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Harlem Renaissance Project

Kate Mazzotta Period 1 American Literature . Harlem Renaissance Project. Who is Gwendolyn Bennett?. Born: July 8, 1902. Where: Giddings, Texas. Died: Reading, Pennsylvania on May 30, 1981.

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Harlem Renaissance Project

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  1. Kate Mazzotta Period 1 American Literature Harlem Renaissance Project

  2. Who is Gwendolyn Bennett? • Born: July 8, 1902. • Where: Giddings, Texas. • Died: Reading, Pennsylvania on May 30, 1981. • At Brooklyn's Girls' High she participated in the drama and literary societies (the first African American to do so) and won first place in an art contest. • Her poetry generally dealt with racial uplift and pride in her African heritage. • Over a nine year period twenty-two of Bennett’s poems were featured in magazines such as Opportunity, Crisis, Palms and Gypsy. • Her many professions included art teacher, magazine and journal editor, publisher, painter and poet. • She married Dr. Alfred Jackson and the couple moved to Florida; unhappy living in the South the couple eventually moved back up North. • After the death of her first husband, Bennett moved in with her stepmother and worked as a teacher in Long Island and then as a project supervisor in the Federal Art Teaching Project.

  3. Who is Gwendolyn Bennett? (cont.) • She was active in the Harlem Artists Guild, the National Negro Congress, the Artists Union, the Negro People's Theater, and the Negro Playwright's Company, serving on the board of directors of the last. • In 1941 Bennett gave a series of lectures on African American arts at the School for Democracy. • In the same year Bennett married Richard Crosscup; a white Harvard Graduate and teacher. • She cofounded and directed the George Carver Community School, in Harlem; but it was eventually shut down. • Gwendolyn Bennett retired in 1968 • Bennett and her husband moved to Kutztown, Pennsylvania where they opened an antique store until both of their deaths.

  4. Wedding Day • One of Gwendolyn Bennett’s more famous short stories is Wedding Day. • Published in 1926. • Was in the first issue of Fire Magazine. • “…Paul Watson, former boxer and African American expatriate, is notorious in the Montmartre quarter of Paris for his hatred of white Americans, whom he instantly pulverizes when they utter the red-flag word ‘nigger’… Paul feeds and clothes Mary, down on her luck, and falls in love with her, even though she is a white American. The reader is left to reflect on the vagaries of racism as Mary, a prostitute, decides at the last minute not to marry Paul” (Harlem Renaissance Reader, edited by David Levering Lewis).

  5. Wedding Day 3 T’s • Technique: • Influenced by what was around her • Gave empowerment to black males • Tone: • Sad • Risqué • Theme: • Biggest theme is racism • Love • How did race influence who you loved?

  6. Contribution to Harlem Renaissance • As and author her works were African American based • She taught at schools for African Americans • All the magazines that she worked for or wrote for were African American based fine arts magazines • Her goal was to shine a light on racism with her work • Showed the world African culture through literature

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