What Is The Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance took place during the 1920s through the 1930s, and is noted as the first point in American history when African-American achievements in art, music, and literature flourished and were widely accepted. In the early part of the 1900s, the American public was shifting its interests from the “minstrel show” format to that of vaudeville. This created a wave of changes in theater in egeneral, and one of the most interesting was the appearance of African American actors and purely African American “themes”. For example, the 1917 play “Three Plays for a Negro Theater” was a first of its kind and eliminated the stereotypical portrayal of “blackface” in favor of African American actors insteadMany view this as the birth of the

These people wanted a much higher standard of living for their families, and so they joined in on the Great Migration to northern cities like Philadelphia, Chicago, and New York. Once they were settled, these communities established schools, churches, and other necessary institutions. They still faced racism and segregation, however, and this provided for the emergence of the dominating theme of the art of the Harlem Renaissance, which was a powerful racial pride. The literature, art, music, and even formal educational pursuits of the time were all influenced by the post-slavery experience. Many characteristics apply to these works, however, and there are combinations of differentevels of society all existing in a single genre. For example, jazz was “high culture” and “low life” all at the same time, but it allowed black and white Americans to equally access and combprehend the culture connected to the diverse African American experience up until that point in

This would have an impact on such things as rock and roll, and even hip hop music too. Rock and Roll music faced many challenges in its early years because it was created in a time when racial segregatiofn was still very common and overt racism still rampant, and yet it appealed to teens and young adults of all ethnic backgrounds. The American Civil Rights Movement (around 1954) had barely started, but this actually helped to facilitate the spread of Rock and Roll while also aligning more and more young Americans to the fight for equal rights and an end to racism. This is because the genre combines different styles of music that had previously been labeled strictly as “black” or as “white”, but which disappeared when merged into Rock and Roll