Harlem Renaissance Activity

1. Harlem Renaissance Activity • Objectives • Evaluate “Why Harlem” • Synthesize the history of the Harlem Renaissance to create an original piece. • Agenda • Finish Lecture • Read the poem “Harlem” • Activity • Homework • Chapter 34 • Hughes’s The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain • Hughes Discussion questions turned in to turnitin.com

2. Harlem • Download the poem Harlem from my website and read it. ( think of any places that sound familiar from the lecture) • After you are done get into your lit groups. • You will all need your netbooks • Choose the following roles: • Facilitator/Presenter • Note Taker • Time Keeper • Artist

3. Activity (Note taker Turn in to Turnitin.com) • Go to the following interactive website : http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/interactives/harlem/place.html • Begin by locating the places mentioned in Myers' poem "Harlem" (Smalls' Paradise, Abyssinian Church, Lennox Avenue, Strivers' Row etc.). • Click throughout the map to visit a sampling of Harlem's churches, businesses, and residences. Which buildings are next to each other? What kinds of activities and interactions might have taken place in these locations? • Visit the YMCA, Dunbar Apartments, and 267 House. Who lived in these places? How did each inspire creativity? Community building? Intellectual pursuits? Political debate? Collaboration? • Locate Connie's Inn and the Cotton Club and read about them. These were places that were either segregated or too expensive for lower- or middle-class blacks. If you lived in Harlem, how would you have felt if you were not allowed to enter these places? If you were an artist during the Harlem Renaissance, you would need a job to earn money for food and rent. You would face the difficult question of whether of not to perform at a place that would not accept you as a guest/audience member. What would you do?

4. Reflection • Think about whether the renaissance that happened in Harlem could have occurred elsewhere. Why or why not? What physical qualities of Harlem might have contributed to the Renaissance (e.g., crowded conditions, isolation from other parts of the city)? What aspects of community life (e.g., attendance at church, social life) were conducive to the Renaissance? Share your notes with another student and discuss your ideas.

5. Activity Cont. • Assume Sammamish is going through a renaissance led by its teenage population right now. • Create an original work to capture some aspect of Sammamish during its Renaissance (e.g., a scene from Sammamish street life or nightlife, a poetry reading, or a dramatization of a lake party, political meeting, or other event). • Write a poem, create a painting, write/perform a dramatic scene, create a movement sequence, or create a musical collage to depict some aspect of life in Sammamish. • Your work should include a written commentary that describes the ways in which your work captures the spirit of the community.