harlem renaissance definition us history

harlem renaissance definition us history

The Definition and Impact of the Harlem Renaissance in US History

1. Introduction to the Harlem Renaissance

In the process of negotiating black cultural identity during the time between World War I and World War II, particular conditions in the United States allowed these changes. These factors are closely connected to the development of Windham’s referring to the southern writer’s and poet’s personal style of culture, as well as to the Emporia Daily Gazette of southern Kansas, and more distinctive African American music forms like jazz and blues. The explanations for the relatedness of these forms lie in the racial segregation, discrimination, and economic hardship that blacks often faced in the labor markets and in the social group within the white community. Such trends were well within the context of African American history, often growing stronger during periods of racism. Nonetheless, even in the era of racial backlash accompanying the beginning of the 20th century, attraction positively existed in various artistic forms, giving life to the Harlem Renaissance.

The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural, social, and artistic movement that took place in Harlem, New York, between the end of World War I and the middle of the 1930s Depression. During the time of the movement, every aspect of African American life was discussed and analyzed, and as a result, new ideas and values were created that led to new art, separated from the stereotypes of previous times. The movement produced a substantial impact both in and outside of Harlem. It greatly influenced the development of African American literature, music, dance, and social thought. Many members of the general population, especially in the southern states, along with creative performances in art, literature, and music, were in awe of the social and cultural changes that came into being.

2. Key Figures and Movements of the Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance was a racially diverse, socially connotative movement among African Americans. Its purpose was to establish a distinct African American identity in cultural terms and the revitalization of traditions; these might be genres, practices, or topics formerly appropriated and somewhat defined or had been neglected by the dominant culture. The Harlem Renaissance was critically seen as an affluent theater generation and the first significant movement among African Americans in the history of the United States. The potential of African culture had been a highly influential touchstone for African thinkers for over 75 years. However, the hyper-political, hyper-racialized ideology of the Harlem Renaissance is, from this critical perspective, a standardized phenomenon, and in many ways, only contingent when other pan-Africanist social movements in the United States and the predominantly mixed diaspora resonated.

Other major figures associated with the movement were Jean Toomer, who wrote Cane (1923), a mixture of prose and poetry focusing on African American culture in the South; Countée Cullen and Langston Hughes, poets who wrote powerful and politically charged poetry in the 1920s; and the writer, folklorist, and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston, who created fiction and ethnographic text celebrating African American culture. The Harlem Renaissance comprised many different movements and artists, and its legacy in various fields is still felt in American culture.

3. Impact on American Society and Culture

The African-American cultural movement was one of the most important cultural movements in the U.S. At that moment, African American writers, poets, and artists had been living abroad to escape the racism of 1920s America. Many of the writers living abroad were influenced by the same experience. During the 1920s and 1930s, as the U.S. held cultural celebrations of African-American music, literature, and art, the cultural movement reached its zenith in 1935. The first movement of creative growth, an extension of the so-called Negro Renaissance or Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, was known as the “expressionist movement.”

Harlem became one of the largest African-American communities in the United States, and during the Harlem Renaissance, it became a center for art and literature. The influence of the Harlem Renaissance quickly spread to other cities, such as Chicago. During this period, African American poets, novelists, essayists, and playwrights produced great works, whereas artists and musicians broke new ground. Artists, painters of the period like Aaron Douglas, saw themselves as visual griots, using symbols and themes familiar in African art. They often addressed issues relating to African and Caribbean folklore and the ascent of African Americans north of the Mason-Dixon Line, but they often brought these themes together in a single painting.

4. Legacy and Continued Influence

As the political stance and periodization that helps this move into stated importance, so follows the stature of editor and critic of the work by Negroes in all of the cultural production. Alain Locke, through his literary publication and party planner, became the almost singular dilettante to the crown of lead African American philosopher. Locke, with a passion, truly believed that true work was being done in a variety of fields and that the public needed to know of their progression. Newspapers, fiction, poetry, crafts, plays, dance, music, art, and sculpture all found their place in his volumes of work selected. Without Locke’s careful and censorious touch, the Renaissance might never have made sense. Indeed, the consideration and reconsideration of the New Negro Tale have been an early and ongoing filiation for the study of American culture. Certainly, many historical acts are considered and reconsidered. However, I do not believe it such that an entire new group of practitioners stacking itself one inside the other was giving space and place in Locke’s Re/Ne/naissance. This American conspiracy is important for what was said as well as for what was done because of what Classics teachers from Alain Locke should also be sage interpreters of. His charges should not be forgotten or felt to be accusatory incentives of any particularistic timely political dogma.

Legacies of the Harlem Renaissance abound in the current study and production of African American art and literature. The idea of an African American Renaissance in the 1920s and 1930s was practically surreal but very much a political act that sought to canonize this particular era in US history. Time has proven the rightness of this particular act. The quality and quantity of work during this time provides sufficient substance that can be analyzed and used for information about numerous decades before and after. New Negro thought has a relationship to what was to come and not just a relationship to what had been. This period helped carve out the psyche of the African American individual as they moved into the 21st century.