The Harlem Renaissance

Harlem Renaissance

Kimberly Duggan - Language Arts

Harlem Renaissance - A Brief Introduction
http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap9/9intro.html

Harlem Renaissance (HR) is the name given to the period from the end of World War I and through the middle of the 1930s Depression, during which a group of talented African-American writers produced a sizable body of literature in the four prominent genres of poetry, fiction, drama, and essay.

The notion of "twoness" , a divided awareness of one's identity, was introduced by W.E.B. Du Bois, 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: 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.

Harlem Renaissance, 1919-1937
http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap9/chap9.html
A list of Authors is availble here with some biographical information, brief selections, and some criticism.
The Harlem Renaissance
http://www.math.buffalo.edu/~sww/circle/harlem-ren-sites.html#intro
Introduction, Time Line and Links
The Harlem Renaissance
http://www.fatherryan.org/harlemrenaissance/
The Harlem Renaissance transformed African-American identity and history, but it also transformed American culture in general. Never before had so many Americans read the thoughts of African-Americans and embraced the African-American community's productions, expressions, and style.
Harlem Renaissance
http://www.levity.com/corduroy/harlem.htm
In 1904 several middleclass African American families moved away from the decaying conditions of Black Bohemia of midtown into the newly-built suburb of Harlem. This initiated a move north of educated African Americans and a foothold into Harlem. In 1910 a large block along 135th and Fifth Ave was bought up by various African American realtors and a church group. These purchases caused a "white flight" and lowered realestate prices.

Harlem: Mecca of the New Negro
http://etext.virginia.edu/harlem/
A Hypermedia Edition of the March 1925 Survey Graphic Harlem Number. Online ezine from the Harlem Renaissance Era.

Rhapsodies in Black (Click on Title for Entree)
http://www.iniva.org/harlem/index2.html
This Web site provides an introduction to the exhibition Rhapsodies in Black: Art of the Harlem Renaissance, curated by David A. Bailey and Richard J. Powell and organised by the Hayward Gallery, London in collaboration with the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC., and the Institute of International Visual Arts (inIVA). The Web site combines images and text to elaborate on some of the key themes in the exhibition: The Harlem Renaissance, Representing the New Negro, Modernism and Modernity, A Blues Aesthetic, Imaginging Africa, Haiti and Images of Black Nationhood.
Harlem Renaissance
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/forum/february98/harlem_2-20.html
The black renaissance and cultural revolution that took place in Harlem, New York between the World Wars was much more than these images. It was a profound literary and political movement as well.
The Harlem Renaissance: Three writers and their contemporary counterparts
http://www.infoplease.info/spot/harlem1.html

Harlem Renaissance Women: African American Women Dreaming in Color
http://womenshistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa022900a.htm

Writers of the Harlem Renaissance
http://www.readingwoman.com/harlem.html
Here's a selection of reviews of writers of the Harlem Renaissance.
MAJOR FIGURES OF THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE
http://userpages.wittenberg.edu/rwelker/Figures.htm

Harlem: 1900-1940 An African American Community
http://www.si.umich.edu/chico/Harlem/
Harlem 1900-1940: An African-American Community , is a history education portfolio that has been produced by the Educational Programs unit of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the New York Public Library.
Harlem Renaissance
http://www.42explore2.com/harlem.htm
This project includes over one-hundred and fifty websites providing biographies of writers, poets, artists, musicians, entertainers, activists, thinkers, and leaders of the Harlem Renaissance movement.

Biographies of the Harlem Renaissance
http://www.42explore2.com/harlem2.htm
This webpage is a companion section to a 42eXplore project titled Harlem Renaissance from eduScapes. Below, you find biography sites of prominent people of the Harlem Renaissance Movement. This select list includes writers, poets, artists, photographers, actors, singers, musicians, composers, and activists.

York County School of Technology

Updated last - 28 February 2006