Harlem Renaissance

In the early 1900’s particularly in the 1920’s between the World Wars, African American literature, art, music, dance, and social commentary began to flourish in Harlem, a section of New York City. This African-American cultural movement became known as “The New Negro Movement” and later as the Harlem Renaissance. More than a literary movement, the Harlem Renaissance exalted the unique culture of African-Americans and redefined African-American expression. African-Americans were encouraged to celebrate their heritage.
The main factors contributing to the development of the Harlem Renaissance were African-American urban migration, trends toward experimentation throughout the country, and the rise of radical African American intellectuals. The Harlem Renaissance transformed African American identity and history, but it also transformed American culture in general. Never before had so many Americans read the thoughts of African-Americans and embraced the African American community’s productions, expressions, and style. During the Harlem Renaissance African American literature, art, and music dealt with Black life from a Black perspective and began to flourish.
In the 1920’s, literature blossomed and became a key factor in the Harlem Renaissance. For African Americans, writing was an escape. Authors wrote to escape the trials and tribulations of life, such as poverty and discrimination. During this time the literature that flourished included poetry, prose, novels, and essays. The most important writers of the Renaissance were Zora Neale Hurston, Nella Larsen, Langston Hughes, Jessie Fauset, Countee Cullen, Claude McKay, James Weldon Johnson, and Arna Bontemps. Dance, theater, and music were obscured by the literature and art of the time, and performing arts flourished during the Harlem Renaissance. The music of this period was predominantly jazz. Jazz music stemmed from Negro spirituals sung in previous centuries, and was played on the theory that an infinite amount of melodies can fit the chord progression of any composition. The most famous musicians of this time were Louis Daniel Armstrong, Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington, Luis Russell, and Fletcher Hamilton Henderson, Jr.
The Harlem Renaissance was a flowering of African American social thought that was expressed through the visual arts, as well as through music (Louis Armstrong, Eubie Blake, Fats Waller and Billie Holiday), literature (Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and W.E.B. DuBois),theater (Paul Robeson) and dance (Josephine Baker). Centered in the Harlem district of New York City, the New Negro Movement (as it was called at the time) had a profound influence across the United States and even around the world.
The Harlem Renaissance was very important. It had a profound impact on African American culture and most important of all it served to stimulate much Negro writing and the New Negro philosophy laid the basis fro many Negro works which came after wards. During this time period there was an idea that the New Negro was self-assertive, and this encouraged new Negro writers to express themselves in ways once thought too radical. The major contribution that the writers of this Renaissance was their role as image builders. They also encouraged racial pride and served as examples for promising young black writers.