HARLEM RENAISSANCE

              

•Through musicmusic: Louis Armstrong

Eubie Blake

Fats Waller

Billie Holiday

The Harlem RenaissanceHarlem Renaissance (early 1920's to 1930's),

centered in the Harlem district of New York City.

•Through dancedance:

Josephine Baker

The Harlem RenaissanceHarlem Renaissance had a profound influence on both the US and the world.

•Through literature:literature:

Langston Hughes Zora

Neale Hurston

W.E.B. DuBois

•Through theatertheater: Paul Robeson

•Through artart:Palmer HaydenArchibald

MotleyWilliam H.

JohnsonLois Mailou

JonesCharles Aston Romare

BeardonAaron Douglas

“Our problem is to conceive, develop, establish an art era. Not white art painting black...let's bare our arms and plunge them deep through laughter, through pain, through sorrow, through hope, through disappointment, into the very depths of the souls of our people and drag forth material crude, rough, neglected. Then let's sing it, dance it, write it, paint it. Let's do the impossible. Let's create something transcendentally material, mystically objective. Earthy. Spiritually earthy. Dynamic."

- Aaron Douglas

 

 

                                           

PALMER HAYDEN

“The Janitor Who Paints”

                                           

                                                                                                                              

ARCHIBALD MOTLEY

                                                         

WILLIAM H. JOHNSON

                                                                                                                          

LOIS

MAILOU

JONES

                                              

Charles

Alston

                                             

Romare

Beardon

“Aaron Douglas (1898-1979) was the Harlem Renaissance artist whose work

best exemplified the philosophy. He painted murals for public buildings;

he produced illustrations and cover designs for many black publications,

including The Crisis and Opportunity. In 1940, he moved to Nashville, Tennessee;

there he founded the Art Department at Fisk University and taught for twenty nine years.”

- http://www.eyeconart.net/history/Harlem.htm

Aaron Douglas, Idylls of the Deep South, 1934

Aaron Douglas, study for God's Trombones

“Between 1920-1930 an unprecedented outburst of creative activity among African-Americans occurred in all fields of art.”

“One of the factors contributing to the rise of the Harlem Renaissance was the great migration of African-Americans to northern cities (i.e. New York City, Chicago, Washington, D.C.) between 1919 and 1926. In his influential book The New Negro (1925), Locke described the northward migration of blacks as

"something like a spiritual emancipation."

“Harlem attracted a prosperous and stylish black middle class from which sprang an extraordinary artistic center…it embraced

all art-forms, including music, dance, film, theatre and cabaret.”

“Harlem nightlife, with its dance halls and jazz bands, featured prominently in the work of these artists.”

“More than a literary movement and more than a social revolt against racism,

the Harlem Renaissance exalted the unique culture of African-Americans

and redefined African-American expression. African-Americans were encouraged to celebrate their heritage

and to become "The New Negro," a term coined in 1925 by sociologist and critic Alain LeRoy Locke.”

- http://www.eyeconart.net/history/Harlem.htm