Harlem Renaissance Essay

Submitted By Rwp11
Words: 1549
Pages: 7
Open Document
The Harlem Renaissance American Pop-Culture stems heavily from the influence from the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance was a movement in which Blacks asserted themselves by recognizing who they really were in society and appreciating their African heritage instead of copying the white culture. The Harlem Renaissance was revolved around the literary fields of creative art, music, book writing, theater, and dance. This movement was able to show African Americans had an artistic value like the white culture did. The African Americans began to adopt musical talents, the ability to write great poems and stories, and to use their mind as an instrument to a poetic culture. This historical movement would eventually shape our present day musical and poetic culture. The Great Migration was the beginning to the development of the Harlem Renaissance. After World War I had ended in 1919, millions of blacks had left the South in order to start a new life for them and their families. For the first time there a middle class black class was created. In the decade between 1910 and 1920, the black population of the North grew tremendously. As the population of the black community continued to grow, it eventually reached the city of Harlem. Harlem is where the renaissance all begins. As music shifted in the 1920s to urban areas job opportunities increased. Along with this was an increase in spending power for black Americans. “America itself was also undergoing a change from agricultural center to industrial giant, thus transforming the core population from farm worker to urban dweller” (Hilliard 1). Fortunately for the black community, during the migration they brought their artistic talent with them. Black Americans soon started express their talents publically. Many musicians found jobs preforming at restaurants, as street performers. The musicians sang about what they felt in their soul, they told stories through their music. The poets wrote about what they believed, they wrote about how they felt, and how they felt about what was going around them. In the beginning of the Renaissance there was a loud but sudden appreciation for anything that was produced or written by an African American. For poorer blacks, Marcus Garvey led a back to Africa movement which represented a renewed sense of race pride. The movement started being recognized when authors and musicians started putting their work in public and began getting recognized by the whites.
Many authors, poets and musicians began arising from the streets. A major poet was a woman by the name of Zora Neal Hurston. Hurston was one of the most influential writers of the decade. Zora expressed African heritage in her poems and novels. Land and the struggles of the black society were reflected in her poems as well. “African Americans have had a strong connection to the land that they live on because of their past as slave workers” (Rollins 2). One of the biggest poets of the Harlem Renaissance was a man by the name of Langston Hughes. Hughes was one of the most important writers and thinkers of the Harlem Renaissance.
Hughes's creative genius was influenced by his life in New York City's Harlem, a primarily African American neighborhood (Hillard 2).His artistic values helped craft American literature. Hughes, like others active in the Harlem Renaissance, had a strong sense of racial pride. Through his poetry and stories he showed tried to show that there is no difference between the white culture and the black culture.
Hughes tried to balance racism and injustice, Louis Armstrong was one of the biggest musicians during the period of the Harlem Renaissance Armstrong was born in New Orleans. His moment of fame came when he went to New York to get involved in the recording industry. With his group the hot six he took the use of a solo instrument the trumpet. Another artist that was able to accomplish many memorable achievements was a man named Paul Robinson.
Not only
Show More

Related Documents: Harlem Renaissance Essay

The Harlem Renaissance

cultural, social, artistic and literary explosion in Harlem, New York during the 1920s, known as the Harlem Renaissance. A movement made, lead and embraced by African-Americans in the midst of rapid, progressive changes in the United States. This period sought to give a new perspective on the life of American’s most neglected groups, from black writers, visuals artist to poets and musicians, the birth of a new black identity. The Harlem Renaissance is a period that reflects black traditions, voices…

Words 1769 - Pages 8

The Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance movement spanned from the 1920s to the mid-1930s. This era would focus on redefining Black identity and fighting against societal norms through artistic expression in the North. During this time many African Americans would come together to create art using various forms and literature would be one of the primary forms seen as one of the more influential ones in that era. Artists created works that would touch on topics that the Renaissance was all about and even though we…

Words 1070 - Pages 5

Harlem Renaissance Reflection

that the Harlem Renaissance, was talented by a group of African American writers, thinkers and artists produced a sizeable contribution to american work. African American culture found expression in poetry in two different ways: One was lyric poetry easily accepted by white leaders, the other way was through lyric poetry expressed as jazz music. The explosion of poetic expression is known as a Harlem Renaissance. Not all black people was able to read during this time period. Renaissance was originally…

Words 239 - Pages 1

The Influence Of The Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance refers to a time primarily during the 1920s and 1930s when African American Literature, music, and other arts flourished. Many poets, dramatists, and novelists who would later affect writes who published their most valuable work at this time. Although the energy of this movement was in Harlem, a neighborhood on the northern end of Manhattans in New York City, its influence spread throughout the country and then internationally, most of the writers during the Harlem Renaissance…

Words 392 - Pages 2

Essay On The Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance was a period in American history that promoted black arts, literature, and culture in the early 20th century. Throughout this time, poets such as Maya Angelou flourished, the creation of Negro reformation organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) formed, and also the Great Migration of African people from rural areas to urban areas took place. The Harlem Renaissance focused on establishing, exploiting, and unifying the African…

Words 399 - Pages 2

Members Of The Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance is where African American became quite major in the US. It evolved literal,musical, theatrical, and visual arts. It started in between the 1910s and the 1930s. The literary is different because it is based off of civil rights of the African Americans. A certain magazine called “The CRISIS” which is the journal of NAACP, had published many works varying from poems, stories, and visual works of many artists of the period. As the editor of the Crisis, Du Bois encouraged talented…

Words 249 - Pages 1

Essay On Harlem Renaissance

Harlem Renaissance And Jazz Cross 1920 s and 1930 s, the Harlem Renaissance. During this period, appeared a lot of outstanding artists and musicians. The Renaissance changed a lot of American culture, among them, till now people still love in this period of jazz! Harlem Renaissance because of African-American people migrating to the north. Because most black tenants are trapped in an endless cycle work of debt. In the 1890 s, a boll weevil blight destroyed the entire area of the cotton crop…

Words 474 - Pages 2

Analysis: The Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance was a time period in American History where African Americans played a major role in music and writing. In this time period, African Americans didn't have that many rights and the only desired to express their thoughts and emotions through music. The Harlem Renaissance represented African Americans voice and their definition of equality through artistic and literary creativity was important to them and declare their humanity (1031). Many of the poems produced in The Harlem Renaissance…

Words 308 - Pages 2

Harlem Renaissance Dbq

Harlem Renaissance argument In harlem during the 1920’s,black was beautiful.The Harlem Renaissance was a time in African-American art flourished.Poets during this time debated the best way to show pride in being black.So which was a better way to show racial pride;high art or folk art? High art referred to poetry that imitated white traditions,and folk art referred to poetry that grew out of the unique African American identity. Folk art was the best expression of racial pride during the Harlem…

Words 721 - Pages 3

What Is The Harlem Renaissance

Originally called The Negro Movement, The Harlem Renaissance movement started in the 1920s, brought an excitement and a new found freedom and voice to African-Americans who had been silent for a long time. It was the most influential movement in African-American literary history. A blossoming century 1918- 37 of African-American culture, particularly in the creative arts. Embracing literary, musical, theatrical, and visual arts, participants sought to reconceptualize “the negro” apart from the stereotypes…

Words 473 - Pages 2