Harlem Renaissance

1. Harlem Renaissance By:AbbeyVermilya Period 1

2. Beginning of World War 1 • Between the years of 1919 and 1926 • African Americans migrated from the rural Southern states to the industrialized metropolitan areas of the North • African Americans rose to unprecedented levels.

3. Jazz was born during the Harlem Renaissance • It developed from its roots of Negro spiritual music and ragtime, and was brought to fruition by artists like "Fats" Waller and Earl "Fatha" Hines • A musical called "Shuffle Along," written, produced, and performed by African Americans

4. Artists flocked to Harlem as well • Some of the best known painters were William H. Johnson, who painted "Street Life, Harlem," • The Harlem Renaissance forever changed the dynamics of Black arts and literature in the U.S.

5. The work of the African American writers of the Harlem Renaissance was perhaps the greatest legacy of this time period • The poetry of Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen is just as fresh today as it was then. • The Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and early 1930s was the first time that music, art and literature of African Americans was widely noticed and adopted by non-Black America.

6. In the performing arts, black musical theatre featured such accomplished artists as songwriter Bob Cole and composer J. Rosamond Johnson (brother of writer James Weldon Johnson). • Jazz and blues music moved with black populations from the South and Midwest into the bars and cabarets of Harlem.

7. Visual artists played a key role in creating depictions of the New Negro. • Book and magazine publishers of the 1920s and 1930s also helped to disseminate Harlem Renaissance imagery. • Harlem Renaissance was realized by a mix of American movers and shakers: social reformers, political activists, cultural elites, progressives in public policy and education, and, of course, artists.

9. Vaudevilles and comedy clubs showcased many talented individuals living in Harlem and brought about rich cheer from all around. • Black theater and cinema provided both seriously themed shows, and light-hearted musical theater revues. • Even private residences held lively parties with music and dancing. The arts of the decade gave way to many different forms of entertainment, both public and private.

10. In the 1920’s, both the music and dance of Harlem was improvisational. • The popular music of the time was jazz,, which combined both the blues and ragtime, because it allowed for self-expression and personalization. • During their solo, each musician in a jazz band would play their own version of the song by changing either the melody or the rhythm.

11. During the time, three clubs catered specifically to jazz and jazz-dancing. • They were: the Apollo Theater, the Savoy Ballroom, and the Cotton Club. • Although it was open seven days a week, it drew its largest crowd on Sundays when everyone was dressed in their “Sunday best.”

12. Unlike black literature and art, black musical theater was already well-known by the 1900’s. • Black theater used elements of minstrelsy when creating their shows to gain large audience attraction. • Initially black musicals dealt with only a few topics, which were the return to Africa movement, their concerns with the relationship between white society and themselves, and gambling.

13. Many of those who participated in the Harlem Renaissance were considered radicals. • W.E.B. DuBois was a well-known scholar and author by the beginning of the renaissance. • Some of his best known works were those as the editor of Crisis , the magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

14. DuBois believed, and it was evident in his writing, that African Americans should stand on their own and advance their cause without the assistance of white Americans. • Booker T. Washington also waged a campaign for the advancement of black Americans but he supported white philanthropy. • Washington wanted blacks to achieve equality but in a friendly and non confrontational way.

15. African-American fine artists such as Aaron Douglas and Charles Alston also got their start through Alain Locke and Charles Johnson, who started publishing the artists’ works as illustrations and cover art. • Pulled into the spotlight, these fine artists used their fame as an opportunity to delve into the themes they found problematic to American culture.

16. As the 20s came to a close, so did white America’s infatuation with Harlem- and the artistic and intellectual movements surrounding it. • The advent of The Great Depression also crushed the wild enthusiasm of “The Roaring 20s,” bringing an end to the decadence and indulgence that fueled the patronage of Harlem artists and their establishments.

17. In addition, the strained relationship between the black community and the white shop-owners in Harlem finally tore the two groups apart in 1935. • That alienation was expressed in the Harlem Riot of 1935, the nation’s first modem race riot. • The resulting violence finally shattered the notion of Harlem as the “Mecca” for African-Americans, and broke the fleeting truce between white and black America.

18. While the Renaissance as a historical movement was over, the effects it had on modern society were far from finished. • The artistic and political movements of the 20s would live on in American culture in the form of new musical expression, award-winning writing and, most importantly, the civil rights movement of the 50s and 60s.

19. These events, and the role Harlem would continue to play after the Renaissance, would change the American cultural landscape forever.