in bell-Who get the kicks with burdens on their backs. The mob will make the human skull a ball,And trample on the fetus of the child:Oh! this, of crime, is fun, yes, very small!The "Crackers" think this sport but passing mild. The fire in the heart of man is hell;It's flint that burns throughout the night and day;Yet with such creatures we must always dwell,And groan, and weep, and die. but have no say.

9. CLAUDE MCKAY

10. Bio & notable works • “Constab Ballads” “Harlem Shadows” “Songs of Jamaica” • “The Passion of Claude McKay” • Born in Jamaica in 1889 • Travelled to the United States to attend Tuskegee Institute at age 23 but finished college at Kansas State University • Started writing poetry at age 10 • Died in 1948 of heart failure

11. Harlem shadows • I hear the halting footsteps of a lassIn Negro Harlem when the night lets fallIts veil. I see the shapes of girls who passTo bend and barter at desire's call.Ah, little dark girls who in slippered feetGo prowling through the night from street to street!Through the long night until the silver breakOf day the little gray feet know no rest;Through the lone night until the last snow-flakeHas dropped from heaven upon the earth's white breast,The dusky, half-clad girls of tired feetAre trudging, thinly shod, from street to street.Ah, stern harsh world, that in the wretched wayOf poverty, dishonor and disgrace,Has pushed the timid little feet of clay,The sacred brown feet of my fallen race!Ah, heart of me, the weary, weary feetIn Harlem wandering from street to street.

12. Langston Hughes

13. Bio & notable works • “Mother to Son” • “The Weary Blues” • “One-way Ticket” • “Freedom’s Plow • Born on Feb. 1st, 1902 in Missouri • Moved to Lincoln, Illinois at the age of 13 • Attended Columbia University for a year; finished at Lincoln University • Influenced by jazz music • Became a poet to tell stories of his people in ways that reflected their culture • Died in 1967 of prostate cancer at age 65 • Ashes are buried in Harlem under a special medallion in a center for research of Black cullture

14. “Mother to son” Well, son, I'll tell you:Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.It's had tacks in it,And splinters,And boards torn up,And places with no carpet on the floor --Bare.But all the timeI'se been a-climbin' on,And reachin' landin's, And turnin' corners,And sometimes goin' in the darkWhere there ain't been no light.So boy, don't you turn back.Don't you set down on the steps'Cause you finds it's kinder hard.Don't you fall now --For I'se still goin', honey,I'se still climbin',And life for me ain't been no crystal stair.

15. Writing prompts 1. Taking into consideration the title of “Mother to Son”, analyze how the poetic devices convey the speakers attitude toward the staircase. 2. Write an essay in which you analyze the techniques used in the previous poem to characterize the speakers and convey differing views of the world. 3. Write a well organized essay in which you analyze how the formal elements of the previous poem contributes to its meaning.

16. Sources http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/article_3817.shtml http://www.biography.com/people/marcus-garvey-9307319 http://www.international.ucla.edu/africa/mgpp/intro.asp http://www.africawithin.com/garvey/garvey_poetry.htm http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/matoson.html http://www.poetry-archive.com/m/harlem_shadows.html http://www.potw.org/archive/potw8.html http://www.dunbarsite.org/ http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/83 http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/25

17. Interactive Poetry Lesson

18. Analyze the poem by finding literary techniques used by the author to convey a deeper meaning. A prayer 'Mid the discordant noises of the day I hear thee calling; I stumble as I fare along Earth's way; keep me from falling. Mine eyes are open but they cannot see for gloom of night: I can no more than lift my heart to thee for inward light. The wild and fiery passion of my youth consumes my soul; In agony I turn to thee for truth and self-control. For Passion and all the pleasures it can give will die the death; But this of me eternally must live, thy borrowed breath. 'Mid the discordant noises of the day I hear thee calling; I stumble as I fare along Earth's way; keep me from falling. Claude McKay

19. Quiz • What time period did the Harlem Renaissance take place? • Name one of the works of art Langston Hughes is known for besides “Mother to Son”. • How did Langston Hughes die? • What did black artists want to portray in their poetry and artwork? • Who was the first African-American to gain national eminence as a poet?