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The Harlem Renaissance

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Title: The Harlem Renaissance


1
Created by Rose Ryan
The Harlem Renaissance
2
Harlem Renaissance The flourish of art,
music, and poetry that took place in Harlem
during the 1920s and 1930s.
3
Background
The Niagara Movement
  • W.E.B. DuBois was a young man in search of a
    teaching job when he experienced the unfair
    disadvantages that African-Americans faced in the
    late 1890's and early 1900's.
  • DuBois, Booker T. Washington, and Paul Laurence
    Dunbar all began traveling to speak out on the
    atrocious treatment that blacks were receiving.
  • As whites and blacks seemed to separate more,
    DuBois left his job to go to Tuskeegee, Alabama
    (called the capital of the Negro Nation) to
    pursue a change in the African-American's role
    from subservient to the white race to a race of
    people strong and united.
  • The Committee of Twelve was formed in 1904 to
    oversee the movement of Negroes into influential
    society.
  • In 1905, 59 blacks from 17 states called for a
    meeting in Buffalo, NY, to discuss the need to
    organize intellectual blacks to move the race
    forward. (Due to financial issues, only
    twenty-nine men from fourteen states attended.)

4
  • The "Niagara Movement" was incorporated January
    31, 1906, in the District of Columbia.  It called
    for the following principles
  • Freedom of speech and criticism.
  • An unfettered and unsubsidized press.
  • The abolition of all caste distinctions based
    simply on race and color.
  • The recognition of the principle of human
    brotherhood as a practical present creed.
  • The recognition of the highest and best human
    training as the monopoly of no class or race.
  • A belief in the dignity of labor.
  • United effort to realize these ideals under wise
    and courageous leadership.
  • The first meeting was held in 1906, despite
    criticism, at the site of the John Brown raid in
    Harpers' Ferry, West Virginia.
  • The movement led to the creation of the NAACP.
  • These events enabled the Harlem Renaissance to
    happen.

5
History
  • During the early 1900s, many African-Americans in
    the South moved North to find jobs.
  • Many of these people came to Harlem, a large area
    of blacks in New York City.
  • In the 1920s and 1930s, people in the Upper
    (Greenwich Village) and Lower (Harlem) sections
    of Manhattan converged to hold literary
    discussions.
  • Those discussions led to a complete artistic
    movement in the African-American society the
    "New Negro Movement."

6
  • During this period of time, the African-American
    people intensified their pride in their culture
    and their yearning to be accepted as equals in
    the United States.
  • Civil rights leader Marcus Garvey was a leader in
    this movement against racism that originated
    during the Civil War
  • Say! Africa for the Africans,Like America for
    the AmericansThis the rallying cry for a
    nation,Be it in peace or revolution.
  • Blacks are men, no longer cringing foolsThey
    demand a place, not like weak toolsBut among
    the world of nations greatThey demand a free
    self-governing state.
  • -From Garveys Africa for the Africans

Marcus Garvey
7
Art
  • African-American painters in the early 1900's
    usually had to travel to Europe to exhibit their
    works because many white Americans doubted the
    talent of the black artist.
  • In a time where many art subjects were white, it
    was hard for the African-American to identify
    with the paintings he saw.
  • Seeing this, many black artists who were still in
    America began to use their own people as
    subjects.
  • The paintings usually contained aspects of
    African-American life, heritage, and/or history.
  • Once white America understood that artists did
    not have to be white, black painters were given
    the respect they deserved.

8
Aaron Douglas (1898-1979)
"...Our problem is to conceive, develop,
establish an art era. Not white art painting
black...let's bare our arms and plunge them deep
through laughter, through pain, through sorrow,
through hope, through disappointment, into the
very depths of the souls of our people and drag
forth material crude, rough, neglected. Then
let's sing it, dance it, write it, paint it.
Let's do the possible. Let's create something
transcendentally material, mystically objective.
Earthy. Spiritually earthy. Dynamic."
- Douglass work could be found on public
buildings or on the cover of The Crisis, a
magazine published by WEB DuBois.
9
Window Cleaning1935, oil on canvas
10
Palmer Hayden (1890-1973)
  • Hayden is referred as a self-trained artist, but
    really studied at Cooper Union (New York) and
    Boothvay Art Colony (Maine) and in France from
    1927 to 1932.
  • Hayden was famous for the way he used folklore
    and black historical events in his painting.
  • He was a forerunner in the art genre when it came
    to using African subject and design.

11
JeunesseDate unknown, watercolor on paper
12
William H. Johnson (1901-1970)
  • Came from South Carolina to Harlem in the midst
    of the Renaissance to study at the National
    Academy of Design
  • Traveled around Europe and North Africa
  • In 1926, he settled in Paris and studied the
    works of European Artists.
  • Even though he was abroad, many of his paintings
    depicted the African-American lifestyle.

13
Street Life -- Harlem ca. 1939-40Oil on wood
14
Lois Mailou Jones (1905-1998)
  • Never lived in New York considered part of the
    Harlem Renaissance because paintings showed the
    world that art sees no skin color
  • Jones found true acceptance in Europe when she
    studied in Paris in 1937, where she created over
    35 paintings.
  • Awarded numerous honorary doctorates and held
    many undergraduate and graduate degrees

15
Negro Shack I, Sedalia, North Carolina 1930,
watercolor
16
Archibald J. Motley, Jr. (1891-1981)
  • Born in New Orleans, raised in Chicago
  • Showed a love of art at an early age therefore,
    he studied in the Art Institute of Chicago
  • Second black artist to have a one-man art show in
    New York City
  • The images he painted were of black people in
    non-stereotypical roles for that time they gave
    white people a better understanding of black
    heritage.
  • Motley best summarized his own purpose as
    "personality, intensity and sympathy."

17
Nightlife 1943, oil on canvas
18
Poetry
  • The Harlem Renaissance sparked mainly from when
    W.E.B. DuBois published The Souls of Black Folks
    in 1903 about the "two-ness" in the United
    States.
  • One ever feels his two-ness - an American, a
    Negro two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled
    stirrings two warring ideals in one dark body,
    whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being
    torn asunder."
  • After this, it was evident that literature was an
    art form that could bring the black people
    together.
  • Common themes in these works included alienation
    and marginality
  • Folk and blues traditions were included

19
Claude McKay (1890-1948)
  • Moved to Harlem from Jamaica in 1914
  • If We Must Die" (poem) set the tone for a
    majority of the literary works in the literary
    movement
  • Traveled the world speaking out against racism
    used works to convey message
  • Works were known for their island culture and
    dialect
  • Wrote several novels before his death

"If We Must Die" (1919), A Long Way Home (1937),
Home to Harlem (1929), Banjo (1929), Banana
Bottom (1933), Songs of Jamaica (1912), Constab
Ballads (1912), Spring in New Hampshire (1920)
and Harlem Shadows (1922).
20
Countee Cullen (1903-1946 )
  • New York native
  • One of the major contributors to the Harlem
    Renaissance in the 1920's
  • Works conveyed life as he saw it
  • Color, printed in 1925, was accredited with
    taking the movement to a new height because of
    its abilities to shed light on social realities
  • Awarded the Witter Bynner Undergraduate Poetry
    Prize from New York University

Copper Sun (1927), Color (1925), The Ballad of
the Brown Girl (1927) and The Black Christ
(1929).
21
Langston Hughes (1902-1967)
  • One of the best known of all Harlem Renaissance
    figures
  • Born in Joplin, Mississippi grew up listening to
    stories about Frederick Douglass and Sojourner
    Truth, which led to his desire to write
  • Moved to Harlem and attended Columbia University
  • Quit school and worked on a ship to travel the
    world
  • Came home to New York wrote poetry that
    included the jazz lyrics and African-American
    dialect he heard and told about the struggle of
    the poverty-stricken blacks

The Weary Blues (1926), The Negro Speaks of
Rivers (1921), Dear Lovely Death (1931), The
Dream Keeper (1932), Scottsboro Limited (1932),
Not Without Laughter (1930) ,Popo and Fifina
(1932), The Ways of White Folks (1934), and The
Big Sea (1940).
22
Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960 )
  • Born in the all-black township of Eatonville,
    Florida in 1891
  • Novelist, folklorist, anthropologist, essayist,
    and playwright
  • Hung out with some of the Harlem Renaissance's
    best-known literary figures, yet was criticized
    by others for her outspokeness and dress
  • Criticized for ability to raise funds, although
    her critics usually benefitted from the patrons
    she raised from
  • Most active writing period was 30's-40's, after
    the bulk of the Harlem Renaissance

Jonah's Gourd Vine (1934), Mules and Men (1935),
Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), Tell My
Horse (1938), Moses, Man of the Mountain (1936),
Dust Tracks on a Road (1942), and Seraph on the
Suwanee (1948).
23
Music
  • Many musicians moved to the Harlem area in the
    1920's-30s
  • Even though they acknowledged the big names
    associated with jazz, the most popular music at
    the time, they could not identify with it.
  • They soon began to form their own types of music
    ones with which their people could identify and
    enjoy
  • Soon the instrumentalists and vocalists were
    joined by other genres of music such as classical
    and sacred (religious)
  • With the Harlem musical scene, the Harlem Party
    scene grew. In clubs such as the Cotton Club and
    the Apollo Theatre, food and alcohol joined the
    loud music.

24
Louis Armstrong (1901-1971)
  • Oldest performer to ever have a No. 1 selling
    song on the music charts (Guiness Book of
    Records)
  • Armstrong received his very first music lesson
    with trumpet in a children's home.
  • In 1922, Armstrong moved to Chicago and joined
    King Oliver.
  • In 1925, he started to record under his own name
    after playing in Fletcher Henderson's band in New
    York.
  • Armstrong made two tours to Europe, which
    eventually led him into Africa.
  • Elected into the Down Beat Hall of Fame in 1953.

Hits include I'm in the Mood for Love, Solitude,
Ain't Misbehavin', You Rascal You, Cabaret, Hello
Dolly, Mack the Knife, Old Man Mose, and Wild Man
Blues.
25
Josephine Baker (1906-1975)
  • As a young girl in Missouri, Josephine Baker
    searched for food in garbage cans and slept in
    cardboard shelters.
  • At age 18, Baker moved out of Missouri and up
    into New York where she took part in numerous
    stage productions, including the
    Follies-Bergeres, Ziegfeld Follies, and Le Negre
    Revue in Paris.
  • During the early 1930s, Baker recorded songs, did
    a European tour, and also starred in two films,
    Zou-Zou and Princess Tam-Tam.

Hits include Bye Bye Blackbird, Blue Skies,
Always, He's the Last Word, Pretty Baby,
Confessing, Suppose, and J'ai Deux Amours.
26
Duke Ellington (1899-1974)
  • Edward (Duke) Kennedy Ellington received the U.S.
    Presidential Medal of Freedom by the U.S.
    government, and the Legion of Honor by the French
    government.
  • Ellington received his first piano lesson at the
    age of seven
  • Attended Armstrong Manual Training School to
    study commercial art instead of an academic
    school
  • Duke formed his first group in 1917 The Duke
    Serenaders which was later renamed The
    Washingtonians.
  • First recording in 1923 in New York

Hits include Rockin' in Rhythm, Satin Doll, New
Orleans, A Drum is a Women, Take the "A" Train,
Happy-Go-Lucky Local, The Mooche, and Crescendo
in Blue.
27
Bessie Smith (1894-1937)
  • First blues singer to have a major name with her
    recordings.
  • Born in Chattanooga, Tenn. and then moved north
    to Atlantic City where she performed in the early
    1920s.
  • Became popular with her first recording in 1923,
    Alberta Hunter's "Downhearted Blues."
  • Performed with James P. Johnson, Coleman Hawkins,
    Louis Armstrong, Don Redman, and Fletcher
    Henderson.

Hits include "Backwater Blues", "Taint Nobody's
Bizness If I Do", "St. Louis Blues", "Nobody
Knows You When You're Down and Out", ''Down
Hearted Blues", and ''Gulf Coast Blues.''
28
Coleman Hawkins (1901-1969)
  • Recognized as the first great saxophonist of jazz
  • Joined the band led by Mamie Smith in 1922 and
    was a part of some of her records until 1923
  • Made his first recording with Fletcher Henderson,
    when he joined the Henderson Orchestra and stayed
    with them for the next ten years
  • Recorded with McKinney's Cotton Pickers and Red
    McKenzie's Mound City Blue Blowers in 1929
  • Recorded his most famous record, Body and Soul,
    in 1940

Hits include Broke But Happy, Blues on
the Delta, Dee Tees, The Man I Love, Hawk Talk,
Pebbles, Lazy Butterfly, Cool Blue, and Some
Stretching.
29
Modern jazz influences
30
Norah Jones
Norah Jones and her album "Come Away With Me" won
eight Grammys at the 2003 Grammy Awards Album of
the Year Record of the Year Best New Artist
Best Female Pop Vocal Performance Best Pop
Vocal Album. In addition, "Don't Know Why" won
three awards for Song of the Year Best
Producer, non-classical Best Engineered album,
non-classical
31
In 13 Step Boogie, Sexton uses his voice to
imitate his instrument.
Martin Sexton
32
In Sucker, Mayer uses only guitar for music as
well as rhythm. He also does some scatting.
John Mayer
33
Jewel
In this version of Who Will Save Your Soul,
Jewel varies her rhythm and also does some
scatting.
34
Dave Matthews
In Busted Stuff, Matthewss band employs
jazz-influenced instruments, like the sax, and
Matthews does some scatting.
35
The Blues
36
Robert Johnson
  • Father of modern blues
  • Influences rock and roll bands such as the Allman
    Brothers and Eric Clapton
  • Said to have sold his soul at the crossroads

37
Muddy Waters
38
Eric Clapton
  • Influenced by Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters.
  • Considered todays pre-eminent blues man
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