Their Eyes Were Watching the Harlem Renaissance

1. The Harlem Renaissance was and African American cultural movement that was centered around Harlem in New York City.
2. This event took place in the 1920's and early 1930's
3. It marked the first time that mainstream publishers and critics took African American literature and arts seriously and even put it in the public eye.
4. The Harlem Renaissance was primarily a literary movement, but also related to developments in African-American music, theater, art, and politics.
5. In the early 1920s, three works--Harlem Shadows, a volume of poetry by McKay; Cane, a novel in poetry and prose by Jean Toomer; and There is Confusion, a novel by writer and editor Jessie Fauset--laid the groundwork for the beginning of the Harlem Renaissance.
6. There were three events that really launched the Harlem Renaissance: Charles S. Johnson's dinner to recognize young, black writers and introduce them to the white literary establishment of New York; the publication of a book by Carl Van Vechten that covered the elite and baser side of Harlem; and the production by a group of young black writers their own literary magazine, Fire!!.
7. Some common themes in the Harlem Renaissance were an interest in the roots of the 20th-century African American experience in Africa and the American South, a strong sense of racial pride, a desire for social and political equality, and diversity of expression.
8. The literature and music of this Renaissance appealed to the African American middle class, the white people seeking out Harliem nightlife, and the book-buying white public.
9. The Harlem Renaissance's decline was caused by many factors, including the Great Depression, the switching of organizations' (such as the NAACP and Urban League) from the Renaissance to economic and social issues, the fact that many key black writers and literary promoters left New York City, and finally a riot in Harlem in 1935.
10. The writers and literature of the Harlem Renaissance inspired many great writers even after it ended, as well as providing upcoming African American authors and artists with publishers and public who were more open to their works.

Important People of the Harlem Renaissance


Claude McKay

• Claude McKay was a Jamaican-born American author who lived from 1890 to 1948.
• He wrote novels and poems depicting black life.
• McKay was one of the first black authors to attract a large white audience.
• His poetry and prose used traditional forms to express unfamiliar ideas and themes.
• McKay's novels include Home to Harlem, Banjo, and Banana Bottom. Some of his other works are an autobiography called A Long Way from Home and a sociological study titled Harlem: Negro Metropolis.

Josephine Baker

• Josephine Baker was a singer and dancer in the Harlem Renaissance.
• In the mid-1920's, she moved to Paris, France.
• While in France, she helped introduce European audiences to African American dances and music.
• Baker was married and divorced three times and never depended on a man for financial support.
• After becoming a well-known celebrity in France, she returned to America to fight segregation in the states.
• Josephine Baker singing "Paris, Paris, Paris" : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyuMNkgyyvA&feature=player_embedded

Countee Cullen

• Countee Cullen was an American poet, novelist, playwright, and educator.
• Not many details are known about his early life, other than that he was raised mostly by Elizabeth Porter (possibly his grandmother) and the by the Reverend Frederick Cullen.
• His poems were very traditional and influenced by John Keats, sonnets, ballads, and other traditional forms.
• Cullen attended De Witt Clinton High School and earned a bachelor's degree from New York University.
• Cullen's poems and compilations include Color, The Caroling Dusk: An Anthology of Verse by Negro Poets, The Black Christ and Other Poems, and On These I Stand: An Anthology of the Best Poems of Countee Cullen. His one novel is titled One Way to Heaven, though he wrote two children's books: The Lost Zoo and My Lives and How I Lost Them. Countee collaborated with Arna Bontemps in his only play, St. Louis Woman.

Sources

Claude McKay Picture: http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/m_r/mckay/mckay.htm

Josephine Baker Information and Picture: http://musiclinernotes.wordpress.com/2010/06/03/josephine-baker/

Countee Cullen Picture: http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/cullen/life.htm

All Other Information: Wintz, Cary DeCordova. "Harlem Renaissance." Microsoft® Student 2009 [DVD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2008.