Elijah AloeseLakisha CarsonArielle GonzalesPeriod 3

A cultural movement in the 1920s during which African American art, literature, and music prospered as a result of newfound pride. When African Americans opted to move during the Great Migration , jazz, poetry, painting, dance, blues and study of folklore became popular forms of expression within the black community.

DEFINITION

• Cultural movement occurring between 1920-1930

• AKA the “New Negro Movement”• The Great Migration can be referred to as

the movement of 6 million African Americans out of the rural Southern United States to the Northeast, Midwest, and West

• During the Harlem Renaissance, the roles of African Americans began to become prominent in literature, art, and music

• During this time period, the musical, writing, and artful styles of blacks were becoming more and more attractive to whites

A NEW MOVEMENT

• Common themes include African American concerns and pride in their culture

• Poems usually include repetitive structure similar to those of blues lyrics or fragments like those of jazz improvisation

• Techniques include metaphors, similes, symbolism, and syntax

POETIC TECHNIQUES

• Born on September 15, 1890 in Jamaica

• Died on May 22, 1948 in Chicago, Illinois

• Education received at Tuskegee Institute, Kansas State Teachers College

• Occupations: Children’s Activist, Civil Rights Activist, Author, Poet

• Born with the name of Festus Claudius McKay (AKA Eli Edwards)

CLAUDE MCKAY

• Home to Harlem (1928)• Best-seller which won the Harmon Gold Award

for Literature; Banjo (1929)• Banana Bottom (1933)• Jamaican Institute of Arts and Sciences, gold

medal, 1912, for two volumes of poetry, Songs of Jamaica and Constab Ballads;

• Harmon Foundation Award for distinguished literary achievement, NAACP, 1929, for Harlem Shadows and Home to Harlem;

• James Weldon Johnson Literary Guild Award, 1937.

NOTABLE WORKS

If we must die, let it not be like hogsHunted and penned in an inglorious spot,

While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,Making their mock at our accursèd lot.

If we must die, O let us nobly die,So that our precious blood may not be shed

In vain; then even the monsters we defyShall be constrained to honor us though dead!

O kinsmen! we must meet the common foe!Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,

And for their thousand blows deal one death-blow!What though before us lies the open grave?

Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack,Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!

IF WE MUST DIE

• Lived May 30, 1903 – January 9, 1946

• Leading poet during the Harlem Renaissance

• Attended both New York University and Harvard University

• Cullen won a citywide poetry contest as a schoolboy, and the Witter Bynner Poetry Prize at NYU

• Close friends with Langston Hughes

• In 1928, he married the daughter of W.E.B. Du Bois.

COUNTEE CULLEN

Poetry• I Have a Rendezvous With Life (1920s, poem)• Color Harper & brothers, 1925• Copper Sun, Harper & brothers, 1927• Harlem Wine 1926Prose•One Way to Heaven (1931)• The Lost Zoo (1940)• My Lives and How I Lost Them (1942)Drama• St. Louis Woman (1946)

NOTABLE WORKS

This is not water running here,These thick rebellious streams

That hurtle flesh and bone past fearDown alleyways of dreams

This is a wine that must flow onNot caring how or where

So it has ways to flow uponWhere song is in the air.

So it can woo an artful fluteWith loose elastic lips

Its measurements of joy computeWith blithe, ecstatic hips.

HARLEM WINE

• Feb 1, 1902- May 22, 1967• Born James Langston Hughes in Joplin,

Missouri• Grew up very insecure• His father wanted him to be an engineer• Attended Columbia University• Wrote novels, short stories, and plays

about African American life during the twenties through sixties

• First published work was “The Weary Blues” in 1926

• used the rhythms of African American music, specifically blues and jazz

• Known as the Poet Laureate of the Negro Race

• Jazz and blues songs were played in his honor at his funeral

LANGSTON HUGHES

•Fine Clothes To The Jew•The Weary Blues•The Negro Speaks Of Rivers•I Dream A World

NOTABLE WORKS

I, too, sing AmericaI am the darker brother.They send me to eat in the kitchen When company comesBut I laugh,And eat well,And grow strong. Tomorrow,I’ll be at the tableWhen company comesNobody’ll dare Say to me“Eat in the kitchen”Then.Besides,They’ll see how beautiful I amAnd be ashamed—I, too, am America.

I, TOO, SING AMERICA

The following text is from Langston Hughes’ 1945 poem, “I, Too, Sing America”. Read the poem carefully and annotate the text, then write a thesis statement relating to how the author uses literary devices to foreshadow the rise of African Americans in society.

AP WRITING PROMPT 1

The following text is from Countee Cullen’s 1926 poem, “Harlem Wine”. Read the poem carefully and then write a response on how you think the Harlem Renaissance had an impact on American culture.

AP PROMPT 2

1. How did the great migration contribute to the rise of African American culture?

2. What became popular within the black community during the Harlem renaissance?

3. What is another name for the Harlem renaissance?4. Did the white people appreciate the poetry that the

negroes proposed?5. How do the rhythms of blues’ songs relate to the

poems of the Harlem Renaissance?6. What forms of art did African Americans begin to

blossom in?

HARLEM RENAISSANCE

REVIEW QUESTIONS

http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/83http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/i-too/http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/177020http://www.kansasheritage.org/crossingboundaries/page6e1.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Countee_Cullenhttp://www.poemhunter.com/poem/harlem-wine/http://www.shmoop.com/if-we-must-die/analysis.htmlhttp://www.biography.com/people/claude-mckay-9392654http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/ARTmckay.htmhttp://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15250

LINKS