Harlem Renaissance (1919 - 29)
Literary movement
or rebirth in 1920’s, centered in Harlem, New York City
tenements- multiple dwelling buildings, commonly found in cities
Causes:
 Poor Economy/lack of jobs
 Seeking a new life
 Escaping KKK/lynchings
 End of WWI (1914-18)
 Boll weevil epidemic/Mississippi flood of 1927
Effects:
The Harlem Renaissance: An explosion(metaphor) or
awakening, of African American culture in:
 Art
 Music (jazz roots from Blues and Negro Spirituals or
field songs)
 Literature
 History
Great Migration( African Americans)- movement in large numbers towards cities, to find a new life
exodus- to move or migrate
Mecca- literally a place in Saudi Arabia- (religious center)
Mecca= reference to Harlem or other major cities- place where people are drawn, gathered, or focused

Parallel Structure- a balanced form of sentence structure, in writing.
Examples:
“They brought with them the seeds of change, while their bandleader brought the seeds of a new form of music— jazz.”
“seeds of change” is also a metaphor
“If racial prejudice was the pressure cooker of the Harlem
Renaissance, jazz was the musical release.”
….metaphor and parallel structure simile example:
“By and large, jazz has always been like the kind of a man you wouldn’t want your daughter to associate with.”
Dialect- language specific to an area of the country
Example: “An’ den de folks, dey natchally bowed dey heads an’ cried”
Thesis: a statement that a writer wants to prove in their piece.
It generally appears at the end of the first paragraph.
Allusion: brief reference to common noun(person, place or thing) of significance
Example: Chocolate was her Achilles’ Heel.
The place is like a Garden of Eden.