The Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance is the name given to
the period from the end of World War I and
through the middle of the 1930s Depression.
During this time a group of talented
African-American writers produced a
sizable body of literature in these four
areas:
poetry
fiction
drama
and essays
The Harlem Renaissance also involved art . . .
and music; however, we will be focusing on the
literature of that period.
Common themes of the Harlem Renaissance
include the following:
alienation
marginality
folk
material
the blues tradition
and the problem of writing for an elite audience.
The Harlem Renaissance was more than just a
literary movement.
racial integration
racial consciousness
the explosion of
music, particularly
jazz.
the " back to Africa" movement led by Marcus Garvey
The Harlem Renaissance brought the Black
experience into American cultural history.
The Black migration, from south to north, changed their
image from rural to urban, from peasant to sophisticate.
Harlem became a crossroads where Blacks interacted
and expanded their contacts internationally.
The Harlem Renaissance profited from a
spirit of self-determination which was
widespread after W.W.I.
The "renaissance" echoed American progressivism in
its faith in democratic reform, in its belief in art and
literature as agents of change, and in its almost
uncritical belief in itself and its future.
Both black and white intellectuals
were unprepared for the rude shock
of the Great Depression.
As a result the
Harlem
Renaissance
was shattered
by it because
of naive
assumptions
about the
centrality of
culture,
unrelated to
economic and
social realities
Yet the
Harlem
Renaissance
was very
significant
because
it became a
symbol and a
point of
reference for
everyone to
remember.
The name, more than the place, became
synonymous with new vitality, black
urbanity, and black militancy.
It became a racial focal point
for Blacks the world over; it
remained for a time a race
capital.
The audience for black poetry at this time was
largely white, and white expectations influenced
black expression both in music and in poetry.
Modernism was
the dominant
movement in
expression at this
time, and many
modernist things
in art came from
non-western or
“primitive”
cultures.
Harlem Renaissance Poetry: Langston Hughes
The first poem to really draw attention to Langston Hughes
was “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” which helped define his
style as a Negro poet. He wrote it when he was only 17,
riding on a train which crossed the Mississippi River going
from Illinois to Missouri.
The Negro Speaks of Rivers
I’ve known rivers:
I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and
older than the flow of human blood in
human veins.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers
I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.
I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.
I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.
I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New
Orleans, and I’ve seen its muddy bosom burn all golden in the sunset.
I’ve known rivers:
Ancient, dusky rivers.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
Interpretation of “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”
A powerful poem may convey its message with simple language and
just one strong central image. An example of such a poem is “The Negro
Speaks of Rivers” by Langston Hughes, one of major poets of the Harlem
Renaissance of the 1920’s. In simple yet eloquent language, Hughes uses the
central image of a river as a symbol to represent the soul of African
Americans.
In the title of his poem, Hughes indicates that he is speaking for all
African Americans. In the line “My soul has grown deep like the rivers,”
Hughes directly compares his soul to a river. He then presents images of those
rivers that have been important in African American history. He conjures up
images of the dawn of civilization along the Euphrates in southwest Asia, of
early peaceful African societies along the Congo, of the great Egyptian
civilization along the Nile in Africa, and of slave life along the Mississippi in
the New World. These images convey the proud, noble, and yet troubled
heritage of African Americans.
Hughes uses such words as “deep,” “golden,” “ancient,” and “dusky”
to describe rivers, adjectives that are also meant to describe African
Americans. Like the rivers Hughes names, African Americans have an ancient
history, but one filled with many difficulties in modern times. Hughes suggests
that this history, with its more recent troubles, has brought a profound depth to
the African American experience. He is saying that the collective soul of
African Americans is ancient and deep, like a river.
Thus, with one central image – that of a
river – and a few carefully chosen adjectives,
Hughes conveys the proud and noble heritage of
African Americans and celebrates the depth of their
collective experience, the depth of their soul.
I, Too
by Langston Hughes 1924 (he was 22 years old)
I, too, sing America
[An allusion to Walt Whitman’s “I Hear America Singing,”
published in 1867 in Leaves of Grass. Here Hughes means that
blacks are Americans too, not just whites.]
I am the darker brother. [This poem is about segregation and how eventually it
will come to an end.]
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes.
But I laugh,
[The implied meaning here is that they are
waiting now but will grow stronger as time
passes.]
And grow strong.
Tomorrow,
I’ll sit at the table
When company comes.
[The use of "I" helps showing the African
American community will soon rise and be one
with the rest of America.]
Nobody’ll dare
Say to me,
“Eat in the kitchen,”
[This shows what the future will be like, or as Hughes uses
the metaphorical "tomorrow." The use of "I" helps show
that the African American community will soon rise and be
one with the rest of America.]
Then.
Besides,
They’ll see how
beautiful I am
And be ashamed –
I, too, am America.
[Here Hughes says that once African American's are
recognized as equal, everyone will see they are not bad
and that they are beautiful as well as part of America.]
The Weary Blues Langston Hughes (1923)
Droning a drowsy syncopated tune,
Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon,
I heard a Negro play.
Lines 1-3 create a relationship
between speaker and subject.
Hughes suggests that the blues
offer an experience for not only
the artist but also the community.
Down on Lenox Avenue the other night
By the pale dull pallor of an old gas light
He did a lazy sway ....
He did a lazy sway ....
To the tune o' those Weary Blues.
With his ebony hands on each ivory key
He made that poor piano moan with melody.
O Blues!
Lenox Avenue is a main street in Harlem, which in terms of the geography of New
York, is North, or uptown. Because Harlem was home mainly to African Americans
and the parts of New York City south of Harlem (referred to as "downtown") were
populated mainly by whites, if the speaker were to perceive Lenox Avenue as "up"
from his place of origin, we might assume that he is white.
Swaying to and fro on his rickety stool
He played that sad raggy tune like a musical fool.
Sweet Blues!
Coming from a black man's soul.
O Blues!
In a deep song voice with a melancholy tone
I heard that Negro sing, that old piano moan-"Ain't got nobody in all this world,
Ain't got nobody but ma self.
I's gwine to quit ma frownin'
And put ma troubles on the shelf."
Hughes uses the word "raggy" in line 13. "Raggy" is not an actual word;
perhaps we might interpret it as a combination of word "raggedy" meaning
tattered or worn out and the word "ragtime" which refers to a style of jazz
music characterized by elaborately syncopated rhythm in the melody and a
steadily accented accompaniment. When we think of “raggedy” we think of
patchwork, and the blues is a type of patchwork of various types of music.
Thump, thump, thump, went his foot on the floor.
He played a few chords then he sang some more-"I got the Weary Blues
And I can't be satisfied.
Got the Weary Blues
And can't be satisfied-I ain't happy no mo'
And I wish that I had died."
And far into the night he crooned that tune.
The stars went out and so did the moon.
The singer stopped playing and went to bed
While the Weary Blues echoed through his head.
He slept like a rock or a man that's dead.
The speaker of Langston Hughes's "The Weary Blues" describes an evening
of listening to a blues musician in Harlem. With its diction, its repetition of
lines and its inclusion of blues lyrics, the poem evokes the mournful tone and
tempo of blues music and gives readers an appreciation of the state of mind of
the blues musician in the poem.
America
by Claude McKay
Although she feeds me bread of bitterness,
And sinks into my throat her tiger's tooth,
Stealing my breath of life, I will confess
I love this cultured hell that tests my youth!
Her vigor flows like tides into my blood,
Giving me strength erect against her hate.
Her bigness sweeps my being like a flood.
Yet as a rebel fronts a king in state,
In this poem written as a sonnet, McKay
shows both positive and negative feelings
I stand within her walls with not a shred
about America.
Of terror, malice, not a word of jeer.
The first stanza accuses, yet he loves
his country.
Darkly I gaze into the days ahead,
And see her might and granite wonders there, McKay goes on to talk of his love / hate
relationship with America. The mother
image deepens the reader’s sympathy
Beneath the touch of Time's unerring hand,
Like priceless treasures sinking in the sand. for his character. The last couplet infers
that wonderful possibilities are in
.
America (equality for all) but are still
hidden.
Go Down, Death
by James Weldon Johnson
Johnson wrote this as a funeral sermon in 1927.
Weep not, weep not,
She is not dead;
She's resting in the bosom of Jesus.
Heart-broken husband--weep no more;
Grief-stricken son--weep no more;
Left-lonesome daughter --weep no more;
She only just gone home.
Day before yesterday morning,
God was looking down from his great, high heaven,
Looking down on all his children,
And his eye fell on Sister Caroline,
Tossing on her bed of pain.
And God's big heart was touched with pity,
With the everlasting pity.
And God sat back on his throne,
And he commanded that tall, bright angel standing at his right hand:
Call me Death!
And that tall, bright angel cried in a voice
That broke like a clap of thunder:
Call Death!--Call Death!
And the echo sounded down the streets of heaven
Till it reached away back to that shadowy place,
Where Death waits with his pale, white horses.
And Death heard the summons,
And he leaped on his fastest horse,
Pale as a sheet in the moonlight.
Up the golden street Death galloped,
And the hooves of his horses struck fire from the gold,
But they didn't make no sound.
Up Death rode to the Great White Throne,
And waited for God's command.
And God said: Go down, Death, go down,
Go down to Savannah, Georgia,
Down in Yamacraw,
And find Sister Caroline.
She's borne the burden and heat of the day,
She's labored long in my vineyard,
And she's tired-She's weary-Go down, Death, and bring her to me.
And Death didn't say a word,
But he loosed the reins on his pale, white horse,
And he clamped the spurs to his bloodless sides,
And out and down he rode,
Through heaven's pearly gates,
Past suns and moons and stars;
on Death rode,
Leaving the lightning's flash behind;
Straight down he came.
While we were watching round her bed,
She turned her eyes and looked away,
She saw what we couldn't see;
She saw Old Death. She saw Old Death
Coming like a falling star.
But Death didn't frighten Sister Caroline;
He looked to her like a welcome friend.
And she whispered to us: I'm going home,
And she smiled and closed her eyes.
And Death took her up like a baby,
And she lay in his icy arms,
But she didn't feel no chill.
And death began to ride again-Up beyond the evening star,
Into the glittering light of glory,
On to the Great White Throne.
And there he laid Sister Caroline
On the loving breast of Jesus.
And Jesus took his own hand and wiped away her tears,
And he smoothed the furrows from her face,
And the angels sang a little song,
And Jesus rocked her in his arms,
And kept a-saying: Take your rest,
Take your rest.
Weep not--weep not,
She is not dead;
She's resting in the bosom of Jesus.
Tableau
by Countee Cullen
Locked arm in arm they cross the way
The black boy and the white,
The golden splendor of the day
The sable pride of night.
From lowered blinds the dark folk stare
And here the fair folk talk,
Indignant that these two should dare
In unison to walk.
Oblivious to look and word
They pass, and see no wonder
That lightning brilliant as a sword
Should blaze the path of thunder.
Incident
by Countée 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 Balimore
From May until December;
Of all the things that happened there
That's all that I remember.
Some Harlem Renaissance Art
The social and political anxieties that many African Americans felt
just after World War I (1914-1918) were alleviated, in part, by mass
migrations to the urban North. Northern cities offered a rest from the
repressive attitudes and mandates of the old Southern order. The new
racial compositions of cities like Washington, D.C., Philadelphia,
New York, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Chicago, and Saint Louis, in
combination with a heightened social consciousness and a seemingly
unbound desire for leisure and escapism, conspired to help create the
cultural phenomenon known as the New Negro movement.
Visual artists played a key role in creating depictions of the
New Negro.
Laura Wheeler Waring Still Life, 1929, oil on canvas.
Palmer Hayden (American,
1890-1973), Nous Quatre a
Paris (We Four in Paris), no
date, watercolor on paper,
Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY.
Palmer Hayden, Jeunesse, no date, watercolor on paper.
Archibald J. Motley, Blues, 1929, oil on canvas.
Aaron Douglas, Crucifixion,
1927, oil on canvas.
Aaron Douglas, Rebirth, 1927, oil on canvas
Augusta Savage Gamin, 1930, bronze
Dox Thrash Railroad Yard,
c. 1933-1934
Aaron Douglas, Study for Aspects of Negro Life: The Negro in an African Setting,
1934, gouache (gwahsh – heavy, flat watercolor paint) on Whatman artist’s board
William H. Johnson, Chain
Gang, Smithsonian
Museum of American Art,
Washington, D.C.
Loïs Mailou Jones Negro Shack I, Sedalia, North Carolina, 1930, watercolor on paper
Jacob Lawrence, Pool Parlor, 1942,
gouache on paper
Harlem Renaissance set the tone for Civil Rights
and Desegregation: Empowerment