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The Harlem Renaissance • Originally called the New Negro Movement, the Harlem Renaissance was a literary and intellectual flowering that fostered a new black cultural identity in the 1920s and 1930s.With racism still rampant and economic opportunities scarce, creative expression was one of the few avenues available to African Americans in the early twentieth century. Chiefly literary—the birth of jazz is generally considered a separate movement—the Harlem Renaissance transformed "social disillusionment to race pride."
During the time period. • Mrs. Johnson was conciliator for the Labor Department for eight years (1925-1934). Although working full-time, she continued to feverishly produce literary works and maintain a column for 20 weekly newspapers. Throughout her career she wrote poetry incessantly, edited close to 100 books, wrote over 40 plays and 30 songs, but only five of those plays were ever published and three produced. Johnson had to create her own supportive environment by establishing the Saturday night open houses that she hosted weekly soon after her husband's death and that included Langston Hughes, Jean Toomer, Anne Spencer, Alain Locke, Jessie RedmonFauset, and others.
“Black Woman.” • Don’t knock at the door, little child, I cannot let you in, You know not what a world this is Of cruelty and sin. Wait in the still eternity Until I come to you, The world is cruel, cruel, child, I cannot let you in! • Don’t knock at my heart, little one, I cannot bear the pain Of turning deaf-ear to your call Time and time again! You do not know the monster men Inhabiting the earth, Be still, be still, my precious child, I must not give you birth!
The poem • The poem is about a mother who is hesitant to let her child in the world for it is cold and ruled by monsters. She does not want to expose her child to that.
From the poem • “You know not what a world this is Of cruelty and sin.” • The poetic devices used for this line Imagery because it lacks imagery. She is short and to the point, kind of making the world rough and cold and just not the place anyone would want to be.
From the poem • “You do not know the monster men Inhabiting the earth” • Symbolism in this line can be represented by the “monster men” because she’s saying the world is inhabited by men that are monsters.
