The Renaissance Blossoms

Nightlife; Google Arts and Culture

"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 impossible. Let’s create something transcendentally material, mystically objective . . . Dynamic."
~ Aaron Douglas, The Art Story

Couple in Racoon Coats; 100 Photos Time

"I have discovered in life that there are ways of getting almost anywhere you want to go, if you really want to go."
~ Langston Hughes, Life According to Langston Hughes

The Harlem Renaissance

Originally called the New Negro Movement by Alain Locke’s popular book The New Negro, which emphasized black self-determination and pride, the Harlem Renaissance was an explosion of black culture and identity in theater, music, literature, and art. The official starting date of the Harlem Renaissance was 1925, but change seemed to start in Harlem as early as 1919, when soldiers returned home from WWI. Blacks began to develop a more socially-determined mindset.

Though the Harlem Renaissance began in Harlem, many African-American artists, held back by crippling racism in America, traveled abroad, making names for themselves overseas in countries like France. Due to the lack of bigotry and discrimination in Europe, the artists would often return more confident and prepared to create opportunities for second-generation artists in the states.

Politics

Leaders like Marcus Garvey advocated for the Back-to-Africa movement, which preached that blacks would never make it in America, overshadowed by racism, and should retire to their homeland and origins. However, arguments like political writer Alain Locke's called on blacks to fight discrimination.

"We should say to the millions who are in Africa to hold the fort, for we are coming, four-hundred million strong."
~ Marcus Garvey, Principles of the Universal Negro Improvement Association

Window of a Marcus Garvey Club; The Great Migration Series

Cotton Club; Stanford University Libraries

Music

The Harlem Renaissance was famous for its jazz and blues which became mainstream in Western culture during this time. It was performed throughout the city in a multitude of famous clubs.

Louis Armstong's "Potato Head Blues" (1927)

"Jazz is a good barometer of freedom . . . the music is so free that many people say it is the only unhampered, unhindered expression of complete freedom yet produced in this country." ~ Duke Ellington, The Duke Ellington Reader

Literature

Writers such as Zora Neale Hurston, Nella Larsen, and Langston Hughes became famous for their literature that portrayed black adversity and daily life. The Blacker the Berry, by Wallace Thurman, addressed another topic that needed to be discussed: racism within the African-American community. Much of Harlem Renaissance's literature was groundbreaking in tackling or confronting “taboo” subjects in American society.

"I, too, sing America./ I am the darker brother./ They send me to eat in the kitchen/ when company comes./ But I laugh,/ and eat well,/ and grow strong./ Tomorrow,/ I'll be at the table/ when company comes./ Nobody'll dare/ say to me,/ eat in the kitchen,/ then./ Besides,/ they'll see how beautiful I am/ and be ashamed./ I, too, sing America." ~ Langston Hughes; "I, Too, Sing America", Smithsonian Magazine

Opportunity Journal Cover; Art of Black America

The Apollo Theature; All That's Interesting

Theatre

In Harlem, the Apollo Theater was opened and many of its performances were written by African Americans.

"We haven't got any scenery, or painted curtains, because we haven't got money to buy them. But we've got something you can't buy with money, anyway. We've got faith in ourselves. And in you. So we're going to put on a show."
~ Line from the play Don't You Want to Be Free? Langston Hughes

Barriers to Black Artists The Visual Arts of the Harlem Renaissance