The Harlem Renaissance Poem Analysis

Harlem Renaissance is a historic movement that happened in the early 20th century in Harlem, New York. It was a movement that seen a change culturally, socially and artistically between races. The author Powell put forth arguments about the relationship of culture and race in America. The author discusses the “visual” of the black artistic frame. It was used to promote African American achievements in performing arts that broke racial and nationwide boundaries.

African American Review, vol. 52, no. 2, 2019, pp. 121–42. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/26795186 Accessed 12 Apr. 2023. • “News and Views: The New Modernists; African American Writers of the Harlem Renaissance.” The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, no. 28, 2000, pp. 27.

The Harlem Renaissance was a period of great cultural growth in the black community. It is accepted that it started in 1918 and lasted throughout the 1930s. Though named the ‘Harlem’ Renaissance, it was a country-wide phenomenon of pride and development among black Americans, the likes of which had never existed in such grand scale. Among the varying political actions and movements for equality, a surge of new art appeared: musical, visual, and even theatre. With said surge, many of the most well-known black authors, poets, musicians and actors rose to prevalence including Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Louis Armstrong, and Eulalie Spence.

The Harlem Renaissance was the peak of creativity for African Americans in art, music, and literature. African Americans were discovering self-love and how amazing the Negro actually was. The “New Negro” refused the commonly perceived slave image that many blacks were still viewed as. In Zora Neale Hurston’s essay, "How It Feels to Be Colored Me." , she also explains her life and what is was like to be her in the time during the Harlem Renaissance.

The acclaimed ‘father of the Harlem Renaissance’ philosopher Alain Leroy Locke wrote on a lot of different topics, but one of the topics he wrote on was the Harlem Renaissance, which spoke on Harlem culture and its the potential. “Locke has made a world of difference, including the change to a more self-assured and politically assertive comprehension of identity and racial pride led to the creation of the ‘New Negro’ concept conceived by Locke”. When speaking of the ‘New Negro’, Locke was talking about a resuming intellectual curiosity in the study of the of black culture and history among the African-American population. In other words, Locke wanted people to spend more time connecting to their roots and focusing on both black culture and history; which required an honest representation of the black experience and the adoption of serious portrayal of black American life in art was an important step to take in the development of the ideals of the Harlem Renaissance. “ In Locke's’ mind the black artist’s goal was to “repair a damaged group psychology and reshape a warper social perspective”.

The Harlem Renaissance was a period in American history, which occurred in the 1920s in Harlem, New York. The cultural movement was an opportunity for African Americans to celebrate their heritage through intellectual and artistic works. Langston Hughes, a famous poet, was a product of the Harlem Renaissance. One notable piece of literature by Hughes is “Dream Deferred”. However, the discussion of African American culture isn’t limited to the 1920s.

The shame wasn’t a cause for them to turn away from the love for their culture, it just made the proud of their deep black beautiful roots. The black artists of the Harlem Renaissance put a visual scene to the joy, pain, laughter, tears, and the ugly truth within this endearing culture. The literature of the Harlem Renaissance gave an intellectual opinion in American during in the turn of the 20th century. Writers of the Harlem Renaissance have had a profound impact on the American society today.

In conclusion what had made The Harlem Renaissance a renaissance was from the continuous hard work that many black artist have put in during this time. It had caused a culture bloom for blacks and whites alike. The Harlem Renaissance pushed for equality amongst the black community and have even come to influence modern day song and style. The people writing in this essay are only a very small handful from the people who had helped push for such a cultural

The Harlem Renaissance was a black literary and art movement that began in Harlem, New York. Migrants from the South came to Harlem with new ideas and a new type of music called Jazz. Harlem welcomed many African Americans who were talented. Writers in the Harlem Renaissance had separated themselves from the isolated white writers which made up the “lost generation” The formation of a new African American cultural identity is what made the Harlem Renaissance and the Lost Generation unique in American culture because it influenced white literacy and it was a sense of freedom for African Americans.

It was a period of expression in which they took pride in their culture, this sense of group identity formed a basis for later progress for blacks in the United States. The Harlem Renaissance took down previous racial stereotypes, as well as exemplified that African Americans had much to offer and contributed greatly to the creation of American culture. B) James Weldon Johnson’s excerpt argued that African Americans during the Harlem Renaissance were establishing themselves as active and important forces in society whom were also accomplishing great artistic achievements. Langston Hughes, a leading African American poet of the Harlem Renaissance, wrote literature about the pain and pride

The representatives of Harlem Renaissance believed in democratic reforms, they thought that art and literature were means of changes and impact on white people. They believed in themselves and assisted to political organizations of that time – “National Association for the Advancement of Colored

The Harlem Renaissance was a movement that reflected the culture of African Americans in an artistic way during the 1920’s and the 30’s. Many African Americans who participated in this movement showed a different side of the “Negro Life,” and rejected the stereotypes that were forced on themselves. The Harlem Renaissance was full of artists, musicians, and writers who wrote about their thoughts, especially on discrimination towards blacks, such as Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, and Langston Hughes. The Harlem Renaissance was an influential and exciting movement, and influenced others to fight for what they want and believed in. The Harlem Renaissance was the start of the Civil Rights Movement.

The Harlem Renaissance was a “outpouring of writing, music, and social criticism” (Baker, 1987) aimed at destroying the ever-present racism of the 1920s. Langston Hughes, an artist of the Harlem Renaissance, was a big contributor to change, inspiring those of his own time and later on to stand up for African American rights. Penning the 1926 manifesto The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain, Hughes encapsulated the thoughts of Harlem, and urged African Americans to be proud of their own culture, “without fear or shame” (Hughes in Bernard, 2011).

In the early 1900s, particularly in the 1920s, African-American literature, art, music, dance, and social commentary began to flourish in Harlem, a section of New York City. The Harlem Renaissance exalted the unique culture of African-Americans and redefined their expression (Young). The area soon became a sophisticated literary and artistic center; however, issues such as the relationship between the Renaissance and mainstream American culture were exceedingly apparent. The process of how the white people influenced the Harlem Renaissance have not been explored to the same degree. Many of the struggles present in the Harlem Renaissance occurred because it was a time of great change and marked a convergence of vastly different ideologies (Hutchinson).

In this novel the reader can see the inner turmoil within literature and its characters. There is a major shift present from supernatural and religious happiness, into individual driven happiness. Due to this newly valued individual independence, social boundaries in race and gender started to appear, thus causing the transition into the Harlem Renaissance, a movement that celebrated African American culture through artwork, literature, and music. Throughout this era elements of new identity, political challenging, and gender and racial improvements were all addressed and examined in the associated literature. The poem Legal Alien is a good example of the ideals encompassed in the era.