Harlem Renaissance

The trials and tribulations of the Harlem Renaissance The Harlem Renaissance, also referred to as The New Negro, was a period of newfound artistic and social freedom for African Americans beginning in the early sass and ending in the early sass. The renaissance served to create a consciousness of identity for African Americans, while also forcing white Americans to confront the importance of the ethnics. The creation of the New Negro in Harlem represented the liberation of the last vestiges of slavery. In the years to follow afterWorld War 1, Harem's population was almost entirely black. The Harlem Renaissance period marked the beginning of a vital part of African American history in the United States. Harlem Renaissance, the cultural explosion of Jazz, dance, film, poetry and art that swept this country, Western Europe and the Caribbean 75 years ago, is getting its first major retrospective in this country. â€Å"It explores the Harlem Renaissance not as a phenomenon confined to a few square miles of Manhattan, but as an historical moment of global significance,† says the foreword to the catalogue.During the early 20th century, three quarters of a million African Americans escaped the economic deprivation of the south and migrated northward to urban cities in a desperate attempt to find good Jobs and economic security, while also hoping to find a more racially tolerant society. 175,000 African Americans settled in New York City. The Harlem Renaissance opened doors for African Americans after the great migration, and paved the way for many opportunities. Youths) During this era African Americans for the first time had a real reason to experience pride and rejoice in their ewe found identity. Much of the literature, art, and music emerging during the first half of the 20th century came from African Americans, even though people of all races and cultures were involved. On the May, 1925 editorial page of The Crisis, W. E. B. Dubos hailed an unprecedented bl ossoming of black literature in America and pledged the services of his office to its perpetuation. We shall stress Beauty,† he wrote; â€Å"all beauty, but especially the beauty of Negro life and character; its music, its dancing, its drawing and painting, and the new birth of its literature. † To me this earns he wants his readers to look at how different cultures represent their way of life. Longboats Hughes was one of the major black writers to emerge from this era. Hughes was a great writer with much diversity in his writings, such as, plays novels, poems, essays, and much more. Harlem was like a great magnet for the Negro intellectual,† wrote Longboats Hughes, â€Å"pulling him from everywhere. † Meaning blacks were coming from many parts of the country (34). â€Å"If white people are pleased we are glad, if they are not, it doesn't matter† (34) In his opinion if white people didn't except the blacks it didn't matter because they were experienc ing some new found freedom. James Weldon Johnson was an iconic figure in the initiation of the Harlem Renaissance both as a writer and editor.The recent appearance of â€Å"the Negro author† on the list of the best publishers and the best sellers must seem â€Å"a novelty, a strange phenomenon, and a miracle straight out of the skies. † Something you wouldn't think possible or a rare occasion, or unexpected Monsoons 315). â€Å"To the general American public,† James Weldon Johnson claimed in his 1928 essay. Double audience makes road hard for Negro Authors. † When the audience is of mixed races, it could be more difficult to impress the white population. 315) Johnson had one main purpose in writing the Black Manhattan, to show where the new nation and modernism originated from. Henry Louis Gates Jar. , says that â€Å"it is difficult not to recognize the signs that African Americans are in the midst of a cultural renaissance. † Blacks were strugglin g to be acknowledged by whites and hoping to be able to express their beliefs in all aspects. (807) Gates notes that the new Negro Ritter held Harlem up as a wondrous cultural center, even as it was turning into the great American slum. An area of a city in which the housing is typically in very bad conditions, has lower standards, and usually over populated. (807) A major luminary of the Harlem Renaissance was Zorn Neal Hurst, a grand dame of the so called incinerating, a group of black writers who rejected the notion of the racial struggle as the sole mission of the black elite. OBOE Foundation 52) Carl Van Bechtel was a famous writer during the Harlem Renaissance. He was known to have frequent, lavish arties that were almost always interracial. 462) Van Vestments friends describe his parties as white celebrities mingling drunkenly with black writers and artists; on several occasions black entertainers like Paul Robertson, and Taylor Gordon provided musical accompaniment. (462) Va n Beechen became, in Nathan Huggins phrase, a â€Å"downtown authority on uptown nightlife. † He was well known and respected in the downtown community (462). When Carl Van Beechen wrote Niger Heaven, the title was considered to be a terrible insult and caused quite a stir, furthermore after its publication the black community participated in vigorous protests. 461) Niger Heaven is a book â€Å"springing from emotions other than patronizing sympathy,† according to Johnson, who goes so far as to â€Å"wish a Negro had written it. † Maybe in his opinion the title was racial and condescending to blacks. (463) Rolling Lynda Hart , a writer for The Independent wrote, â€Å"when we get possession of Africa,† a Negro said to me in Harlem the other day, â€Å"we are going to build a civilization so splendid that white women will blacken their faces and frizz their hair. † In TheIndependent, a 20th century magazine wrote an article on Harlem. The magazine e xplains that Negroes had opened several kinds of businesses. The creative minds behind the Harlem Renaissance used artistic expression to make a significant impact on all aspects of society, while also endowing African American with the first sense of identity not defined by slavery. (121) Although generally considered an African American literacy movement, the Harlem Renaissance extended beyond books and poetry to embrace art, dance, and music. A spirit of regeneration among blackAmericans, especially those living in northern cities, was evidenced in a variety of ways in the early 20th century. The Harlem Renaissance produced novelists, poets, artists, and musicians who are today considered some of the finest that America ever produced, regardless of race. That, in fact, may be the ultimate achievement of the Harlem Renaissance. Prior to this era, the representations of African Americans in American literature were that of the illiterate and inferior peasant who made his living in the soil of the cotton fields. Although the emergence of the Harlem Harlem Renaissance As a result of the movement, African Americans were able to move on to rater heights in the realm of art, experience some sense of interracial relations which they had not before and they were able to build from this arts driven movement into a full-fledged Civil Rights movement. â€Å"The major political theme of the Harlem Renaissance was the rebirth of a people, the creation of the New Negro. â€Å"[3] This use of art forms as a meaner to express, uplift and motivate still plays a major role in today's African American society.While literature has taken a back seat to hip hop and African American produced films, these art forms continue to give voice to African Americans who would otherwise be left silent. The fight for African American equality in the United States has been a slow and arduous process. One of the key steps in the progression towards equality was the Harlem Renaissance, a time of great social and creative activity among African Americans during the sass's and The Harlem Renaissance, also referred to as the Black Arts movement made significant contributions to the movement of art and literature at the time.Thus, the presence and purpose of the works were felt outside of the black community. â€Å"There is general agreement†¦ That the Harlem Renaissance is crucial to the understanding of all 20th-century American art and culture. [5] The writers, musicians and artists during this time saw their art form as a meaner of expression; an opportunity to speak out against the mistreatment and discrimination they faced. The Great Migration had recently taken place in which African Americans from the South moved up North in droves to escape Jim Crow racism, search for better employment opportunities and a new beginning.Unfortunately, when many African American arrived in the North, they were faced with many of the same racial discriminations they had faced in the South. â€Å"Social attitudes of the early 20th century forced these black folks t o settle in segregated urban housing. So, they created bustling black metropolises cities within cities. â€Å"[6] â€Å"The addition of thousands of southern blacks to these once miniscule communities was immediately accompanied by intensified levels of prejudice and discrimination against blacks, as both newcomers and long-time residents were quickly perceived by northern whites as serious competitors for Jobs and housing. [7] With the migration to a new place and the realization that there were still barriers resulting from discrimination, artistic creativity became a meaner for expression, growth and entertainment. This caused a erred of remarkable artistic and intellectual activity in New York City's African American community, leading to the Harlem Renaissance. â€Å"[8] Some argue that the Harlem Renaissance was pointless and had no immediate effects on society in terms of the betterment of African Americans. However, there was a significant change in the way African Ameri cans viewed themselves.There was a surge of pride that permeated the African American community as a result of the art that was present at that time. â€Å"†¦ The Harlem Renaissance benefited future African Americans by helping to establish black pride. Renaissance writers such as W. E. B Du Bois influenced future artists like author James Baldwin and activists like Martin Luther King, Jar. These individuals and others like them would help initiate broader social change in the sass's and However, the establishment of Black Pride did not improve the living conditions of many African Americans.This was the concern of a lot of critics and historians, as they â€Å"worry that the emphasis on a celebration of black cultural achievements overlooks the difficult living conditions of most African Americans in urban Embracing the artistic expression of the time individuals like â€Å"†¦ W. E. B. Du Bois, James Weldon Johnson, and Arthur Schoenberg, began to reflect on how cultur al activity might aid the African American community in its struggle to better its situation.In the pages of The Crisis, the magazine of the NAACP, Du Bois and novelist Jessie Faucet encouraged conversation about how creativity in the arts might contribute to a better understanding of and respect for the African American experience. â€Å"[11] The unchanged living conditions of African Americans in northern cities, some decades later, ultimately gave birth to the Hip-Hop movement. â€Å"Before the sass, there were only a handful of books by African-American tutors. At that time, most black characters in literature were written by white people.There was little authentic, or true, discussion of what it meant to be black in America. â€Å"[12] This was so even when white writers interviewed many of the emancipated slaves. Instead of telling their stories in the way it was told, many of the writers saw it as an opportunity to make light of the way they pronounced and enunciated words , which helped most readers easily miss the point of the interviews. However, â€Å"In this cultural moment black writers experienced and expressed a sense f self-worth and self-empowerment that underside all subsequent declarations of black political and aesthetic pride. [13] Longboats Hughes was â€Å"†¦ One of the leading and most famous writers and thinkers of the Harlem Renaissance†¦ Known for using Jazz rhythms in his poetry and for his colorful, insightful portrayals of the lives of ordinary African-Americans. â€Å"[14] Hughes made an interesting point in his essay The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain, published in 1926 in a magazine called The Nation, which gives readers insight on the mindset of the majority of Harlem Renaissance artist. He declared, â€Å"We younger Negro artists who create now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame.If white people are pleased we are glad. If they are not, it doesn't matter. We know we are beautiful. And ugly, too. The tom-tom laughs. If colored people are pleased we are glad. If they are not, their displeasure does not matter either. We build our temples for tomorrow, strong as we know how, and we stand on top of the mountain free within 5] Hughes endorsed the idea that the arts could have a positive role to play in the betterment of the black community. He insisted, however, that the work produced must embrace the whole African American and not merely mimic white standards, styles, and expectations.Much like during the Harlem Renaissance era, disenchantment with society is still expressed through movies, music, art and literature. This statement is even more relevant when we consider the Hip Hop culture of today that also expresses its disenchantment with society by using music, movies, art, literature, dress and dance. â€Å"Hip hop has rejected and now replaced the pious, sanctimonious nature of civil rights as the defining moment of Blackness. In turn, it o ffers new ways of seeing and understanding what it meaner to be Black at this pivotal time in history. 16] Although appreciative of the progress made by the Civil Rights Movement, the early Hip Hop artist viewed the obtaining of civil rights as nothing more than a bone that was pitched to blacks to keep them quiet. These artists were voicing their frustration with what they perceived to be the unfair treatment of their people. The frustrations of the early hip-hop artists can be heard in the lyrical poetry of their songs. For instance, Grandmaster Flash wrote a song called The Message, and the first verse says, â€Å"Broken glass everywhere People pissing on the stairs, you know they Just don't careI can't take the smell, I can't take the noise Got no money to move out, I guess I got no choice Rats in the front room, roaches in the back Junkies in the alley with the baseball bat I tried to get away, but I couldn't get far Cause a man with a tow-truck repossessed my Another example of a rap artist speaking out on the condition of blacks and encouraging them was the song â€Å"Keep Yah Head Up† by Outpace who said, â€Å"Ahoy, I remember Marvin Gay, used to sing TA me He had me feeling like black was that thing to be And suddenly that ghetto didn't seem so tough And though we had it rough, we always had enough..While the rich kids is driving Benz I'm still trying to hold on to my surviving friends And it's crazy, it seems it'll never let up, but please†¦ You got to keep your head up. â€Å"[18] Like the artist of the Harlem Renaissance era, the early Hip Hop artist wanted to shine a spot light on what was going on within a black community that the majority did not seem to care about. â€Å"Hip hop redefined the presence and vitality of black youth culture in the popular cultural landscape.More important, it forged new territories and spaces for African Americans to assert greater control over the shaping and reshaping of the popular culture scene . [19] In his poem â€Å"New Song† Hughes says, â€Å"l speak in the name of the black millions Awakening to action. Let all others keep silent a moment I have this word to bring, This thing to say, This song to sing: Bitter was the day When I bowed my back Beneath the slaver's whip. That day is past. When I saw my children unschooled, My young men without a voice in the world, My women taken as the body-toys Of a thieving people.That day is past. † Here we see a setting quite similar to that of the aforementioned Grandmaster Flash song. Hughes describes the past condition of African Americans. He described what e saw and goes even further as to say, no more. He makes a stance against the condition of black people and while doing so encourages a change in action and attitude. In an attempt to redefine their own culture, the Harlem Renaissance also reshaped literature and the art forms represented during the movement. Jazz is a great example of this, â€Å"†¦ New type of music called Jazz, which quickly became popular throughout the world and is recognized as the first distinctly American musical form. â€Å"[20] For the first time, African American voices were being heard throughout the nation and the world as a result of the literature that was being reduced during this time. Jean Toner's Cane was one of the first African American novels to receive mainstream recognition and acceptance from white audiences and led to the publishing of other African American novels. Hip hop has also had a worldwide effect on not only music, but culture as a whole.In telling the stories of their communities, African Americans have caught the attention of other audiences with this musical form Just as they did with Jazz and literature during the Harlem Renaissance. â€Å"As an art form, Hip Hop has reached out beyond its urban roots to gain a growing acceptance among diverse audiences. [21] There are Hip Hop a-Boy crews in, Japan, France South Korea, and th e Brainwashing, Germany. Halifax Summer, a lecturer in African American Studies at US Berkeley, was quoted saying â€Å"Hip-hop has become a global culture.It began in black and Latino American communities, but you can't go to any youth culture in any capital city on the globe today where you won't find rappers talking about their normalization using similar lyrics, similar music and similar dress. â€Å"[22] Hip hop is used for the same meaner in other countries. Thousands of organizers from Cape Town to Paris use hip-hop in their communities o address environmental Justice, policing and prisons, media Justice, and education. In Guttenberg, Sweden, nongovernmental organizations (nags) incorporate graffiti and dance to engage disaffected immigrant and working-class youths. [23] Any movement is going to have its critics. Harlem intellectuals criticized the movement but it remained popular with the working class and those that understood the meaning behind the messages. Longboats Hu ghes was criticized greatly as many professed that he focused on furthering an unfavorable image of African Americans and perpetrating stereotypes of the black race. To that criticism Hughes said, â€Å"l felt the masses of our people had as much in their lives to put into books as did those more fortunate ones who had been born with some meaner and the ability to work up to a master's degree at a Northern college.I knew only the people I had grown up with, and they weren't people whose shoes were always shined, who had been to Harvard, or who had heard of Bach. But they seemed to me good people, too. â€Å"[24] Rap music or hip hop music if you will, receives much criticism for its sometimes materialistic and sexist messages. â€Å"But rap music is only a part of the movement, and f you look beyond stereotypes, it's clear that hip-hop culture has become one of the most far-reaching arts movements of the past three decades. [25] In the last few years hip hop has been one of the h ighest grossing music forms in the world and though the elitist shove its significance, much like they did writers like Hughes during the Renaissance movement, hip hop music has transformed into a culture beyond the music playing on the radio. â€Å"Hip-hop matters, quite simply, because it is the voice of the streets. And that remains true today, regardless of whether it's the poor youth in the suburbs of Paris or indigenous people fighting for heir dignity in Colombia.Hip-hop has connected with the powerless in a way that no one could have predicted or, now, can control. â€Å"[26] Hip hop is a style of dress, a style of dancing and walking, a form of music and even language. â€Å"Although â€Å"hip-hop† is generally used as a referent to urban music that replaces singing with poetical prose, it has emerged as a framework of understanding youth culture between 1979 and 2010. The common activities of hip-hop include Digging, Rapping, Dancing, and Graffiti art. Those cult ural activities have opened the doors for political thinking and cultural behaviors that can be considered ‘hip-hop'. 27] And though hip hop started as a form of music used by African Americans as a meaner of expression, it is no longer defined by race or made up of only African Americans. In fact Just a few years ago Black Entertainment Television named Mine, a Caucasian rapper, as the number one rap artist for that year. This simply shows the grave impact that hip hop has had on culture. The same way white America was drawn into the music, literature and art of the Renaissance movement, Just about all cultures have embraced hip hop, its music and culture. The cosmopolitan nature of hip-hop includes people from backgrounds there than Black American and makes it clear that in hip-hop, one's kin are not Just those related by blood, but those related by experience. This is particularly the case if the shared experience is of oppression at the hands of the same institutions and t he same political and social economies that exclude a particular set of people from fully participating in the activities within a particular social Race alone does not bring people together in a movement, experiences and even trends do. †¦ It's not just working-class whites, but also affluent, suburban kids who identify with this USIA with African-American roots. A white 16-year-old hollering rap lyrics at the top of his lungs from the driver's seat of his dad's late-model Lexus may not have the same rationale to howl at the moon as a working-class kid whose parent's can't pay for college, yet his own anguish is as real to him as it gets. What attracts white kids to this music is the same thing that prompted outraged congressmen to decry Jazz during the sass†¦ Fife on the other side of the tracks; its â€Å"cool† or illicit factor, which black Americans, like it or not, are always perceived to possess. â€Å"[29] Africa Bumboat is credited with having started or f ounded hip hop by some and even he saw that it could evoke into a movement. Having visited Africa he began to take on the idea of fighting with love not war and in doing so wanted to bring forth a meaner of social change. â€Å"Bumboat had this vision of hip-hop as a force for social change.He had the history and street credibility to make this narrative acceptable to even the hardest of hard-heads He was the guy who articulated that hip-hop could be a cultural movement. † [30] From its inception, hip hop was positioned to be more than Just music. Similarly, with the Great Migration that had Just transpired and the seeking of employment and a break from the chains of Jim Crow, a movement of sorts was definitely on the horizon. While Hip Hop may have started on a small street corner in Bronx, New York, the impact of those humble beginnings were eventually felt globally.For instance, at a local mall one might observe hip hop dress; a Hip Hop culture that has impacted not only t he ghetto street kid in the hood, but also the kids living in suburban and rural areas alike. At a car dealership, one might see that the cars on the showroom floor re outfitted with 20+ inch rims, a major part of Hip Hop culture. Like it or not, Hip Hop is here to stay. However, had it not been for movements like the Harlem Renaissance, other movements like: the Civil Right Movement, Black Pride Movement, and today's Hip Hop Movement would have never existed.For the movement taught blacks, and those that experience oppression of any sorts, to believe in themselves, and to see themselves not as inferior, but equal to. It is often under the subjection of great stress that movements are born. Those that traveled North during the Great Migration had every opportunity to fold and give p, but they didn't. Instead they decided to use whatever talents and gifts they had to create movements like the Harlem Renaissance, which defied the odds and finally gave black people a voice in a sea of white voices.It provided an avenue for African Americans to pick themselves up notwithstanding the discrimination they had to face on a daily basis from those in society. As a result of the Harlem Renaissance, African Americans were able to move on to greater heights in the realm of art, ultimately giving birth to today's Hip Hop culture. Bibliography â€Å"A Walk Through Harlem. † Scholastic Scope (February 2010). Bailey, Cat. Noises of the Harlem Renaissance. † Scholastic Scope 51 no (February 2003): 14. Barron, Desman. 1995. â€Å"Longboats Hughes: ‘The negro artists and the racial mountains. ‘. † World & 1 10, no. : 410. Boyd, Robert L. â€Å"The Northern ‘Black Metropolis' of the Early Twentieth Century: A Reappraisal. † Sociological Inquiry 81, no. 1 (February 2011): 88-109. Brown, Bryan. â€Å"Hip-hop as a resource for understanding the urban context. † Cultural Studies Of Science Education 5, no. 2 None 2010): 521-524. Education Research Complete, Obscenest (accessed September 24, 2012). Change, Jeff. â€Å"IT'S A Hip-Hop World. Foreign Policy no. 163 (November 2007): 58. Masterful Premier, Obscenest (accessed September 24, 2012). Ending, C. (2010). Science education for the hip-hop generation. Harlem Renaissance And what exactly was this â€Å"thing† called the Harlem Renaissance? Those are some of the questions that I am precisely going to answer here†¦ World War I started the Harlem Renaissance in the year 1916 and continued throughout the sass's. This movement known as the Harlem Renaissance could also be called â€Å"The Great Migration† since millions of African Americans who were tired and extremely fed up with all the racism against them, settled in New York, specifically in the neighbor of Harlem.Soon, after all these African Americans grated, Harlem was filled with life, as in creativity; the air was filled with it. Harlem was the place to be for any African American who wanted to get out of the life of discrimination they had, and have a new life filled with freedom of expression. Training in the arts was provided in Harlem; for instance being trained artistically, musically and also being trained to express their literary talents as well. All of these components gave birth to what is known as the Harlem Renaissance.In addition, the Harlem Renaissance wasn't only a rebellious movement against the whites at the mime, it was also a literary movement, a literary movement that kicked off in a dinner on March 21, 1924. Various types of writers, either white or black united in this historical dinner. Organizations such as the National Urban League and the Advancement of Colored People were responsible for publishing Journals of what it was like being â€Å"black in a white dominated world† – (McDougal Little Literature, Grade 11, pig. 830); these Journals were written by Counter Culled, Zorn Neal Hurst and Longboats Hughes.These writers also expressed what it was like being called the â€Å"new negro†, well educated African Americans with strong racial pride. As a matter of fact, strings were pulled so that the anthology of â€Å"The New Negro† could be published in 1925. Another writer like Jean Toomey was more driven in exploring his own identity rather than African American themselves. Even though these writers had different points of views towards the Harlem Renaissance they all shared the same honor and pride for who they were, the New Negroes ? well educated African Americans with throng racial pride.Regardless of all the progress the members of the Harlem Renaissance had gained, it all came to an end when the economy dropped because of the Great Depression. Due to the pitiful economy, the writers of this time had to go elsewhere to find other Jobs that would be able to sustain their families. Even though this happened and the Harlem Renaissance came to an end, this was Just the beginning for African American writers everywhere. In conclusion, the Harlem Renaissance was not only a historical movement that World War I began and theGreat Depression ended. It wasn't Just a way for artist and writers to rebel against the whites. It was more than that. It was a way a way of individual expression , and finally being able to have honor and pride of where they came from and who they were. Although the Harlem Renaissance only lasted a little more than 20 years, it was an end to that particular movement but the beginning of African American writers standing up for their culture and heritage trough music, art and writing all around the world. Harlem renaissance American artists moved to Paris or spent considerable time there rather than endure the racism and segregation in America. In Paris they could be free to eat in any restaurant they chose, and were treated well. After fleeing segregation in America where African Americans couldn't stay in the same hotels or eat in the same restaurants as whites, Josephine felt well at home in this vibrant city. World War II Hero During World War II, Josephine served with the French Red Cross and was an active ember of the French resistance movement.The French Resistance was a group of individuals who helped to win the war against the German Nazis enemy with undercover work. Using her career as a cover Baker became an intelligence agent, carrying secret messages written in invisible ink on her sheet music. She was awarded honor of the Choir De Gruyere, and received a Medal of the Resistance in 1946. In 1961 she received the highest French honor, the Legion denouncer from French president Charles degaus sed.A Force in the Civil Rights Movement When Josephine later returned to America to perform, she always insisted that the theaters not be segregated. At that time, African-Americans were told that they could only sit in certain sections of the theatre, away from whites. They also had to sit in the back seats of public transportation, could not eat in the same restaurants, or frequent the same stores and other public venues. In the sass, Baker traveled around the United States giving speeches in support of the civil rights movement, which was campaigning for equal rights for African Americans.After World War II, Josephine began to adopt children from all over the world, calling them her â€Å"Rainbow Tribe. † She saw her Rainbow Tribe as evidence that people of all colors and races could live together in peace and harmony. She adopted 12 children in all. Josephine and the Rainbow Tribe lived in a large castle in southwestern France. Josephine Baker made several movies, numero us recordings, and performed on stage until she was in her late ass. Harlem Renaissance The Effects of the Harlem Renaissance The Harlem Renaissance continues to be the most momentous artistic movement in American history. The renaissance helped to form an awareness of characteristics for African-Americans. The Harlem Renaissance is best recalled today as an outburst of creativity overflowing from talented African-Americans in the sass.The creative minds behind the Harlem Renaissance used artistic expressions to make an important effect on all features of society, while also providing African-American with heir first sense of while not being to slavery. Lain Locke said it best, â€Å"In the very process of being transplanted, the Negro is becoming transformed (Locke 6). In the early 20th century, African-Americans escaped the economic deficiency of the South and migrated northern and urban cities, mostly New York, in an anxious attempt to find good Jobs and economic safety and also searching for a more racially open- minded society.This collective desire to help each o ther was an element in changing the movement into one that embraced all the fine arts; it was also essential in evolving the Harlem Renaissance into a search for a new identity for a deprived ethnic group that is constantly being reminded of slavery. The Harlem Renaissance rapidly became Just as important for the way in which is gave African-Americans a real culture and a pride in acknowledging and embracing that culture.The intellectuals contributed to the significance of the Harlem Renaissance by understanding and contributing to its purpose in defining positive role models for blacks. In fact, the movement essentially created the idea of the black intellectual for both Americans and Europeans. Some of the artists' contributions are actually still valuable today Just as they were back then. James Weldon Johnson is an iconic symbol in the beginning of the Harlem Renaissance as a writer and also an editor.He had written the controversial Autobiography of an Ex-colored Man in and had also edited The Book of American Negro Poetry. This collection showcased several of the Renaissances most talented poets, including a man who would go on to become a giant in the literary world, Longboats Hughes. Hughes was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist. He was one of the most primitive innovators of the then-new literary art form called Jazz poetry. He is highly recognized in the Harlem Renaissance period.He famously wrote about the period that â€Å"the negro was in vogue† which was later paraphrased as â€Å"when Harlem was in vogue†. Zorn Neal Hurst published a literary magazine that crumpled almost immediately because of problems raising money, but was influential, however. Hurst later on accomplished immortality with her book Their Eyes were Watching God. Literature was not the only art that defined the Harlem Renaissance. In fact, the music of the period may have been more influential in defining the identity of the comm on African-American than the literary accomplishments.The music turn into a background music for the age, while also providing motivation to the literary adventures of poets and dramatists. Jazz exploded into the arena of respectability and characterized for many whites the embodiment of the urban lifestyle. The leading Jazz performers were Bessie Smith, Duke Elongating, Charlie Parker and Billie Holiday. Harlem Renaissance can be seen as a challenge to fuse imaginative meaner o produce an identity of artistic expression.The most long-lasting effect of the Harlem Renaissance may have been the one that is endorsed upon the education of African-Americans. The vital importance of education, but it was also one which saw a huge growth in the importance and availability of high education. Since the realities of the racial division in America was at work either subliminally or obviously in closely every work of literature produced during this period, the Harlem Renaissance is acknowledged for constructing an aggressiveness borne by that search of knowledge.Any time an ethnic group is exposed to education at a level they've been denied, it can be expected that certain people will recognize the political feature of the denial of that education. There was a beginning mindfulness among African Americans across America that promises made had not been kept from reconstruction through World War l. Many of the intellectuals of the movement insisted that discrimination of this type should be confronted and overcome. During the Harlem Renaissance, African-Americans for the first time had a real reason to experience pride and rejoice in their identity.Harlem became the center of a â€Å"spiritual coming of age† in which Lockers â€Å"New Negro' transformed â€Å"social disillusionment to race pride† (Fonder, 2009). Out of Harlem came works of literary, musical and fine arts that spoke to the contribution of African-Americans, and forced the white power arrangeme nt to recognize their contributions. The Harlem Renaissance produced novelists, poets, artists and musicians who are today considered some of the finest that America ever produced, who were mostly blacks. That is the ultimate achievement of the Harlem Renaissance. The HarlemRenaissance should be acknowledged for its contribution to changing the self- perception of blacks in America; a rise in self-esteem that would in the long run transform into the Civil Rights Movement and also changed the identity of America. Works Cited Fonder, Eric. â€Å"Harlem Renaissance†. The Harlem Renaissance. (2009). Web. 24 Feb.. 2014. Huggins, Nathan. Harlem Renaissance. Oxford University Press, 2007. Hutchinson, George. â€Å"Harlem Renaissance. † Harlem Renaissance. (2013). Web. 24 Feb.. 2014. Locke, Lain Leroy. The New Negro. Touchstone, 1999. Tate, Eleanor. Celesta's Harlem Renaissance. Little Brown and CO, 2009. Harlem Renaissance Jonathan Validates The Harlem Renaissance: An era of Social Change Thesis: The sass's Harlem Renaissance was an era that provided an opportunity of literary and artistic advancement for African Americans. The movement also reached social thought of sociology, and philosophy. Writers like Longboats Hughes and Counted Sullen promoted social equality through obscure themes and morals expressed in their writings. With its origins in Harlem, New York the renaissance affected the United States through literature, drama, music, visual art, and dance.At this time African Americans began to form themselves an identity and individual ultra for progress. Argument l: Problems that led to the Harlem Renaissance: During this time period the American government was making political changes to the constitution. Creating and enacting laws that promoted social welfare and public awareness. Some of these key political changes were: the 13th (Abolition of slavery), 14th (Citizenship status and rights), and the 1 5th amendment (Right to vote without racial discrimination) to the constitution.Other changes include the hardships and brutality of the south, The Great Migration from 1910-1930, as well as the US. ‘ Entrance to WWW. And lastly the origin of the Harlem Renaissance, and introduction to key activists. -Analysis of quotes for the political change of this time period. -Brief description of The Great migration and analysis of quotes directed toward the living conditions of 1910-1930 – Harlem, midtown Manhattan, New York -e. G. Lain Locke, Longboats Hughes, and Counted Sullen -The â€Å"new negro' and social advancement for African Americans. * To be completed in two paragraphs. Source: 1. Schwartz, A. B. Christi. Gay Voices of the Harlem Renaissance. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, c. 2003 2. Woods, Gregory. A History of Gay Literature: The Male Tradition. Yale University Press, c. 1998 Argument II: Introduction to Gay activist Ideals, Cultural changes, Ke y activists leaders: During this time idealist leaders like W. E. B Dubious, Alleluia Walker, Claude McKay, and Longboats Hughes expressed themselves and their beliefs through actions and through pieces of writing.Another topic for discussion is the cultural change and impact the Harlem Renaissance had in the US. The Harlem Renaissance had cultural changes in which music went from classical to something more lively, sparking the ewe Jazz Age. Political change in which African Americans began to hold public office, enactment of laws that benefited all citizens of the US. Throughout the Harlem Renaissance period, roughly African American lesbians and gay men were meeting each other.Creating a complex network of social structure within the gay community. Some were discreet about their sexual identities; others open about their feelings. – Introduction and detailed analysis of â€Å"queer theory' and its effects to the African American population during the Harlem Renaissance. - Explore movements and activists events that promoted acceptance and social equality. -Introduce key activists and ideals of social well being for the gay community during the Harlem Renaissance. Explore and analyze political policies that promoted discrimination and segregation of the gay population of the Harlem Renaissance. -Develop a coherent analysis of events that promoted tolerance and colonization throughout the gay community during this time period. -*To be completed in a minimum of two paragraphs. Source: 1 . Sedgwick, Eve Kickoffs. Epistemology of the Closet. Berkeley: University of California Press, cache Argument 3: Influences for Progress: Now explore and analyze which ideals have maintained strength throughout the 21st century.Examine which activist had the most impact and how it has affected us today. As well as explore political policies today, that outlaw discrimination and promote well being for the gay community of the 21st century. Conclusion: How did the Harlem Renaissance help influence progress today? Harlem Renaissance was an era of advancement and progress for the black gay community of the sass's. These ideas helped shape our ideas today. This also helped society today promote equality and tolerance today. Harlem Renaissance This website told all the basic information of Jessie personal and work life. The author took information from various documents and talked about the deferent Interviews discussing Jessie. Martin Included all the sources all the deferent websites he used for information which helped me because I went on It com/online-plagiarism-checker/">to check all the facts. The web document also Included all the works of Jessie Faucet Including poems, articles, and novels.Sinai, Salaam. â€Å"Jessie Redmond Faucet. † 1st Period's Harlem Renaissance poet page. N. P. , 18 2012. Web. 18 DCE 2012.. This website was a great website because It had a lot of Information. The author also Included some of Jessie Faucet's poems and went on to write about her personal life. Simian Sinai tells about Jessie point of view as she says Jessie says she saw the good and the bad side of people. The analysis was the author's point of view on how she thinks Jessie thought and wrote her novels and poems.Handwrit ing, Mary. â€Å"Faucet, Jessie 1882-1961 Contemporary Black Biography. 1994. Encyclopedia. Com. 18 DCE. 2012 . This website helped me because it had a lot of things I did not receive from other websites. Such as quotes and facts about Jessie Faucet , such as she was taught Latin and died two years after the death of her husband. This website is very easily readable and is highly recommended for information on basic topics. I also found out that Jessie was the seventh child and her mother soon died after having her.Her dad hen went on to marry someone who also had three kids, so she had a very large family. Basking, Andrew, and Crystal D. Thomas. â€Å"Faucet,Jessie R. (1882-1961). † Blacklist. Org Remembered and Reclaimed. An Online Reference Guide to African American History. Web. 18 DCE 2012. This website gave me a lot of facts that other websites didn't. A fact such as Jessie was known as the â€Å"Midwife of the Harlem Renaissance. † Though there were two authors , I personally didn't think they give much information but they gave me enough for me to finish this project.I also found out from this website that Jessie died three years after her husband died. She died three days after her birthday. THREE By loveformusic257 author took information from various documents and talked about the different interviews discussing Jessie. Martin included all the sources all the different websites he used for information which helped me because I went on it to check all the facts. The web document also included all the works of Jessie Faucet including poems, articles, and novels.Sinai, Simian. â€Å"Jessie Redmond Faucet. † 1st Period's Harlem This website was a great website because it had a lot of information. The author also included some of Jessie Faucet's poems and went on to write about her personal â€Å"Faucet, Jessie 1882-1961 . † Contemporary Black Biography. Family. Basking, Andrew, and Crystal D. Thomas. â€Å"Faucet, Jessie R. That other websites didn't. A fact such as Jessie was known as the â€Å"Midwife of the Harlem Renaissance. † Though there were two authors, I personally didn't think they