Updated 4.22.2009
UNDERSTANDING THE HARLEM RENNAISANCE:
Through Jazz, Poetry, and Art
Overview:
Between 1910 and 1930 the population of African-Americans in New York City grew 250
percent (from 91,709 to 327,706). In what would later be called the great migration, hundreds of
thousands of African-Americans fled the cities of the south in desperation for the opportunity and
promise of northern cities, and no city attracted African-Americans more than New York City.
By the mid-1920s Harlem had become a cultural center for African-Americans. Hundreds of
active writers, musicians, actors, artists, and intellectuals lived in Harlem, creating cultural
energy, artistic innovation, and confident expression. The lively nightlife of Harlem, the
ballrooms and the jazz halls, were a symbol for the artistic energy of the “city within a city.”
Thousands of interested media, tourists and intellectuals flocked to Harlem as well, intrigued by
this newly emerging voice of the 20th century African Americans This voice was typified, not
only in the phenomenon of jazz music, but also in poets such as Langston Hughes and Cootie
Cullen, in writers such as Zora Neale Hurston and WEB Dubois, and in artists such as Romare
Bearden and Jacob Lawrence.
Language Arts:
To recognize, appreciate, and feel the unique rhythms and emotions of jazz music;
To understand jazz music as a cultural metaphor for Harlem in the 1920s;
To read selections from some of the most important writers of the Harlem Renaissance;
To reflect on the writing through essay and journals;
To recognize and understand the themes, emotions, tone, and rhythm of the poetry and prose;
To write poems which reflect these themes, rhythms, and emotion.
Journal Entries: (30 points)
1. What impressions do you have of New York City after reading “As I Grew Older” and “The
Tropics in New York?”
2. Respond to the following quotation, keeping in mind the poems we have read and the film we
just watched: "Harlem was not so much a place as a state of mind, the cultural metaphor for black
America itself." (From Henry Louis Gates Jr., Rhapsodies in Black)
3. Read X’s description of “swing.” What elements of “Swing” are present in Brown’s Ma
Rainey? What is the effect? Can you read the poem without “swinging” it?
Poetry: (40 points)
Listening to the following playlist, create five original poems (one for each song). In your poetry,
you should attempt to capture and emulate the rhythm of the music. On your final draft, please
indicate the song that the poem was initially inspired by. The subjects of your poems are up to
you, but you may want to consider poems that are: 1. Self-expression; 2. Imaginative (Become
someone other than yourself and set your poetry in New York city during the Harlem
Renaissance); or, 3. Thematically focused (connect with and express themes of the Harlem
renaissance through imagery and meaning).
Materials:
Poetry
“My City” by James Weldon Johnson
“The Tropics In New York” by Claude McKay
“As I Grew Older” by Langston Hughes
“Any Human To Another” Cootie Cullen
“Ma Rainey” by Sterling Allen Brown
“Sonnet to A Negro in Harlem” by Helene Johnson
“Dream Boogie” by Langston Hughes
“Jazz Band” by Frank Marshall Davis
“Jazz Fantasia” by Carl Sandburg
Essays
“How It Feels To Be Colored Like Me” by Zora Neale Hurston
“Shuffle Along” by Langston Hughes
Film
Jazz by Ken Burns, “Episode Two: Genius”
Music
“Lucky So and So” by Louis Armstrong
“Cottontail” by Louis Armstrong
“Moon Indigo” by Louis Armstrong
“The Beautiful American” by Louis Armstrong
“The Mootche” by Louis Armstrong
“It Don’t Mean A Thing” by Duke Ellington
“Chronic Blues” by John Coltrane
“Pharoahs Dream” by Miles Davis
Social Studies:
To understand the social, historic, and cultural context for the Harlem Renaissance;
To identify and locate the areas of social, historic and cultural significance during the Harlem
Renaissance on a street map of New York City’s Harlem neighborhood;
To create an accurate street map of New York City’s Harlem neighborhood with places of interest
highlighted;
Procedure:
Locate and research detailed walking tour maps of the NYC neighborhoods today and during the
1920s.
As a group, use proper map skills to create a large walking tour map of NYC neighborhoods circa
1920s.
Research, select and highlight key places of interest significant to the NYC’s history up to 1929.
Create an informative walking tour brochure which explains the selected places of interest in each
NYC neighborhood in the 1920’s.
(see SS rubric for assessment)
Visual Arts:
To analyze the work of artists of the Harlem Renaissance focusing on Romare Bearden, Jacob
Lawrence, and Robert Blackburn;
To create a visual language through a sculpture inspired by jazz music and your jazz poetry
pieces that utilize the elements of form, color and texture to emphasis, rhythm, and movement;
To complete activities related to the artwork and present findings to peers.
Procedure: You will work in a group to learn about Harlem Renaissance artists, create a list of
significant sites, create or demonstrate an activity, and share your findings with your peers.
Robert Blackburn (3)
Exhibition Overview
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/blackburn/overview.html
Milieu: The Harlem Community Art Center and the WPA
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/blackburn/milieu.html
What is the WPA?
Jacob Lawrence (3)
Meet Jacob Lawrence
Jacob Lawrence’s Art
http://www.whitney.org/jacoblawrence/meet/index.html
Romare Bearden
http://www.nga.gov/education/classroom/bearden/glance1.shtm
Individually:
“Bearden at a Glance” (2)
“Biography” (2)
“Memories” North Carolina and Harlem (2)
“A Leader in the Arts Community”
“The Spiral Group” (2)
Activity - Organize an exhibition
“Working in Black and White” (2)
Activity - Study Art Like Bearden
“Music” (2)
“Artistic and Literary Sources” (2)
“Method” Activity - Sculpture (2)
Make a list of significant sites where the artists worked, lived or just “hung out” so you may
include them on your map of New York City.
After learning about the Harlem Renaissance, listening to the music, and looking at the artwork,
you will create a clay sculpture that conveys a visual language of jazz music and a 2-D artwork of
on of your poems. Write an artist statement about your work explaining the themes and
emotions of your artwork and how they create a visual language of jazz.
(see art rubric for assessment)
Visual Arts Resources:
The art of Jacob Lawrence
http://www.whitney.org/jacoblawrence/meet/index.html
The Art of Romare Bearden
http://www.nga.gov/education/classroom/bearden/musub1.shtm
Romare Bearden images
http://www.nga.gov/feature/bearden/index.shtm
Robert Blackburn’s printmaking workshop
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/blackburn/graphics.html
Library of Congress
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html
Harlem 1900-1940
http://www.si.umich.edu/CHICO/Harlem/index.html
http://www.whitney.org/jacoblawrence/resources/timelines.html