The Harlem Renaissance

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Created by Rose Ryan
The Harlem Renaissance
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Harlem Renaissance The flourish of art,
music, and poetry that took place in Harlem
during the 1920s and 1930s.
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Background
The Niagara Movement

• W.E.B. DuBois was a young man in search of a
  teaching job when he experienced the unfair
  disadvantages that African-Americans faced in the
  late 1890's and early 1900's.
• DuBois, Booker T. Washington, and Paul Laurence
  Dunbar all began traveling to speak out on the
  atrocious treatment that blacks were receiving.
• As whites and blacks seemed to separate more,
  DuBois left his job to go to Tuskeegee, Alabama
  (called the capital of the Negro Nation) to
  pursue a change in the African-American's role
  from subservient to the white race to a race of
  people strong and united.
• The Committee of Twelve was formed in 1904 to
  oversee the movement of Negroes into influential
  society.
• In 1905, 59 blacks from 17 states called for a
  meeting in Buffalo, NY, to discuss the need to
  organize intellectual blacks to move the race
  forward. (Due to financial issues, only
  twenty-nine men from fourteen states attended.)

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• The "Niagara Movement" was incorporated January
  31, 1906, in the District of Columbia.  It called
  for the following principles
• Freedom of speech and criticism.
• An unfettered and unsubsidized press.
• The abolition of all caste distinctions based
  simply on race and color.
• The recognition of the principle of human
  brotherhood as a practical present creed.
• The recognition of the highest and best human
  training as the monopoly of no class or race.
• A belief in the dignity of labor.
• United effort to realize these ideals under wise
  and courageous leadership.
• The first meeting was held in 1906, despite
  criticism, at the site of the John Brown raid in
  Harpers' Ferry, West Virginia.
• The movement led to the creation of the NAACP.
• These events enabled the Harlem Renaissance to
  happen.

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History

• During the early 1900s, many African-Americans in
  the South moved North to find jobs.
• Many of these people came to Harlem, a large area
  of blacks in New York City.
• In the 1920s and 1930s, people in the Upper
  (Greenwich Village) and Lower (Harlem) sections
  of Manhattan converged to hold literary
  discussions.
• Those discussions led to a complete artistic
  movement in the African-American society the
  "New Negro Movement."

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• During this period of time, the African-American
  people intensified their pride in their culture
  and their yearning to be accepted as equals in
  the United States.
• Civil rights leader Marcus Garvey was a leader in
  this movement against racism that originated
  during the Civil War
• Say! Africa for the Africans,Like America for
  the AmericansThis the rallying cry for a
  nation,Be it in peace or revolution.
• Blacks are men, no longer cringing foolsThey
  demand a place, not like weak toolsBut among
  the world of nations greatThey demand a free
  self-governing state.
• -From Garveys Africa for the Africans

Marcus Garvey
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Art

• African-American painters in the early 1900's
  usually had to travel to Europe to exhibit their
  works because many white Americans doubted the
  talent of the black artist.
• In a time where many art subjects were white, it
  was hard for the African-American to identify
  with the paintings he saw.
• Seeing this, many black artists who were still in
  America began to use their own people as
  subjects.
• The paintings usually contained aspects of
  African-American life, heritage, and/or history.
• Once white America understood that artists did
  not have to be white, black painters were given
  the respect they deserved.

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Aaron Douglas (1898-1979)
"...Our problem is to conceive, develop,
establish an art era. Not white art painting
black...let's bare our arms and plunge them deep
through laughter, through pain, through sorrow,
through hope, through disappointment, into the
very depths of the souls of our people and drag
forth material crude, rough, neglected. Then
let's sing it, dance it, write it, paint it.
Let's do the possible. Let's create something
transcendentally material, mystically objective.
Earthy. Spiritually earthy. Dynamic."
- Douglass work could be found on public
buildings or on the cover of The Crisis, a
magazine published by WEB DuBois.
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Window Cleaning1935, oil on canvas
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Palmer Hayden (1890-1973)

• Hayden is referred as a self-trained artist, but
  really studied at Cooper Union (New York) and
  Boothvay Art Colony (Maine) and in France from
  1927 to 1932.
• Hayden was famous for the way he used folklore
  and black historical events in his painting.
• He was a forerunner in the art genre when it came
  to using African subject and design.

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JeunesseDate unknown, watercolor on paper
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William H. Johnson (1901-1970)

• Came from South Carolina to Harlem in the midst
  of the Renaissance to study at the National
  Academy of Design
• Traveled around Europe and North Africa
• In 1926, he settled in Paris and studied the
  works of European Artists.
• Even though he was abroad, many of his paintings
  depicted the African-American lifestyle.

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Street Life -- Harlem ca. 1939-40Oil on wood
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Lois Mailou Jones (1905-1998)

• Never lived in New York considered part of the
  Harlem Renaissance because paintings showed the
  world that art sees no skin color
• Jones found true acceptance in Europe when she
  studied in Paris in 1937, where she created over
  35 paintings.
• Awarded numerous honorary doctorates and held
  many undergraduate and graduate degrees

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Negro Shack I, Sedalia, North Carolina 1930,
watercolor
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Archibald J. Motley, Jr. (1891-1981)

• Born in New Orleans, raised in Chicago
• Showed a love of art at an early age therefore,
  he studied in the Art Institute of Chicago
• Second black artist to have a one-man art show in
  New York City
• The images he painted were of black people in
  non-stereotypical roles for that time they gave
  white people a better understanding of black
  heritage.
• Motley best summarized his own purpose as
  "personality, intensity and sympathy."

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Nightlife 1943, oil on canvas
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Poetry

• The Harlem Renaissance sparked mainly from when
  W.E.B. DuBois published The Souls of Black Folks
  in 1903 about the "two-ness" in the United
  States.
• 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."
• After this, it was evident that literature was an
  art form that could bring the black people
  together.
• Common themes in these works included alienation
  and marginality
• Folk and blues traditions were included

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Claude McKay (1890-1948)

• Moved to Harlem from Jamaica in 1914
• If We Must Die" (poem) set the tone for a
  majority of the literary works in the literary
  movement
• Traveled the world speaking out against racism
  used works to convey message
• Works were known for their island culture and
  dialect
• Wrote several novels before his death

"If We Must Die" (1919), A Long Way Home (1937),
Home to Harlem (1929), Banjo (1929), Banana
Bottom (1933), Songs of Jamaica (1912), Constab
Ballads (1912), Spring in New Hampshire (1920)
and Harlem Shadows (1922).
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Countee Cullen (1903-1946 )

• New York native
• One of the major contributors to the Harlem
  Renaissance in the 1920's
• Works conveyed life as he saw it
• Color, printed in 1925, was accredited with
  taking the movement to a new height because of
  its abilities to shed light on social realities
• Awarded the Witter Bynner Undergraduate Poetry
  Prize from New York University

Copper Sun (1927), Color (1925), The Ballad of
the Brown Girl (1927) and The Black Christ
(1929).
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Langston Hughes (1902-1967)

• One of the best known of all Harlem Renaissance
  figures
• Born in Joplin, Mississippi grew up listening to
  stories about Frederick Douglass and Sojourner
  Truth, which led to his desire to write
• Moved to Harlem and attended Columbia University
• Quit school and worked on a ship to travel the
  world
• Came home to New York wrote poetry that
  included the jazz lyrics and African-American
  dialect he heard and told about the struggle of
  the poverty-stricken blacks

The Weary Blues (1926), The Negro Speaks of
Rivers (1921), Dear Lovely Death (1931), The
Dream Keeper (1932), Scottsboro Limited (1932),
Not Without Laughter (1930) ,Popo and Fifina
(1932), The Ways of White Folks (1934), and The
Big Sea (1940).
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Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960 )

• Born in the all-black township of Eatonville,
  Florida in 1891
• Novelist, folklorist, anthropologist, essayist,
  and playwright
• Hung out with some of the Harlem Renaissance's
  best-known literary figures, yet was criticized
  by others for her outspokeness and dress
• Criticized for ability to raise funds, although
  her critics usually benefitted from the patrons
  she raised from
• Most active writing period was 30's-40's, after
  the bulk of the Harlem Renaissance

Jonah's Gourd Vine (1934), Mules and Men (1935),
Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), Tell My
Horse (1938), Moses, Man of the Mountain (1936),
Dust Tracks on a Road (1942), and Seraph on the
Suwanee (1948).
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Music

• Many musicians moved to the Harlem area in the
  1920's-30s
• Even though they acknowledged the big names
  associated with jazz, the most popular music at
  the time, they could not identify with it.
• They soon began to form their own types of music
  ones with which their people could identify and
  enjoy
• Soon the instrumentalists and vocalists were
  joined by other genres of music such as classical
  and sacred (religious)
• With the Harlem musical scene, the Harlem Party
  scene grew. In clubs such as the Cotton Club and
  the Apollo Theatre, food and alcohol joined the
  loud music.

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Louis Armstrong (1901-1971)

• Oldest performer to ever have a No. 1 selling
  song on the music charts (Guiness Book of
  Records)
• Armstrong received his very first music lesson
  with trumpet in a children's home.
• In 1922, Armstrong moved to Chicago and joined
  King Oliver.
• In 1925, he started to record under his own name
  after playing in Fletcher Henderson's band in New
  York.
• Armstrong made two tours to Europe, which
  eventually led him into Africa.
• Elected into the Down Beat Hall of Fame in 1953.

Hits include I'm in the Mood for Love, Solitude,
Ain't Misbehavin', You Rascal You, Cabaret, Hello
Dolly, Mack the Knife, Old Man Mose, and Wild Man
Blues.
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Josephine Baker (1906-1975)

• As a young girl in Missouri, Josephine Baker
  searched for food in garbage cans and slept in
  cardboard shelters.
• At age 18, Baker moved out of Missouri and up
  into New York where she took part in numerous
  stage productions, including the
  Follies-Bergeres, Ziegfeld Follies, and Le Negre
  Revue in Paris.
• During the early 1930s, Baker recorded songs, did
  a European tour, and also starred in two films,
  Zou-Zou and Princess Tam-Tam.

Hits include Bye Bye Blackbird, Blue Skies,
Always, He's the Last Word, Pretty Baby,
Confessing, Suppose, and J'ai Deux Amours.
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Duke Ellington (1899-1974)

• Edward (Duke) Kennedy Ellington received the U.S.
  Presidential Medal of Freedom by the U.S.
  government, and the Legion of Honor by the French
  government.
• Ellington received his first piano lesson at the
  age of seven
• Attended Armstrong Manual Training School to
  study commercial art instead of an academic
  school
• Duke formed his first group in 1917 The Duke
  Serenaders which was later renamed The
  Washingtonians.
• First recording in 1923 in New York

Hits include Rockin' in Rhythm, Satin Doll, New
Orleans, A Drum is a Women, Take the "A" Train,
Happy-Go-Lucky Local, The Mooche, and Crescendo
in Blue.
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Bessie Smith (1894-1937)

• First blues singer to have a major name with her
  recordings.
• Born in Chattanooga, Tenn. and then moved north
  to Atlantic City where she performed in the early
  1920s.
• Became popular with her first recording in 1923,
  Alberta Hunter's "Downhearted Blues."
• Performed with James P. Johnson, Coleman Hawkins,
  Louis Armstrong, Don Redman, and Fletcher
  Henderson.

Hits include "Backwater Blues", "Taint Nobody's
Bizness If I Do", "St. Louis Blues", "Nobody
Knows You When You're Down and Out", ''Down
Hearted Blues", and ''Gulf Coast Blues.''
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Coleman Hawkins (1901-1969)

• Recognized as the first great saxophonist of jazz
• Joined the band led by Mamie Smith in 1922 and
  was a part of some of her records until 1923
• Made his first recording with Fletcher Henderson,
  when he joined the Henderson Orchestra and stayed
  with them for the next ten years
• Recorded with McKinney's Cotton Pickers and Red
  McKenzie's Mound City Blue Blowers in 1929
• Recorded his most famous record, Body and Soul,
  in 1940

Hits include Broke But Happy, Blues on
the Delta, Dee Tees, The Man I Love, Hawk Talk,
Pebbles, Lazy Butterfly, Cool Blue, and Some
Stretching.
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Modern jazz influences
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Norah Jones
Norah Jones and her album "Come Away With Me" won
eight Grammys at the 2003 Grammy Awards Album of
the Year Record of the Year Best New Artist
Best Female Pop Vocal Performance Best Pop
Vocal Album. In addition, "Don't Know Why" won
three awards for Song of the Year Best
Producer, non-classical Best Engineered album,
non-classical
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In 13 Step Boogie, Sexton uses his voice to
imitate his instrument.
Martin Sexton
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In Sucker, Mayer uses only guitar for music as
well as rhythm. He also does some scatting.
John Mayer
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Jewel
In this version of Who Will Save Your Soul,
Jewel varies her rhythm and also does some
scatting.
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Dave Matthews
In Busted Stuff, Matthewss band employs
jazz-influenced instruments, like the sax, and
Matthews does some scatting.
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The Blues
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Robert Johnson

• Father of modern blues
• Influences rock and roll bands such as the Allman
  Brothers and Eric Clapton
• Said to have sold his soul at the crossroads

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Muddy Waters
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Eric Clapton

• Influenced by Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters.
• Considered todays pre-eminent blues man