Map of Harlem – 1920’s
• In the early 1920s, African American artists, writers,
musicians, and performers were part of a great
cultural movement known as the Harlem
Renaissance.
• The huge migration to the North after World War I
brought African Americans of all ages and walks of
life to the thriving New York City neighborhood
called Harlem.
• Doctors, singers, students, musicians, shopkeepers,
painters, and writers, congregated, forming a vibrant
mecca of cultural affirmation and inspiration.
W.E.B. DuBois
• The notion of "twoness" , a divided awareness
of one's identity, was introduced by W.E.B.
DuBois, one of the founders of the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored
People (NAACP), and the author of the
influential book The Souls of Black Folks
(1903): "One ever feels his two-ness - an
American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts,
two unreconciled stirrings: two warring
ideals in one dark body, whose dogged
strength alone keeps it from being torn
asunder."
• Common themes:
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alienation,
marginality,
the use of folk material,
the use of the blues tradition,
the problems of writing for an elite audience.
• HR was more than just a literary
movement: it included racial
consciousness, "the back to Africa"
movement led by Marcus Garvey,
racial integration, the explosion of
music particularly jazz, spirituals and
blues, painting, dramatic revues, and
others.
1.
Harlem Renaissance brought the Black
experience clearly within the general
American cultural history.
a. Remarkable coincidences and luck, provided a
sizable chunk of real estate in the heart of
Manhattan.
b. The Black migration, from south to north,
changed their image from rural to urban, from
peasant to sophisticate.
c. Harlem became a crossroads where Blacks
interacted with and expanded their contacts
internationally.
d. Harlem Renaissance profited from a spirit of selfdetermination which was widespread after W.W.I.
2. The Harlem Renaissance had a huge significance in
American culture at the time and in the future.
a. It became a symbol and a point of reference for everyone to
recall.
b. The name, more than the place, became synonymous with
new vitality, Black urbanity, and Black militancy.
c. It became a racial focal point for Blacks the world over; it
remained for a time a race capital.
d. It stood for urban pluralism; Alain Locke wrote: "The
peasant, the student, the businessman, the professional
man, artist, poet, musician, adventurer and worker, preacher
and criminal, exploiter and social outcast, each group has
come with its own special motives ... but their greatest
experience has been the finding of one another."
e. The complexity of the urban setting was important for Blacks
to truly appreciate the variety of Black life. The race
consciousness required that shared experience.
3.
Harlem Renaissance's legacy is limited
by the character of the Renaissance.
a. It encouraged the new appreciation of folk roots and culture.
b. Peasant folk materials and spirituals provided a rich source
for racial imagination and it freed the Blacks from the
establishment of past condition.
c. Harlem Renaissance was imprisoned by its innocence. The
Harlem intellectuals, while proclaiming a new race
consciousness, became mimics of Whites, wearing clothes
and using manners of sophisticated Whites, earning a variety
of epithets from the very people they were supposed to be
championing.
d. Harlem Renaissance could not overcome the overwhelming
White presence in commerce which defined art and culture.
What was needed was a rejection of White values; they had to
see Whites, without awe of love or awe of hate, and
themselves truly, without myth or fantasy, in order that they
could be themselves in life and art.
Art from the Harlem Renaissance
Jeunesse by Palmer Hayden
Street Life, Harlem, by
William H. Johnson
Langston Hughes wrote,
“Harlem was in vogue.”
Black painters and sculptors
joined their fellow poets,
novelists, actors, and
musicians in a creative
outpouring that established
Harlem as the
international capital of
Black culture.
Langston Hughes
1902-1967
Zora Neale Hurston was
remarkable in that she was
the most widely published
black woman of her day. She
authored more than fifty
articles and short stories as
well as four novels, two books
on folklore, an autobiography,
and some plays. At the height
of her success she was known
as the “Queen of the Harlem
Renaissance.”
Zora Neale Hurston
1891-1960
American writer
In 1925, at the height of
the jazz era in Paris, the
sensational cast of
musicians and dancers
from Harlem, assembled
as La Revue Negre,
exploded on the stage of
the Theatre des Champs
Elysees. Its talented
young star, Josephine
Baker (1906-1975),
captivated audiences with
a wild new dance called
the Charleston.
“Louis Armstrong’s station in the history of jazz is
unimpeachable. If it weren’t for him, there wouldn’t be any
of us.” Dizzy Gillespie, 1971
Duke Ellington
1899-1974
Duke Ellington
brought a level
of style and
sophistication
to Jazz that it
hadn't seen
before. By the
time of his
passing, he was
considered
amongst the
world’s
greatest
composers and
musicians.
James Van Der Zee 1886-1983
Couple, Harlem 1933
silver print photograph
The visual art of the Harlem Renaissance was
an attempt at developing a new AfricanAmerican aesthetic in the fine arts.
Believing that their life experiences were valuable
sources of material for their art, these artists
created an iconography of the
Harlem Renaissance era.
Thematic content included
Africa as a source of inspiration,
African-American history,
folk idioms, (music and religion of the South),
and social injustice.
Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller
Sculptor
1877-1968
Meta Warrick Fuller was a
sculptor who looked to
the songs of black
Americans and to African
folk tales for inspirational
themes that focused on
pathos and joy in the
human condition. She
introduced these subjects to
America long before
the Harlem Renaissance.
This sculpture by Meta Warrick
Fuller, anticipated the spirit and style
of the Harlem Renaissance by
symbolizing the emergence of the
New Negro.
Fuller said she was thinking about
the average African-American,
whom she envisioned “awakening,
gradually unwinding the bondage of
his past and looking out on life again,
expectant and unafraid.”
The Awakening of Ethiopia
1914
Henry Ossawa Tanner
The Banjo Lesson, 1893
Tanner wanted to show
a positive image of the
African-American by
highlighting the sense
of dignity and in the
touching moment of the
elder teaching the boy how
to play the banjo. Tanner
also chose the banjo
because of its African
origin and its being the
most popular musical
instrument used by the
slaves in early America
Aaron Douglas
1898-1979
“I refuse to
compromise
and see blacks as
anything less than a
proud and majestic
people.”
Window Cleaning, 1935
William H. Johnson Street-life Harlem
William H. Johnson
1901-1970
Chain Gang. 1939
Johnson arrived in
Harlem when the
Renaissance was in
the making. While
there he created
several paintings
that dealt with
political and social
Harlem. Chain
Gang is one
example.
William H. Johnson
Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
1939
Johnson always
showed great
devotion to painting
themes that celebrated
Black Christianity. This
painting is an example
of one based on a literal
interpretation of a
spiritual occasion.
Palmer Hayden,
The Janitor Who Paints, 1937
In this symbolic selfportrait, Hayden is at
work in his basement
studio, surrounded by the
tools of his dual
professions, a palette,
brushes and easel, and a
garbage can, broom, and
feather duster. The
painter’s studio is also his
bedroom, and his bed,
night table, alarm clock,
and a framed picture of a
cat are seen in the
background.
Palmer Hayden, The Blue Nile, 1964
Robert Gwathmey
1903-1988
Custodian, 1963
Gwathmey was raised in
Virginia, but it was not
until his return to the
South after years of art
schooling in New York that
he began to empathize with
the African-American
experience.
He commented, “If I had
never gone back home,
perhaps I would never have
painted the Negro.”
Jacob Lawrence was a
painter who was inspired
to focus his work on the
historical development
and struggle of people
from African descent. He
used his canvas as a vehicle
for making statements on
Freedom, Dignity, Struggle,
and Daily Life among the
African-American peoples.
Jacob Lawrence
1917-2000
Jacob Lawrence Harlem Rooftops
Lawrence commented,
“What did I see when I
arrived in Harlem in 1930?
I was thirteen years of age.
I remember seeing the
movement, the life, the
people, the excitement. We
were going through a great,
great depression at that time,
but despite that, I think,
there was always hope.”
Jacob Lawrence
Aspiration 1988
Jacob Lawrence Interior Scene, 1937
Jacob Lawrence
Dust to Dust (The Funeral) 1938
Jacob Lawrence Dancing Doll, 1947
Jacob Lawrence,
The Builders, 1974
Jacob Lawrence,
The Builders, 1998
Legend of John Brown, 1977
“I’ve always been interested
in history, but they never
taught Negro history in the
public schools…I don’t see
how a history of the United
States can be written
honestly without including
the Negro. I didn’t paint
just as a historical thing, but
because I believe these
things tie up with the Negro
today. I am not a politician.
I’m an artist, just trying to
do my part to bring this
thing about…”
Men Exist For
The Sake of One;
Teach Them Then or
Bear With Them
Jacob Lawrence