Arna Bontemps: The Harlem Renaissance

Hughes citied Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Carl Sandburg, and Walt Whitman as some of his main inspirations. Today we remember Langston Hughes for his insightful, and his very vivid portrayal and personal views on the black life in America from the 1920’s throughout the 1960’s. He wrote many novels throughout his life along with short stories and plays, as well as poetry. His life work were important in the early shaping of the artistic contributions to follow after him. Some have considered him to be one of the earliest innovators of jazz poetry.

The Harlem Renaissance was a period from around the end of WWI to about the mid-1930’s where a cultural, social, and artistic explosion took place in Harlem, New York and all across America. This time period saw the emergence of a cultural center for African Americans in the city of Harlem, New York, where black writers, artists, musicians, photographers, poets, and scholars all came together for a “rebirth” of African American culture. This “rebirth” kindled a new sense of black identity in all aspects of life, socially, culturally, and intellectually. The cultural explosion brought new themes to black culture including, the stressing of black identity, telling of the effects of racism, the American Dream, and a newfound sense of community

The Harlem Renaissance was given its name because cultural, social, and artistic explosion took place in Harlem between 1918 and mid-1930’s. During this period Harlem was the go to place for black writers, artists, musicians, poets, and many others. A majority of people came from the South, because they were fleeing its caste system to find a place where they could freely express themselves and their talents. Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Walter White and James Weldon Johnson were amongst the many artists who became very well known. Du Bois, editor of THE CRISIS magazine, the journal of the NAACP, published the poems, stories, and visual works of many artists.

Extended Essay: The Harlem Renaissance Question: What contribution did the Harlem Renaissance have in shaping the voice of African-Americans in New York City during the 1920’s? Introduction: For many, the 1920’s evokes images of flappies and speak-easies. But for one group of Americans, the decade was also the start of rebirth. The Harlem Renaissance was the first time African writers, musicians and artists won recognition for their achievements in vast amounts of areas. Their goal was to create an outlet for group cohesion and self determination, as a means for achieving equality and civil rights.

The Harlem Renaissance was the movement of African American culture. Some of the significant subjects were music, literature, poem, and art. The poets Langston Hughes and Claude McKay were some of the most influential poets from the renaissance. The poems “The Harlem Dancer” by Claude McKay and “I, Too” by Langston Hughes will be used to compare and show how two poems form the same era could be similar yet different based on their subject, purpose, style, tone, and rhythm. “I, Too” creates the world where people are treated equally.

The Harlem Renaissance happened from the 1920s to the mid 1930s in Harlem, New York. What caused the renaissance was the migration of more than six million people from the South to the North. Slavery was abolished but it did not stop white supremacy. The aftermath of white supremacy was having the Jim Crow laws created and enforced to the Southern states. The Jim Crow laws enforced racial segregation where ninety percent of black Americans lived.

Dhrumi Patel Period:4 Mrs.Blanke Mrs.Hnasko English Lit IV A Research Paper Langston Hughes Influence on the Harlem Renaissance “Democracy” by Langston Hughes was written during the Harlem Renaissance and left a great impact on it. It helped people stay true to their traditions and made people want to fight for their equality. His real name was James Mercer Langston Hughes and was born on February 1, 1902, in Joplin, Missouri. His parents got a divorce when he was a young child. His father then moved to Mexico because of all the racism that was being directed towards the African Americans during that time.

The Harlem Renaissance, or the New Negro Movement as it was known at the time, was an intellectual, artistic, and social outpouring that celebrated black culture with themes of what it meant to be black in America. This movement lasted from the 1920s through the 1930s and included artists and intellectuals such as Langston Hughes, W.E.B. DuBois, and Duke Ellington. The Harlem Renaissance went beyond art, literature, and music, there were also political, social, and economic aspects as African-Americans questioned how the United States viewed them and how they viewed themselves. The New Negro and the rise of Harlem came about at a time when African-Americans began to urbanize and form a unique urban culture.

Born on February 1, 1902 and raised in New York City very own Harlem, Hughes would prove to be one of the most significant writers and thinkers of the Harlem Renaissance. In 1926 Hughes published one of his many symbolic poems Weary Blues. The Weary Blues is a poem that was able to fuse together poetry, jazz and blues which describes one of the distinctive characteristics of the “New Negro” of the Harlem Renaissance. The Weary Blues portrays the overcrowded conditions and employment difficulties blacks faced in Harlem. Those who suffered from ambiguity because of lack of monetary resources and basic luxuries: In a deep song voice with a melancholy

The introduction of the uniqueness of art, jazz, literature and dancing became the new attraction. The Great Migration of many African-American people from the South to the North, and many into Harlem was the cause of this circumstance. Harlem became the midpoint of settlement. There are principles that lead to the creation of the Harlem Renaissance. During the 1916 to 1970s the great migration occurred.

The Harlem Renaissance “I have a dream that one day on the red hill of Georgia, that the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit together at the table of brotherhood.” Martin Luther King Jr. said this, even though he was not apart of the Harlem Renaissance he still contributed in the creation of it. From the 1920s through the mid 1930s, the Harlem Renaissance a literary, artistic movement helped change African American culture for the better. It was a very important part of history for three reasons: how and when it started, famous African American people from that time period, and the affects it had on the United States. Many have wondered how this amazing movement started and when. It started in about

Langston Hughes was a man of many talents who was most famous for his head role in the Harlem Renaissance. While talented in many different genres, he was most known for his poetry and his contribution to the style of jazz poetry. While Hughes was not physically present for many demonstrations during the Civil Rights Movement, his poetry and political writing served as an inspiration to people in the United States and around the world. James Langston Hughes was born on February 1, 1902 in Missouri. His father, a Black American, unhappy with the way Blacks were treated in America at the time, left the country for Cuba that same year.