It

1
Its Showtime The Harlem Renaissance 1915-1945

• Jan Smith
• Travelers Rest High School
• December 10 2002

2
What is a Renaissance?

• Blossoming of culture
• Usually an emulation of previous artistic
  movements thus, a rebirth of those movements
• Affects areas of arts, sports, science,
  literature, politics

3
Characteristics of the Harlem Renaissance

• Celebration of African American culture
• in novels, poetry, paintings, sculpture, and
  music
• Harlem due to the Great Migration and many
  publishing opportunities, center of black
  creative work
• Renaissance more of a birth than a rebirth,
  since previous efforts were primarily solitary

4
Influences of the Harlem Renaissance

• Death of Booker T. Washington in 1915
• promoted survival
• through
• compromise
• little change in race
• relations and the
• economic status of
• black people

5
More Influences of the Harlem Renaissance

• The Great Migration of 1915-1920 influx of black
  population into Harlem from the south and West
  Indies
• Increasing confidence due to involvement of the
  NAACP, National Urban League, and the Association
  for the Study of Negro Life and History

6
Themes of the Harlem Renaissance

• 1915-1930 racial affirmation
• 1930-1945 radical racial protest

7
Important Literary Figures

• Federal Writers Project
• Margaret Walker
• Ralph Ellison
• Zora Neale Hurston
• James Weldon Johnson
• Countee Cullen
• Langston Hughes

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Zora Neale Hurston

• Author of Their Eyes Were Watching God
• Writer employed by the Federal Writers project
• Researched folklore of the Floridas for the WPA
• Writing is mostly apolitical and focuses on
  womens concerns

9
The Apollo Theater One Showcase of African
American Talent

• Located in Harlem
• Showcase of talent
• Legend of the tree stump

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The Lafayette Theater

• Home to Orson Wells production of the Voodoo
  Macbeth
• Part of Federal Theaters Project
• Set in Caribbean and featured Haitian Witch
  doctors instead of witches
• African American Actors and Actresses

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Bill Bojangles Robinson

• Tap dancer
• Vaudeville
• Movies
• Shirley Temple
• Stormy Weather
• Hot Mikado

12
Jazz Music

• Out of the Harlem Renaissance grew the popularity
  of jazz music
• Harlem Rent parties
• used to raise rent money
• featured jazz artists as entertainment
• Jazz greats such as Duke Ellington, got their
  start in these rent parties

13
Despite all of the advancements

• Racism was a continuing problem
• Theme continued throughout literature and music
• Patronizing of black artists

14
But it was only the Beginning

• allowed greater exposure of black culture and
  artistic ability
• Further increased artistic and political
  confidence

15
Sources

• All photographs are from the American Memory
  Collection of the Library of Congress
• memory.loc.gov
• Renaissance and Radicalisim1915-1945. Black
  Writers of America. Richard Barksdale and Kenneth
  Kinnamon, eds. New Jersey Prentice Hall, 1972.
  467-479.