The Harlem Renaissance

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The Harlem Renaissance

• 1900-1940

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What was the Harlem Renaissance?

• In the 1920s a section of New York City called
  Harlem became a center of African-American
  creativity. Writers, artists, musicians, and
  intellectuals explored and celebrated their own
  culture, producing an unusual number of original
  works. Many were entertainers in Harlem
  nightclubs, which became popular gathering places
  for New York whites. This period of lively
  artistic growth is referred to as the Harlem
  Renaissance.

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Art Forms

• Literary Criticism
• Theater
• The Birth of Jazz

• Literature Poetry Prose
• Dance
• Painting

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Significant Artists

• Archibald Motley, artist
• Nora Zeale Hurston, novelist
• Claude McKay, poet novelist

• Langston Hughes, poet
• Louis Armstrong, Musician
• Josephine Baker, dancer

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Loïs Mailou Jones (born 1905)

• Loïs Mailou Jones has enjoyed a long and
  prolific career as an artist and has lived and
  worked extensively in France, Haiti and Senegal,
  as well as the USA. As Professor at Howard
  University, Washington DC for forty-seven years,
  until 1977, Jones was an inspiration to many,
  including Elizabeth Catlett and art historian
  David C. Driskell.

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Josephine Baker

• Born in 1906
• Symbolize of beauty vitality of Black American
  culture
• Moved to Paris 1925
• Introduced danse sauvage
• Worked for French Resistance during WWII
• Died in Paris, 1976 given full full military
  funeral there

http//blackhistory.eb.com/micro/47/10.html
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Langston Hughes

• Born 1902
• Graduated from Columbia University
• Known today as The Bard of Harlem
• Wrote Ms. Liddells favorite poem, The Negro
  Speaks of Rivers
• Died in 1967

http//blackhistory.eb.com/micro/280/87.html
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Bessie Smith

• Born April, 1898 ?
• One of the greatest Blues singers of all time
• Known as Empress of the Blues
• Her art expressed the hopes and frustrations of
  whole generation of Black Americans

http//blackhistory.eb.com/micro/552/40.html
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Countee Cullen

• Graduate NYU 1925
• M.A. from Harvard
• Poetry featured stunning (for the time) racial
  themes
• Favored Romantic Style over African rhythms
• Taught in NY school system until his death

http//blackhistory.eb.com/micro/153/31.html
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Why was the Renaissance so important?

• It was the spiritual birth of the African
  American art form
• It created new muscial forms still relevant today
• It established Black Americans as artists, not
  artisans
• It helped paved the way for the Civil Rights
  Movement
• It showed the world that African-Americans were
  truly individuals with dreams, talents, and
  rights

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Aaron Douglas(1898-1979)

• Aaron Douglas was the Harlem Renaissance artist
  whose work best exemplified the 'New Negro'
  philosophy. He painted murals for public
  buildings and produced illustrations and cover
  designs for many black publications including The
  Crisis and Opportunity. In 1940 he moved to
  Nashville, Tennessee, where he founded the Art
  Department at Fisk University and taught for
  twenty nine years.

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Jacob Lawrence(born 1917)

• One of the most acclaimed African-American
  artists for more than fifty years, Jacob Lawrence
  has created numerous painting series depicting
  black historical figures and themes. As a young
  man he studied art and read extensively on the
  subject of African American history, which he
  translated into visual narratives, the best known
  of which is The Migration Series.

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Archibald J. Motley Jr (1891-1981)

• Archibald J. Motley Jr was one of the first of
  several artists to concentrate on African
  American life in his paintings. Even though he
  never worked or lived in Harlem, his work
  provided a foundations for much of the work that
  became identified with the Harlem Renaissance.
  Motley is best-known for his portraits and genre
  scenes of Chicago's Black Belt.

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William H. Johnson(1901-1970)

• William H. Johnson was one of the foremost
  African American artists of his generation. He
  lived and worked in New York, France and Denmark,
  and his style and subject matter were as wide
  ranging as his travels. In the late 1920s and
  early 1930s, he was strongly influenced by the
  Expressionists