Hello!

1. Hello! • Sit where you sat on Thursday. • Check in with me and put your project up here… • Put your project write-up on your desk.

2. The Harlem Renaissance

3. “Harlem was not so much a place as a state of mind, the cultural metaphor for black America itself.”

4. The Harlem Renaissance, a.k.a. the New Negro Movement and the Negro Renaissance • ~1919-the mid-1930s • New racial attitudes and ideals on the part of Afro-Americans and an artistic and political awakening • Artistic expression = an extension of the struggle against oppression 4

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6. How did it start? • Complex roots... • African American migration to industrial (urban centers) • Changing economy • WWI - jobs • WWI offered African Americans the chance to serve in the military (though in segregated troops) 6

7. But there was more to the story... • More contact between blacks and whites in urban centers...more consciousness of disparity • Soldiers found that Europe and America were quite different • The “Red Summer” of 1919 • Marcus Garvey’s radical politics 7

8. There were 2 basic ideologies in terms of approaches to art in Harlem... 8

9. First school of thought: W.E.B. DuBois and James Weldon Johnson • Privileged African Americans could lead their race’s fight for equality • Art as propaganda: works of art inspired by racial heritage & experiences would prove the beauty and contributions of the race • Achievements would foster pride in African Americans • Black culture = white culture 9

10. Second school of thought: Claude McKay, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Aaron Douglas. • African-American person should be presented objectively as an individual simply living • Argued against mirroring white society (black culture in itself was valuable) • Art for art’s sake 10

11. The Harlem Renaissance incorporated all aspects of African American culture in its literature and several themes emerged. 11

12. Themes in Art, Music and Literature: • Effort to Recapture the African-American Past: • corresponded with rise of Pan-Africanism • Africanismin Afro-American politics • Marcus Garvey’s ideology • jazz introduced African-inspired rhythms and themes in compositions • Rural Southern Roots: • reflected in novels by Jean Toomer and Zora Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God - Jacob Lawrence’s art: Harriet Tubman series and black migration 12

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14. Themes Continued… • African-American Urban Experience and Racism: • - represented by writers like Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, and Countee Cullen 14

15. “Incident” by Countee Cullen Once riding in old Baltimore,    Heart-filled, head-filled with glee,    I saw a Baltimorean    Keep looking straight at me. Now I was eight and very small,    And he was no whit bigger, And so I smiled, but he poked out    His tongue, and called me, “Nigger.” I saw the whole of Baltimore    From May until December; Of all the things that happened there    That’s all that I remember. 15

16. Themes continued... • Use of Black Music & Folklore as an Inspiration for Poetry, Short Stories, and Novels: - Langston Hughes used rhythms and styles of jazz http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpjFS3CQkKE - Black religion as a literary source: James Weldon Johnson’s God’s Trombones - Sterling Brown used blues and southern work songs in his book of poetry Southern Road 16

17. Through all these themes Harlem Renaissance writers were determined to express the African-American experience in all its variety and complexity as realisticallyas possible. 17

18. The White Influence on the Harlem Renaissance: • The Harlem Renaissance appealed to both a white and black audience • But... • Urbane whites bestowed their patronage on young artists, opening up publishing opportunities, and pumping cash into Harlem’s “exotic” nightlife... • The relationship was complex and continues to be studied to this day 18

19. The Cotton Club... • Jim Crow laws enforced • Major controversy • What sense does this make? 19

20. Other Important Places Within Harlem & Nightlife: • Lennox and 140th Street the Savoy Ballroom • Major social events and parties • Blacks and whites mingled on the dance floor • Where the Lindy Hop was invented • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0BHxhUnokU 20

21. Jungle Alley and 7th Avenue: • Jungle Alley • Cluster of clubs and speakeasies along 133rd Street between Lennox Ave. and Seventh Ave. • Variety of entertainment options and an eclectic and risqué environment • Racially mixed and uninhibited crowd • Seventh Ave. • Where people went to see and be seen • Harlemites both rich and poor donned their finest clothes and strolled down the avenue on a Sunday afternoon 21

22. The Apollo Theater • Opened in the 1930s the on 125th Street • Featured the finest acts and became the most prestigious African American performing stage in the country. • The response of the Apollo’s knowledgeable audience could make or break a performer’s career 22

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24. Rent Parties: • A way for cash-strapped Harlemites to raise money for their inflated rent payments • Thursday and Saturday nights...Thursday was the night off for sleep-in domestic workers and Saturday was usually pay-day for laborers who had Sunday off • Invitations: “Parlor Social” or “Tea Cup Party” • Music, entertainment...the furniture was cleared out • Basic food and drink—bootleg whiskey or bathtub gin, with southern staples: fried chicken and fish, chitterlings, pig’s feet, greens, and cornbread • The admission fee and the extra charges for food and drink paid for the entertainment, hopefully with enough left over for next month’s rent 24

25. Patrons were usually Harlem’s working people—especially domestics and laborers—but all classes attended • DuBois and others from the middle and upper classes stayed away... • Many of the artists, writers, and musicians used them as inspiration • Bessie Smith celebrated them in her song, “Give Me a Beer and Another Pigfoot,” while Langston Hughes described them in his autobiography as a place where working-class blacks could drink and dance without a white tourist looking over their shoulder • Whites rarely gained admittance to these gatherings 25

26. Decline of the Harlem Renaissance: • The Harlem Renaissance declined in the mid 1930s. Factors that contributed to this decline were as follows: • Harlem’s emergence as a slum: - Within a single decade Harlem transformed from an ideal community to a neighborhood with manifold social and economic problems. - Housing was overpriced, congested, and dilapidated. - Jobs were hard to come by due to competition and discrimination. - As a result, most of Harlem’s residents lived in poverty, a situation that contributed to the growth of crime, vice, juvenile delinquency and drug addiction. 26

27. 2. The Great Depression • 3. The Departure of Many Key Figures in the Movement • 4. The Harlem Riot of 1935 27

28. Influential Figures & Events in the Renaissance: • Writers & Poets: • - Countee Cullen • - Langston Hughes • - Jean Toomer • - James Weldon Johnson • - Zora Neale Hurston • - Arna Bontemps • - Wallace Thurman • - Nella Larsen • - Claude McKay • - Gwendolyn Brooks • - Jessie RedmonFauset • Musicians, Singers, Entertainers: • - Louis Armstrong • - Bessie Smith • - Dizzie Gillespie • - Josephine Baker • - Eubie Blake • - Duke Ellington • - Ma Rainey • - Ella Fitzgerald • - Billie Holiday • - Ethel Waters • - Fats Waller 28

29. Political Activists: • - W.E.B. DuBois • - Marcus Garvey • - Alain Leroy Locke • - Charles R. Drew • - Regina Anderson • - Arturo Alfonso Schomburg • Artists: - Aaron Douglass - Jacob Lawrence - William H. Johnson - Archibald Motley, Jr. - Ronald C. Moody - Palmer Hayden - Lois Mailou Jones 29

30. Athletes/Athletic Teams: - Satchel Paige - The Harlem Globetrotters - Negro National League • Journals/Magazines: • - The Crisis • - The Survey Graphic • - Opportunity: A Journal of Negro Life • - FIRE!! 30

31. Final Thoughts: • The Harlem Renaissance... • Certainly important in terms of American history • Obviously crucial in terms of American literature • What about its dependency on white money, audiences and publishers? • Some are critical of this... • WE will read some poetry, listen to some music, and view some pieces of art on Wednesday. 31

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33. Sources: • The United States in Literature & The Harlem Renaissance: A Unit of Study for Grades 9-12 by Nina Gifford • Harlem Speaks: A Living History of the Harlem Renaissance edited by Cary D. Wintz 33