Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance was a flowering of African-American social thought and culture based in the African-American community forming in Harlem in New York City (USA). This period, extending from roughly 1920 to 1940, was expressed through every cultural medium—visual art, dance, music, theatre, literature, poetry, history and politics. Instead of using direct political means, African-American artists, writers, and musicians employed culture to work for goals of civil rights and equality. Its lasting legacy is that for the first time (and across racial lines), African-American paintings, writings, and jazz became absorbed into mainstream culture. At the time, it was known as the "New Negro Movement", named after an anthology of notable African-American works entitled The New Negro and published by philosopher Alain Locke in 1925.

Quotations

: "Negro life is seizing upon its first chances for group expression and self-determination."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

::::::: —Alain Locke, in The New Negro (1925)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

: "Harlem is indeed the great Mecca for the sight-seer; the pleasure seeker, the curious, the adventurous, the enterprising, the ambitious and the talented of the whole Negro world."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

::::::: —James Weldon Johnson, in Survey Graphic (1925)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

: "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."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

::::::: —W.E.B. DuBois, in The Souls of Black Folks (1903)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

: What happens to a dream deferred?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

: Does it dry up

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

: like a raisin in the sun?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

: Or fester like a sore—

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

: And then run?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

: Does it stink like rotten meat?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

: Or crust and sugar over—

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

: like a syrupy sweet?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

: Maybe it just sags

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

: like a heavy load.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

: Or does it explode?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

::::::: —Langston Hughes, Montage of a Dream Deferred (published 1951)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

: "The Complex of color...every colored man feels it sooner or later. It gets in the way of his dreams, of his education, of his marriage, of the rearing of his children."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

::::::: —Jessie Redmon Fauset, There is Confusion (1924)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~