The Harlem Renaissance
Michelle Chang
Colleen Gatchalian
Justin Raquidan
Celine Solis
Warm-Up
What do you know about the Harlem
Renaissance era?
The Harlem Renaissance
•
•
Also known as “The New Negro Movement”
Started after World War I (1914-1918) and during The Great Migration
– African Americans were forced to move into northern industrial cities
•
•
•
•
Took place mainly in Harlem, New York City; one of the most famous African
American neighborhoods
Included traditional and new forms of literature such as modernism and jazz
poetry
Showed the true culture of African American pride to everyone
Addresses the racial, economic, cultural, and social challenges African Americans
faced
– History and future of African Americans
– Racism
– Slavery
– Migration
– Racial equality
– American identity and the American dream
– “High-culture” and “low-culture” or “low-life”
– Modern black life in the urban North
Poetic Techniques
•
•
•
•
•
•
Metaphors
Repetition
Symbolism
Personification
Diction
Imagery
Paul Laurence Dunbar
• June 1872-February 1902
• Parents escaped slavery in
Kentucky; father Civil War Veteran
• Separated from parents shortly
after birth
• Only African American student
during years of attendance in
Dayton’s Central High School
• Financially unable to pay for
college
• Older age: deteriorating health,
still managed to create works
• Characteristics of work included racial equality for African
Americans, plantation life, etc.
• Colorful language and use of a conversational tone
Notable Works
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Oak and Ivy (1892)
Majors and Minors (1896)
Lyrics of Lowly Life (1896)
"We Wear the Mask" (1896)
Folks from Dixie (1898)
The Strength of Gideon (1900)
The Sport of the Gods (1902)
In Old Plantation Days (1903)
The Heart of Happy Hollow (1904)
Lyrics of Sunshine and Shadow (1905)
We Wear the Mask
We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile
And mouth with myriad subtleties,
Why should the world be over-wise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.
We smile, but oh great Christ, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise.
We sing, but oh the clay is vile
Beneath our feet, and long the mile,
But let the world dream otherwise,
We wear the mask!
Analysis
Title: Character(s) are symbolically wearing a mask to hide something
Speaker: African Americans; referred to in a 1st person POV.
Shift: Line 8. “Nay, let them only see us…”
Attitude/Tone: Tortured and strong-willed
Figurative Language:
• Repetition:
• We wear the mask
• Symbolism:
• Mask: Covering of face to conceal an identity.
• Personification:
• “We ear the mask that grins and lies, it hides our cheeks and shades our eyes”
• “Why should the world be overwise, in counting all our tears and sighs”
• “Let the world dream otherwise”
Structure: AABBC rhyme scheme
Theme: Stay resilient/strong and fight for beliefs
Activity
Choose a symbol. Write a brief poem about it while
bringing it to life by using personification and other
literary devices.
AP Prompt #1
The African American poet, Paul Laurence Dunbar wrote many poems
during The Harlem Renaissance. Read the following poem, We Wear the
Mask, and write an essay describing the literary devices to create a
theme.
We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile
And mouth with myriad subtleties,
Why should the world be over-wise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.
We smile, but oh great Christ, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise.
We sing, but oh the clay is vile
Beneath our feet, and long the mile,
But let the world dream otherwise,
We wear the mask!
Georgia Douglas Johnson
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Born on September 10, 1880 in Atlanta, Georgia and died on
May 14, 1996
Graduated from Atlanta University’s Normal School and later
studied music in Ohio at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music
and the Cleveland College of Music
Worked as a substitute teacher and file clerk for the civil
service, securing a position with the Department of Labor
Hosted gatherings called, S Street Salon, in Washington
where many Harlem Renaissance writers (Jessie Redmon
Fauset, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, etc.) attended
and unveiled their new works there
Published her first poem in 1916 at age 36
In addition to poems, she wrote plays (Blue Blood, Plumes,
Blue-eyed Black Boy, Safe, A Sunday Morning in the South,
etc.)
Wrote 28 dramatic works, but few were ever published or
produced, and must have been lost
One of the most accomplished African American poets of the
Harlem Renaissance
Notable Works
•
•
•
•
The Heart of a Woman (1918)
Bronze (1922)
An Autumn Love Cycle (1928)
Share My World (1962)
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
I Want To Die While You Love Me
Your World
Common Dust
My Little Dreams
The Heart of A Woman
Autumn
The Suppliant
Welt
Little Son
Black Woman
Old Black Men
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Youth
Love Come And Gone
Smothered Fires
Foredoom
The Return
The Measure
Quest
Calling Dreams
Conquest
Lost Illusions
I Closed My Shutters Fast Last Night
Black Woman
Don't knock at my door, little child,
I cannot let you in,
You know not what a world this is
Of cruelty and sin.
Wait in the still eternity
Until I come to you,
The world is cruel, cruel, child,
I cannot let you in!
Don't knock at my heart, little one,
I cannot bear the pain
Of turning deaf-ear to your call
Time and time again!
You do not know the monster men
Inhabiting the earth,
Be still, be still, my precious child,
I must not give you birth!
Analysis
•
•
•
Title: A black woman and a certain aspect in her life.
Paraphrase: A black woman is pregnant with a child but does not want to give birth to
him/her because the world is full of cruelty and sin. So, she doesn’t want her child to live
through what is going on in the world around her.
Figurative Language:
– Metaphor:
• “Don’t knock at my door, little child,”
– The door is actually the woman’s stomach/womb where the child is kicking inside
• “Wait in the still eternity”
– The still eternity is inside the woman’s womb where the child will never be born
• “You do not know the monster men”
– The monster men are the white men that discriminate against the blacks
•
•
•
Tone: The author sets a tone of fear and sympathy because she does not want to give birth
to the child due to the harsh realities she has to go through. She uses words such as,
“cruelty,” “sin,” “cruel,” “pain,” “monster,” to portray the negative aspects she does not
want her child to live through.
Title/Theme: Black woman have a hard time giving birth to children compared to white
women because blacks experienced racism towards them. This poem can relate to almost
every black women (during that time).
Racism affects the current lives, and future lives of many (black) people.
AP Prompt #2
Read the following poem Black Woman by Georgia Douglas Johnson, a famous
African American poet during The Harlem Renaissance. Write an essay in
which you analyze the use of figurative language to portray the era of The
Harlem Renaissance.
Don't knock at my door, little child,
I cannot let you in,
You know not what a world this is
Of cruelty and sin.
Wait in the still eternity
Until I come to you,
The world is cruel, cruel, child,
I cannot let you in!
Don't knock at my heart, little one,
I cannot bear the pain
Of turning deaf-ear to your call
Time and time again!
You do not know the monster men
Inhabiting the earth,
Be still, be still, my precious child,
I must not give you birth!
Jessie Redmon Fauset
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Born April 27, 1882 in Camden, New Jersey & died on April 30,
1961 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from heart disease
Came from a large, humble, cultural family stuck in poverty
Graduated at Philadelphia’s High School for Girls in 1900 and
was the only African American student
She graduated Cornell in 1905 and search a teaching job at
Philadelphia but was denied because of her color and sex
In 1919, she accepted W.E.B Dubois offer to move to New York
City for a literary editor position in the National Associate for
the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) magazine The
Crisis and The Brownies’ Book until 1926
She published, helped, and discover famous Harlem
Renaissance writers such as Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes,
and George Schuyler
She also contributed in the magazine also with short stories,
poems, and essays mainly on middle-class black families
dealing with self-hatred.
One of the most intelligent woman novelist at the time
earning the name “the midwife”
She received a Master in Arts Degree from University of
Pennsylvania in 1929
She wrote four novels, There is Confusion in 1924, Plum Bun in
1928, The Chinaberry Tree in 1931, and Comedy, America
Style in 1933.
Receive small amount of recognition and honor
Notable Works
Poems
• Enigma
• Oblivion
• Dead Fires
• Words! Words!
• Noblesse Oblige
• La Vie C'est la Vie
• Touche
• Rondeau
• Rencontre
• Oriflamme
• Rain Fugue
• Stars in Alabama
• "Courage!" He said
• Christmas Eve In France
• Lolotte, Who Attires My Hair
Novels
•There is Confusion (1924)
•Plum Bun (1928)
•The Chinaberry Tree (1931)
•Comedy, America Style (1933)
Words! Words!
How did it happen that we quarreled?
We two who loved each other so!
Only the moment before we were one,
Using the language that lovers know.
And then of a sudden, a word, a phrase
That struck at the heart like a poignard's blow.
And you went berserk, and I saw red,
And love lay between us, bleeding and dead!
Dead! When we'd loved each other so!
How could it happen that we quarreled!
Think of the things we used to say!
"What does it matter, dear, what you do?
Love such as ours has to last for aye!"
--"Try me! I long to endure your test!"
--"Love, we shall always love, come what may!"
What are the words the apostle saith?
"In the power of the tongue are Life and Death!"
Think of the things we used to say!
Analysis
Title: Words can mean a lot of things. Words can express people’s feelings
Paraphrase: Two lovers are arguing and one of them said something bad to
the other person. The argument turns to a fight where one is
stabbed to death.
Shifts: Line 5-11 the mood becomes intense/sharp
Line 12-end the mood changes to sad and lament
Figurative Languages: Personification- “In the power of the tongue are Life
and Death!”
Imagery- Lines 6-8
Repetition- “How did it happened that we quarreled?” “Think of the
things we used to say!”
Structure: Free Verse and some lines are AABB or ABAB
Theme: Be careful to what you say others. Choose words wisely.
Activity
Create a brief repetition poem using the theme
of racism or any aspects of The Harlem
Renaissance. Use other literary devices if
needed.
Claude McKay
• 1889-1948
• Born in Jaimaica, West Indies in
1889
• Educated by his older brother
• Started writing poetry at the age
of ten
• Interested in Communism but in
1934 converted back to
Catholicism
• Enrolled in Tuskegee Institute,
Alabama to study agronomy.
• Poems based on racism
Notable Works
•
•
•
•
•
After the Winter
America
December, 1919
Harlem Shadows
If We Must Die
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Joy in the Woods
On Broadway
Romance
Subway Wind
The Snow Fairy
The Tropics in New York
The White City
After the Winter
Some day, when trees have shed their leaves
And against the morning's white
The shivering birds beneath the eaves
Have sheltered for the night,
We'll turn our faces southward, love,
Toward the summer isle
Where bamboos spire to shafted grove
And wide-mouthed orchids smile.
And we will seek the quiet hill
Where towers the cotton tree,
And leaps the laughing crystal rill,
And works the droning bee.
And we will build a cottage there
Beside an open glade,
With black-ribbed blue-bells blowing near,
And ferns that never fade.
Analysis
Title: What happens AFTER winter comes, such as a specific event that will
happen
Speaker: African Americans; 1st person POV
Shift: Line 4
“We’ll turn our faces southward,love…”
Attitude/Tone: Hope, faith, determined
Figurative Language:
 Symbolism
Winter (seasons changing)
 Personification
“And wide-mouthed orchids smile”
“And leaps the laughing crystal hill”
 Repetition
- And
Title: Finding a place to start a new life and find peace
Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/claude-mckay#about
http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/m_r/mckay/life.htm
http://www.dunbarsite.org/
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/302
http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-989
http://029c28c.netsolhost.com/blkren/bios/fausetjr.html
http://www.afropoets.net/jessiefauset.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlem_Renaissance
Quiz!
What is The Harlem Renaissance also known as?
- The New Negro Movement
Quiz!
Name two topics Harlem Renaissance poets
addressed in their works:
- History and future of African Americans
- Racism
- Slavery
- Migration
- Racial equality
- American identity and the American dream
- “High-culture” and “low-culture” or “low-life”
- Modern black life in the urban North
Quiz!
What was the theme in We Wear the Mask?
- Stay resilient/strong and fight for beliefs
Quiz!
Give one example of a metaphor in the poem
Black Woman by Georgia Douglas Johnson:
- “Don’t knock at my door, little child,”
- “Wait in the still eternity”
- “You do not know the monster men”
Quiz!
Which poet helped and discovered famous Harlem
Renaissance writers? Name one of the writers.
- Jessie Redmon Fauset
- Countee Cullens, Langston Hughes,
and George Schuyler
Quiz!
What is the theme in After the Winter by Claude
McKay?
- Finding a place to start a new life and find peace,
or your interpretation of it!