Impact Of The Harlem Renaissance

“The Harlem Renaissance” was the name given to the cultural, social, and artistic explosion that took place in Harlem between the 1920s and 1930s, around the end of World War I. This movement took place in Harlem, New York a predominantly African American community. The Harlem Renaissance was associated with the origin of African American culture drawing writers, artists, musicians, photographers, poets, and scholars to Harlem.

Harlem became the community for which many of the great African American leaders in arts and academe lived, worked, or visited to be a part of Renaissance taking place in this African American community, which still exists today. “The Harlem Renaissance” impacted and changed the identity of African Americans and American

There are famous jazz artists that came after the Harlem Renaissance such as Miles Davis, Nina Simone and Wynton Marsalis. Also, today, the most popular jazz artists are Michael Buble and Sam Smith for the younger generation.

The women of the Harlem Renaissance were also influential many as singers, Jazz and Blues music). Others were dancers, poets, comediennes, and writers. Some of the most famous entertainers and/or singers were Ethel Waters, Ella Fitzgerald, Marian Anderson, Lena Horne, Josephine Baker, Bessie Smith, Billie Holliday, and groups like the Dandridge sisters. Many of these artists crossed over to film and television, such as Lena Horne in “Stormy Weather.” This created an independence for Black women to showcase their Talent, create their own wealth, and their own identity apart from men.

Today, there are many women entertainers, actresses, singers, and dancers that reference their influence from many of the women of the Harlem Renaissance. We have had Aretha Franklin and Whitney Houston just to name a few. Today, we have Beyonce who sang Etta James, “At Last” to President Obama, first African American President and the First Lady, Michelle Obama for an inaugural event. She has often been compared to have a voice like Ella Fitzgerald and the dancing of Josephine

The Renaissance was a time when the voice of the African-American writer, scholar, author, poet and philosophers began to share the experience of African Americans to the world. These literary works became the history of black lives, which today has become much of the historical reference for that time.

At the beginning, there was Charles Chestnutt, W.E.B. Du Bois, James Weldon Johnson, Jean Toomer, Zora Neale Hurston, and Langston Hughes were writers that were part of “The Harlem Renaissance”. In all, there were 27 novels written by Harlem Renaissance writers.

The notable scholars during the “The Harlem Renaissance,” were Booker T. Washington and W.E.B Du Bois who became notable leaders representing a perspective of African American life, social and economic inequalities. Booker T. and W.E.B. DuBois were rival scholars, because each of them had opposite ideas for Black Americans on how they must survive and overcome the conflict of color between Blacks and Whites in the American Society.

Poetry was a major part of the Harlem Renaissance, because it tells different stories of black culture in African American literature. Many poets wrote poetry related to the black movement during a time of ambiguity of our rights as Americans like James Weldon Johnson, Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, and Alain