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By Cody Weisel Harlem Renaissance
Renaissance info • The Harlem Renaissance was a movement characterized by the flourishing of literature mostly, but also art and music by African Americans who sought self-expression, and to dispel the myth that blacks were incapable of producing creative and thought provoking works; • Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Countee Cullen were leading writers during the Harlem Renaissance; • As Americans experienced the Great Depression, the Harlem Renaissance began to wane; and as the U.S. entered World War II, African Americans continued to face segregation and discrimination practices.
Renaissance continued • In literature and the visual arts, the Harlem Renaissance--insofar as it can be defined--is described principally by a series of novels, books of poetry, paintings, and sculpture. Although African Americans wrote symphonies and sonatas in the period between the world wars, it was the nightclub music that seems to capture the period. The musical show Shuffle Along, which opened on May 23, 1921, and ran for over 500 performances, was written by Eubie Blake, with lyrics by Noble Sissle. Both Josephine Baker and Ethel Waters served in the chorus line. Paul Robeson was briefly in the cast as a member of a barbershop quartet. The libretto is open to the scene containing, "I'm Just Wild about Harry," the hit of the show
Countee Cullen Bio • Poet, anthologist, novelist, translator, children's writer, and playwright, Countee Cullen is something of a mysterious figure. He was born 30 March 1903, but it has been difficult for scholars to place exactly where he was born, with whom he spent the very earliest years of his childhood, and where he spent them. New York City and Baltimore have been given as birthplaces. Cullen himself, on his college transcript at New York University, lists Louisville, Kentucky, as his place of birth. A few years later, when he had achieved considerable literary fame during the era known as the New Negro or Harlem Renaissance, he was to assert that his birthplace was New York City, which he continued to claim for the rest of his life. Cullen’s second wife, Ida, and some of his closest friends, including Langston Hughes and Harold Jackman, said that Cullen was born in Louisville. As James Weldon Johnson wrote of Cullen in The Book of American Negro Poetry (rev. ed., 1931): "There is not much to say about these earlier years of Cullen--unless he himself should say it." And Cullen--revealing a temperament that was not exactly secretive but private, less a matter of modesty than a tendency toward being encoded and tactful--never in his life said anything more clarifying.
The loss of love • All through an empty place I go,And find her not in any room;The candles and the lamps I lightGo down before a wind of gloom. Thick-spraddled lies the dust about,A fit, sad place to write her nameOr draw her face the way she lookedThat legendary night she came.The old house crumbles bit by bit;Each day I hear the ominous thudThat says another rent is thereFor winds to pierce and storms to flood.My orchards groan and sag with fruit;Where, Indian-wise, the bees go round;I let it rot upon the bough;I eat what falls upon the ground.The heavy cows go laboringIn agony with clotted teats;My hands are slack; my blood is cold;I marvel that my heart still beats.I have no will to weep or sing,No least desire to pray or curse;The loss of love is a terrible thing;They lie who say that death is worse.
Theme This poem is a great example for this line (I have no will to weep or sing, no least desire to pray or curse, the loss of love is a terrible thing; they lie who say that death is worse.)
