What was the Harleem Renaissance?
How was the city life of Harlem portrayed throughout the poems of the Renassiance and how was the past reflected through these poems?
My personal feelings and what I learned about the Harlem Renaissance.
From learning about the Harlem Renaissance I learned that this is my most favorite time period in American History. In such a short time so many talented people evolved from the Renaissance. This was a major turning point in Black America also, it was the point where African Americans got to show their talents with writing, singing, dancing etc. Instead of looking like cotton pickers we were looking like poets and musicians.
The Harlem Renaissance was a period during the 1920's and 30's that had a creativity explosion from African Americans. It started as a literary discussion in lower Manhattan and upper Manhattan, this African-American cultural movement was first called, "The New Negro Movement" and later on it was named the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance was not just a time period it was the way of life. It was in poetry, music, dance etc.
What resulted to the great rise of the Harlem Renaissance was the great migration of blacks to northern cities, such as Harlem, between 1919 to 1926. Sociologist Alain Locke describes the northward migration of blacks as "something like a spiritual emancipation". Harlem was the center of urban black life. If you wanted to do anything you went to Harlem. Write, dance, social change, it was all done in Harlem. The Harlem Renaissance refers to an artistic, cultural, and social burgeoning of writing about race and black lives in American life during the early 1920's and 30's.
The Harlem Renaissance was rooted in Black Americans as an unprecedented sense of pride and power. They felt pride in everything they did. They felt it in their cultural heritage, pride in their appearance, and pride in themselves, which instilled itself in political activism. New York City, in the 1920’s was one of many urban cities to which southern blacks migrated, and its unusual characteristic helped the Harlem Renaissance to bloom. New York was originally a place for cultural and intellectual activities for blacks as well as whites. It was a mecca for publishing, business, and the arts. In New York, southern blacks became familiar with militant blacks from the West Indies, and with disenchanted black veterans of World War I..
According to historian Nathan Huggins, it was a "sense of possibility and power that persuaded many black men and women to come to Harlem in the years around the Great War".
Life in Harlem was not all music and dancing it was very difficult. It was especially difficult for the newly urbanized blacks, but it provided them with a sense of community, of self-reliance, and of potential for social and economic power. Philosopher Alain Locke said, "In Harlem, Negro life is seizing upon its first chances for group expression and self- determination".
From the Harlem Renaissance a lot of themes evolved. One of the most popular themes was poetry. A lot of great poets came alive from the Harlem Renaissance era. Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, James Johnson are some of the few. In the poems that these poets wrote they interpreted the city life, some of the other poems were deeply rooted with their heritage or past.
The poets wrote these poems with all of their feelings and might. They even wrote love poems about Harlem. One poet, James Johnson, portrays the city like he would describe a woman. He takes each characteristic of Harlem as he would take each physical characteristic of a woman and express his great fondness toward the city. He expresses his love and how the city makes him feel. This is a section of the poem that will help to give you the full effect:
"But, ah! Manhattan's sights and sounds, her smells,
Her crowds, her throbbing force, the thrill that comes
From being of her a part, her subtle spells,
Her shinning towers, her avenues, her slums----
Oh God! the strak, unutterable pity,
To be dead, and never again behold my city!"
Harlem was one of the biggest inspirations for writing during the Renaissance period.
The city was not only portrayed as a beautiful woman. It was also portrayed as other things. Some poets could look at Harlem and see total different things besides the plain streets, concrete, and buildings. They could see they beautiful side of the city and see it as a paradise or a tropic place. Claude McKay expresses how she views the city, it is different from Johnson, but still about Harlem. She expresses as if she is in a tropical place with all types of fruits, the beautiful sky, cool winds etc. She writes the poem as if it is a familiar place she wants to revisit. This is a section from her poem, for the whole poem click on the links:
"Set in the window, bringing memories
Of fruit-trees laden by low-singing rills,
And dewy dawns, and mystical blue skies
In benediction over nun-like hills
My eyes grew dim and I could no more gaze;
A wave of longing through my body swept,
And hungry for the old, familiar ways,
I turned aside and bowed my head and wept"
The poems that were written during the Harlem Renaissance also discussed the past and their roots and the heritage. Even though blacks migrated from the south to the north they did not forget where they came from. In certain poems these themes were very evident. Countee Cullen wrote a poem about his heritage, it was called "Heritage". In the poem it did not just illustrate things from the south but it went all the way back to Africa. He talked about the beautiful sun, the strong sexy men, the drums of Africa and much more. In his poem he brings you to Africa on a Safari ride and you understand the greatness of the country. He makes you understand the true significance of his heritage. He is not the only poet that does this. Claude McKay also writes a poem about heritage and she also names it “Heritage”. Hers is not about Africa, but it is her interpretation of the theme heritage. She does not talk about anything specifically but she talks about how the past is vital to today and how the spirit of the past lives through her.
Two writers, both writing poems about the same theme but so different. The only similarity is that it is about heritage. Back then Harlem had that effect on people to see or have the same thought about something but to interpret it into something totally different from the person next to you. If you go to the links you can compare and contrast between the two poems and see how they interpreted heritage into their way.
In 1921 Langston Hughes though, was the first to express his African roots in his poem “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”. So you could say he inspired other poets to express about there past also. In the poem he writes as if he is a river flowing to the past. Reminiscing on the old things that have now brought him to the present.
I've known rivers:
I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the
flow of human blood in human veins.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.
I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.
I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.
I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln
went down to New Orleans, and I've seen its muddy
bosom turn all golden in the sunset.
I've known rivers:
Ancient, dusky rivers.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
From doing my research I learned that The Harlem Renaissance was more than just Langston Hughes. It was like a community that turned to poverty to soon, it ended to quick. The Harlem Renaissance was one of the most exciting eras. Some say it ended because of the Great Depression or because the fad ended. I think that it never truly ended though. Being a young black teen in America it inspires me to show off my talent. It inspires me to keep writing the poems that I write. It inspires me to be the best I can be like my people of the past did. Yes it might have been a short period of time that African Americans got to show their true talent but a least it was shown. It was shown to America that we are talented individuals. No matter what reason it ended for, the impact that it left on America is still living long. It also fascinates me that these black poet took their words and made it into a women or an island or describe their country. Especially sense many years before the Renaissance, during slavery we barely could read or right. I also learned that African Americans are amazing people who can do anything they truly put their mind too, for example Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Conrad Rivers etc. Though my focus was on the poetry part of the Renaissance it was much more than that. It was the way of life.
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