The Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance 1920s – 1930s

What was going on otherwise? • World War I had just ended • The 18th Amendment made alcohol illegal • Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt were presidents • Radio hit the airwaves

Yup, twas the Roarin’ Twenties That’s a radio. She’s a flapper.

What caused the Renaissance in Harlem? Great Migration from the rural South, 1914-1918 Former slaves were heading North to find work in the urban centers/cities because Reconstruction had failed. Created their own culture of music, art, literature, and fashion in response to their new surroundings

New York City, 1920

The Harlem Renaissancewas an explosion of African-American culture that began with jazz, the only music indigenous to the United States

Be Bop! • Type of jazz music • Charlie Parker, saxophone • Dizzy Gillespie, trumpet • Charles Mingus, bassist • Scat: Be de be do be do be do be do

Technically Be Bop be do be do be do be do be dahhh…. • Horns played cleanly, like a piano • Emphasis on 8th and 16th notes • Very fast, many solos in one song • Chords are a reference, not a melody • Integrated/quoted/sampled from other songs

Roots of Jazz in the Southern Spiritual

And roots from Africa

They played their music here

Dance and musicblended together…

RENT! Parties in Harlem • Rented hall + flyers + cheap food, + good, live music + dime admission + red lights =

On a really good rent night • Musicians like Charlie Parker or Billie Holiday would show up after their paid gig and play for free • These were called “Jumps!” or “Shouts!” IT WAS THE JAZZ AGE

Art of the Renaissance Just as colorful as the music

Characteristics of the Art • Some hearkened back to Africa Like the work of Aaron Douglas

Much of the Art Reflected the dancing. This is the Charleston

The struggles of these former slaves • Were always in the back of their minds • The reality: lynching and the Ku Klux Klan This is Denver, CO in 1930

The Literature Reflected this Dark Reality of Two Worlds: Black and White • Langston Hughes, Theme for English B: The instructor said, Go home and write a page tonight. And let that page come out of you- Then, it will be true. I wonder if it's that simple? I am twenty-two, colored, born in Winston-Salem. I went to school there, then Durham, then here to this college on the hill above Harlem. I am the only colored student in my class. The steps from the hill lead down into Harlem through a park, then I cross St. Nicholas, Eighth Avenue, Seventh, and I come to the Y, the Harlem Branch Y, where I take the elevator up to my room, sit down, and write this page:

This is what Langston wrote: It's not easy to know what is true for you or me at twenty-two, my age. But I guess I'm what I feel and see and hear, Harlem, I hear you: hear you, hear me-we two-you, me, talk on this page. (I hear New York too.) Me-who? Well, I like to eat, sleep, drink, and be in love. I like to work, read, learn, and understand life. I like a pipe for a Christmas present, or records-Bessie, bop, or Bach. I guess being colored doesn't make me NOT like the same things other folks like who are other races.

And he finished his essay (poem) • So will my page be colored that I write? Being me, it will not be white. But it will be a part of you, instructor. You are white--- yet a part of me, as I am a part of you. That's American. Sometimes perhaps you don't want to be a part of me. Nor do I often want to be a part of you. But we are, that's true! As I learn from you,I guess you learn from me--- although you're older---and white--- and somewhat more free. This is my page for English B.

Bibliography • http://www.jazzwise.com/catalog/media/AeberHbk/37.pdf • http://www.robinurton.com/history/Harlem.htm • http://www.huntfor.com/arthistory/C20th/harrenaiss.htm • http://www.1920-30.com/ • http://uptownflavor.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/1996.jpg • http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/h/harlemrenaissance.html

The Harlem Renaissance