...Harlem Renaissance Poets Hum 112 June 4, 2013 Harlem Renaissance Poets The Harlem Renaissance was the time period that immediately followed the First World War. During the great migration a vast number of African Americans left the southern states to relocate to northern states such as Chicago, New York, and Washington DC. They were in search of new employment and artistic opportunities. This was the beginning of the Harlem Renaissance era where African American artist (musicians and poets) called themselves the “New Negro”. The two Poets I chose to discuss throughout this essay are Langston Hughes and Claude McKay. I will be discussing their roles during the Harlem Renaissance, The elements of double consciousness within their poetry, and the primary themes seen in poetry during this time period. Langston Hughes Langston Hughes was one of the most influential writers during the Harlem Renaissance. His unique style of writing incorporated Jazz and Blues music into poetry. Langston Hughes played a significant role during the Harlem Renaissance period, his work became the voice for the average African American struggling to deal with the stress / pressures of being racially discriminated against. His poems encouraged them to love their brown skin and accept who they are and not how they are seen by their white counterparts. Instead of African Americans sacrificing their identity (culture) to blend into the white society he encouraged Negroes to have a sense of pride in...
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...When the Negro Was in Vogue Selected Comments by Langston Hughes and Wallace Thurman Langston Hughes on Shuffle Along The 1920's were the years of Manhattan's black Renaissance. It began with Shuffle Along, Running Wild, and the Charleston. Perhaps some people would say even with The Emperor Jones, Charles Gilpin, and the tom-toms at the Provincetown. But certainly it was the musical revue, Shuffle Along, that gave a scintillating send-off to that Negro vogue in Manhattan, which reached its peak just before the crash of 1929, the crash that sent Negroes, white folks, and all rolling down the hill toward the Works Progress Administration. Shuffle Along was a honey of a show. Swift, bright, funny, rollicking, and gay, with a dozen danceable, singable tunes. Besides, look who were in it: The now famous choir director, Hall Johnson, and the composer, William Grant Still, were a part of the orchestra. Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle wrote the music and played and acted in the show. Miller and Lyles were the comics. Florence Mills skyrocketed to fame in the second act. Trixie Smith sang "He May Be Your Man But He Comes to See Me Sometimes." And Caterina Jarboro, now a European prima donna, and the internationally celebrated Josephine Baker were merely in the chorus. Everybody was in the audience--including me. People came back to see it innumerable times. It was always packed. . . . When I saw it, I was thrilled and delighted. . . . It gave just the proper push--a...
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...Literature: During The Harlem Renaissance The Harlem Renaissance was the name given to the cultural, social, and artistic explosion that took place in Harlem between the end of World War I and the middle of the 1930s. Black poets, writers, scholars, and musicians all thrived during this time period. Notable poets of this time included Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Claude McKay. These poets not only encouraged African Americans in Harlem and around the world, they also paved the way for many subsequent African American poets. Each poet had a different style of writing and they each wrote about different things. For instance, Langston Hughes’ writing reflected his belief that black culture should be celebrated because it was just as valuable as white culture. Zora Neale Hurston’s writing reflected her belief that her people should be honored. She, like Langston Hughes, believed in celebrating black culture and uplifting the African American society. Lastly, Claude McKay’s writing reflected his belief that black aggression could suppress white supremacy. He wrote fairly militant poems challenging white authority in America. Although these poets each wrote about different topics, their contribution to the African American society will forever be remembered and embraced. To begin with, Langston Hughes embraced the African American community through his work of poetry and writing. In his poetry of “Fine Clothes”, Hughes explained the negative aspects of African...
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...attended high school. In high school Hughes was elected to be the class poet. he felt that he was only chosen because he was African-American. "I was the victim of a stereotype. there were only two of us negro kids in the whole class and our English teacher was always stressing the importance of rhythm in poetry well, everyone knows, except us, that all negroes have rhythm, so they elected me as class poet." Hughes grew up and lived in an extremely racist time. he came from a long line of ant-slavery and also very politically active people on his mother's side. Hughes also had his own opinions on politics. like many black writers and artists of this time Hughes was drawn to the idea of communism rather than segregated America and lots of his work reflected that. his poetry was often published in the CPUSA newspaper. he was involved in many communist led organizations though was more of a sympathizer than an active participant. Hughes was accused by many of being a communist on the political right but he always denied it. The poem I chose to write about is "Negro" by Langston Hughes. this poem was written during the Harlem renaissance when racial pride was represented heavily in things like art and literature. this poem represents the struggles that African-Americans at this time were going through and had been through. Hughes makes...
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...The Harlem Renaissance was a time for expressing the African-American culture and had a significant impact. Several famous people gained recognition during the 1920s and 1930s. Many things came about, things such as jazz and blues, poetry, dance, and musical theater becoming the next thing for African-Americans lives. Moreover, white people came to discover this newest art, dancing, music, and literature. The Great Migration of African-American people from the rural South to the North, and many into Harlem was the cause of this huge event. It became one of the largest African- American communities in the United States becoming the center for art and literature. Most Famous person involved in the Harlem Renaissance and an influential leader...
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...Dust Tracks on a Road Hurston’s Dust Tracks on a Road depicts the struggle and journey of growing up in a predominately African American society. She displays how African Americans were curtailed to nothing after the Civil War and how it was quite difficult to commence a town on their own of there own race. Her autobiography entails the very candid moments of the Harlem Renaissance. As the novel is exposed in the opening chapter the subject matter is revealed and it entails Zora Neale Hurston’s life. “So you will have to know something about the time and place where I came from, in order that you may interpret the incidents and directions of my life” (Hurston 1). The setting appears to be one of the developing subjects in the novel because her atmosphere depicted many of the events in her life. The town’s locations also foreshadowed many of her life events. “Eatonville is what you might call hitting a straight lick with a crooked stick. The town was not in the original plan. It is a by-product of something else” (1). The town setting is very symbolic in Huston’s life because she lived amongst one of the only all black towns in the state of Florida. This coincides with the possible theme of the individual in society. Living in this society had many effects on Hurston’s life. She reveals these frank moments with the reader. The setting sets up the forthcoming of the rest of the novel by demonstrating that living in the predominately black town will come with many hardships...
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...Alain Locke was a Harlem Renaissance writer who greatly influence the time period. He was able to use his writings to express how the Negro race felt, and how society could change to erase prejudice. Locke used his writing to convey how he felt and give suggestions for society, so different kinds of people could live together more easily. Locke felt as if the Negro race was creating a “New Negro” to better fit into the current society. Then the “Old Negro” was more of a myth and then actual men. Whites had made the “Old Negro” seem dastardly and animalistic. This would be why Locke felt it was a myth because Negroes were never like that, but whites made everyone believe that Negroes really were that bad. The whites distorted everyone’s view...
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...struggles of the Great Depression laid the foundation for the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Art would play an important role in influencing the future. Despite its limitations, the New Deal, through the Works Progress Administration’s (WPA) Federal Arts Program (FAP), was responsible for reshaping the cultural agenda and “marked a significant turning point in the production of black culture.”1 The artists of the Great Depression built upon the work done during the Harlem Renaissance. New Deal art extended and affirmed art that translated “politics into cultural terms.”2 The FAP looked for a “new sense of authentic American culture – one that championed national values and traditions by celebrating regional and racial diversity.”3 As a result, many artists worked to place African Americans in the historical narrative of the United States while combating long held stereotypes. None were less important than Aaron Douglas, Jacob Lawrence, Dox Trash, and the creators of the Harlem Hospital murals. Throughout the decade, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peoples (NAACP) continued its struggles to gain social and political equality for African Americans. The NAACP employed many avenues to achieve its goals. An Art Commentary on Lynching and the Marian Anderson concert were two such...
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...Zora Neale Hurston’s use of language in her short story Spunk allows the reader to become part of the community in which this story takes place. The story is told from the point of view of the characters, and Hurston writes the dialogue in their broken English dialect. Although the language is somewhat difficult to understand initially, it adds to the mystique of the story. Spunk is a story about a man that steals another man’s wife, kills the woman’s husband and then he ends up dying from an accident at the saw mill. Spunk believed that it was Lena’s husband, Joe Kanty, who shoved him into the circular saw, and the people in the village agreed that Joe Kanty had come back to get revenge. The language used by the characters helps to establish the setting of the story and gives the reader an understanding of why voodoo is a plausible explanation for the outcome. “Looka theah folkses!” is what Elijah Mosley states to the others in the store. This is the first indication that the characters in this short story are not the most educated, and are probably from some small backwoods town. We quickly get confirmation of this when we learn that he is alerting them that Spunk Banks, a giant, brown-skinned man, “who aint skeered of nothin’ on God’s green footstool”, is sauntering up the one street in the village, with a small pretty woman clinging lovingly to his arm. Clearly, the store is where people hang out, and everyone knows that the woman with Spunk is Lena Kanty, Joe’s wife...
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...The Harlem Renaissance was an enlightening period of time for African-Americans. A time where African-Americans embodied and celebrated their race, heritage, and culture despite the discrimination and negativity they faced. However in these times, there were a great deal of African-Americans who desired to “pass” as white to gain the privileges they could not access. In the novel Passing by Nella Larsen, its main protagonist, Irene Redfield, demonstrated a clear disapproval of “passing” in the beginning of the book. As she learns about her friend’s life while passing, her negative opinions on the subject are only affirmed, as her friend and rival’s husband is an extremely racist man that is oblivious to the fact that his wife is a passing woman....
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...the South Carolina Gullah/Geechie culture, the play adheres to W.E.B DuBois criteria of African American drama while also offering the viewer a full understanding of prejudices understood universally no matter their race or creed. According to Pinkney, “From the earliest portrayals of Blacks in American theatre (ca. late 18th Century) through the development and institutionalization of the minstrel show (ca. early 20th Century), the Negro image was given little if any respect or justice on American stages.” The human experience through the African and African American gaze was not fully realized. Through a series of milestone eras for the dramatic movement, African Americans were taking ownership of their stories. During the Harlem Renaissance, the emergence of the New Negro: An Interpretation, a famous anthology spearheaded by Alain Locke, was created....
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...In James Weldon Johnson’s publication of God’s Trombone, he includes several sermons, as well as illustrations provided by Aaron Douglas, a leading artist during the Harlem Renaissance. Johnson and Douglas revamp the way readers, specifically African Americans of the South, viewed God. One particular sermon, “The Creation,” tells the story of creation from a different viewpoint. Throughout this sermon, Johnson provides his readers with humanistic qualities of God. In lines 1-4, Johnson uses words, like “lonely,” to represent God as a personal being who is near and close, unlike the Old Testament version, which depicts God as distant and ominous. In lines 5-13, Johnson tells how God separated the light on one side, and darkness on another. Douglas incorporates this into his illustration by using different colors and hues. Douglas shows the darkness of the world gradually growing lighter by the moon. He also chose the color purple for God’s hand, which represents royalty. Johnson goes on to say that “God rolled the light around in his hands until He made the sun” (lines 15-16). This shows that God carefully molded and formed everything, exactly like He wanted it to be. Johnson also states in lines 18-21 that “God gathered it up in a shining ball and...
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...Shatika M. Gaines American Literature ANALYZING AND COMPARING PHILLIS WHEATLEY AND LANGSTON HUGHES February 25, 2012 ANALYZING AND COMPARING PHILLIS WHEATLEY AND LANGSTON HUGHES Abstract: The aim of this text is to analyze two completely different poets (Phillis Wheatley and Langston Hughes) who lived in several times, however who shared constant theme in the analyzed works. Our intention is to indicate how society has not developed when it concerns the position of negroes: either as voters or persons. Through two selected poems and their analyses, it's supposed to indicate how the tones may change, however the theme remains the same. 1. Introduction Many things may inspire somebody to write down – be it poetry or prose. it has been like this since communication established itself, through generations and throughout time the writings have had a very important role. for some folks writing is also solely how to establish communication, as newspapers and magazines. For some others, it's an inner pleasure to share feelings and concepts, like in journals and theories. However, for others it is an instrument for additional definite purposes, like awareness regarding movements or a personal catharsis – Sylvia Plath’s poetry, for example. Therefore, the power of words helped mankind to change the globe. Bearing in mind this concept that literature may renew and reinforce a belief or an idea, the theme of the analysis...
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...The desire and personal inclination gained by knowing the history from which one comes can provide a sense of being grounded and proud, and most importantly it assists them in knowing who they truly are. It is not a surprise when we read novels with exciting and exhilarating characters that their complex situations lead to confused and unstable lifestyles. Exploring the life of Helga Crane in Nella Larson’s Quicksand and Clare Kendry in Larson’s Passing illustrates the issues the two protagonists face when the tone of their skin became a matter of focus and the results their decisions create. Both novels most likely are Nella Larson’s personal quest in a life of searching for acceptance. As an African American novelist during the Harlem Renaissance, Nella Larsen completed these two novels along with a few short stories. It is apparent that her stories dramatize situations Larsen faced during her actual lifetime. Her father, Peter Walker, was a West Indian man who died when Larsen was a young girl. Her mother, Marie Hanson Walker went on to marry a white man, Peter Larsen, which eventually began some internal racial issues for Nella. Nella struggled finding that sense of comfort and acceptance from her family and peers. Being raised in a lower- middle class white household, she felt like a black child that did not belong. Her newfound white family did not accept her and her black relatives also failed to accept her as they enrolled the young, future novelist into Fisk University...
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...Bibliographic Essay on African American History Introduction In the essay “On the Evolution of Scholarship in Afro- American History” the eminent historian John Hope Franklin declared “Every generation has the opportunity to write its own history, and indeed it is obliged to do so.”1 The social and political revolutions of 1960s have made fulfilling such a responsibility less daunting than ever. Invaluable references, including Darlene Clark Hine, ed. Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia 2nd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004); Evelyn Brooks Higgingbotham, ed., Harvard Guide to African American History (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001); Arvarh E. Strickland and Robert E. Weems, Jr., eds., The African American Experience: An Historiographical and Bibliographical Guide (Westport: Greenwood Press, 2001); and Randall M. Miller and John David Smith, eds., Dictionary of Afro- American Slavery (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1988), provide informative narratives along with expansive bibliographies. General texts covering major historical events with attention to chronology include John Hope Franklin and Alfred A. Moss, Jr., From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans (Boston: McGraw Hill, 2000), considered a classic; along with Joe William Trotter, Jr., The African American 1  Experience (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001); and, Darlene Clark Hine, William C. Hine, and Stanley Harrold, The...
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