In his book, “The New Negro”, Alain Locke said that the writings of the Renaissance showed a “new spirit [..] awake in the black masses.” This spirit is that of “new Negro”, who has come to replace the “Old Negro” who “ had become more of a myth than a man.” (Locke) This spirit, spurred and cultivated by years of enslavement, both literal and, in a sense, figurative, is what led to the writings that are regarded part of a monumental era for black writing, and writing in general. Having experienced such
The Harlem Renaissance, also known as the New Negro Movement, is a time period in American history that bred the likes of Langston Hughes, W.E.B Dubois, and Zora Neale Hurston. Despite the name, the Harlem Renaissance is not exclusive to the city of Harlem. The Harlem Renaissance period is an “interdisciplinary cultural movement” (Jones 2008) that unleashed creativity in the African American community and allowed the ingenuity of the community to be shared with the world. The Harlem Renaissance is the beginning of the age of modernism. This artistic movement included creative explosions in the areas of literature, poetry, dance, and music.
This topic was chosen out of the interest in the arts and specifically the arts within America. I aim to explore how art evolved and affected the Civil Rights Movement and changed the attitude of racist and unjust people who lived during the 1960s. The evolution of art throughout the 1960s in America introduced new styles of art into the world and had large political relevance in accordance to the Civil Rights Movement and unjust gender discrimination. The American arts industry is one of the most widely recognized and most successful industries to date and much of its success is owed to the Civil Rights Movement that occurred during the 1960s. During this period of time, African Americans were extremely disadvantaged and oppressed.
It became the place of residents for Black poets, musicians, artists. During Harlem renaissance the country for the first time heard about the cultural tradition of the Black population of the USA, which was new to it. Black Renaissance found a support in the works of Black philosophers and political scientists of the beginning of the XX century. Harlem Renaissance was a consequence of the changes in the life of Afro-American society, which happened since the cancellation of slavery and up to mass migration of Blacks to the North, their participations in World War I, industrialization and in general all the changes, which happened in the USA at the beginning of the XX century (Du Bois). The factors promoting recession of activity of the Harlem Renaissance were the Great depression and the difficult economic situation in the
Many African American musicians, artists, and writers blossomed as instigators for this cultural awakening, like Zora Neale Hurston, Claude McKay, and of course Langston Hughes to name a few (Hutchinson, p.1). Langston Hughes was a pioneer of contemporary African American literature. His work, Montage of a Dream Deferred, is comprised of several poems which read as one, centered mainly on the African American community in post World War II Harlem. The overarching motif is of the dream deferred, which was Hughes’ way of responding to racial oppression in America. The dream deferred refers to how there is the American dream, which
After the I World War the crisis existed in each sphere of people’s lives, from economics to culture. Declination which came to the societies of all the countries, which took part in the war, had to be removed. People needed inspiration and comfort, they needed hope and positive emotions to be able to cope with all the destructions the war had brought. In USA the process of renewing began with great migration of African American from dilapidated South to industrial and developed North, “in cities such as Chicago; Washington, D.C.; and New York City, the recently migrated sought found (to some degree) new opportunities, both economic and artistic” (Poets 2004). In the world of literature, and poetry in particular, new personalities appeared.
African- American writings have dealt with manifold themes throughout history. The American Civil War can be considered a break-through in the political as well as literary history. Many texts were born with subtle experiences of racist attitudes in America. Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye can be pinned to the African- American writings after the American Civil War movement of the 1960’s, representing a “distinctively black literature” what Morrison calls “race-specific yet race-free prose”. Morrison is among the pioneer of those contemporary black writers who have redefined African- American writings in more ways than one.
A great poet, essayist, and novelist Alice Walker (b. 1944) is a renowned face on the literary stage of America. Though Walker is an important part of American literature, still, she more specifically belongs to the Afro-American literature. Walker has always been attracted towards the problems of the oppressed and the downtrodden. She has been an active reformist and social worker and has been a part of various reforms and movements organised in favour of the oppressed or the ‘social outcasts’.
The Harlem Renaissance The 1920’s was a historic time period in which many things changed from beliefs to technology in the U.S..One of the most important events in this time period was The Harlem Renaissance.The Harlem Renaissance was an important period in the U.S.’s history in which African American culture was finally appreciated because of their achievements in the arts , literature, and music. Like every other story , they all have a beginning , someplace where everything started. It began with many African Americans moving from the south to the north of the U.S. to avoid racism. Harlem was meant to be a fancy neighborhood but “rapid overdevelopment led to empty buildings and desperate landlords seeking to fill them” causing African Americans to ocupate those Vacant homes(History.com Staff,). At first we know white people tried to keep African Americans distance far from their homes but as more and more African American people came the white people fled the harlem area.
The most influential movement in African American literary history, which contributed the phase of the “New Negro”, is known as The Harlem Renaissance. This movement played a pivotal role in creating a different identity for the black culture (History.com). Emerging in the 1920s, The Harlem Renaissance allowed black writers, artists, photographers, scholars, poets, and musicians to express their talents Part of the foundations of the movement was the Great Migration of African Americans from South to North, drastically expanding their knowledge and socioeconomic opportunities. Certainly the movement was more than literary, for having such a proximate relation to civil rights, the “New Negro” demanded civil and political privileges. Additionally,