The Harlem Renaissance

1. The Harlem Renaissance Chapter 20 The Roaring 20’s and the Jazz Age

2. The Movement

3. The Great Migration of African Americans after WWI swelled the populations of northern cities. The NY City neighborhood of Harlem became the heart of a an African American rebirth of culture and the arts known as the Harlem Renaissance.

4. The New Negro, by Alain Locke. Described the movement as a “spiritual Coming of Age.” …”the present, more immediate hope rests in the revaluation by white and black alike of the Negro in terms of his artistic endowments and cultural contributions, past and prospective.”

5. The Music

6. Jazz – a musical style influenced by ragtime, Dixieland, and blues. Started in New Orleans, spread to Chicago, then NYC. Louis Armstrong – jazz innovator, trumpet player, singer, scat-man, and pop culture icon.

8. Duke Ellington – composer, pianist, bandleader. Got his start at the Cotton Club. “Everything, and I repeat everything had to swing. And that was just it, those cats really had it; they had that soul. And you know you can’t just play some of this music without soul. Soul is very important.”

9. Bessie Smith – “Empress of the Blues” The Blues – soulful musical style that evolved from Negro spirituals.

10. Josephine Baker – singer, dancer, and the first international African American sensation.

11. The Writers

12. Claude McKay – wrote Harlem Shadows, a collection of poetry. “Ah, stern harsh world, that in the wretched way Of 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 feet In Harlem wandering from street to street. “ Zora Neale Hurston – first major novelist featuring African-American females as central characters.

13. Langston Hughes Wrote “jazz poetry.” More critical than W.E.B. Dubois and Alain Locke. Famous Poems include: The Negro Speaks of Rivers I, Too and Let America Be America Again