Harlem Renaissance

Harlem Renaissance: African American Social Change and Artistic Creativity, 1920's

Renaissance is a French word meaning rebirth or revival.

The Harlem Renaissance was a social revolution and cultural explosion among the growing black community of Harlem during the 1920's and early 1930's. Some of the best-known black artists of the period include Duke Ellington, Bessie Smith, Zora Neale Hurston, and Langston Hughes.

History:

In 1900 Harlem was home to mostly white Americans of Dutch ancestry. But overdevelopment in 1905-06 left many apartments empty and blacks began renting them in increasing numbers. They came from other parts of Manhattan - from the Tenderloin and San Juan Hill. They also came from down south during the Great Migration, when blacks were escaping violence and racism and looking for freedom and new job opportunities up north.

Although blacks were excluded from unions and many professions, the arts offered them some success. "Traditionally the Harlem Renaissance was viewed as a literary movement centered in Harlem", according to Cary D. Wintz in "The Harlem Renaissance: What Was it and Why Does It Matter?". The article states that in 1924 Charles S. Johnson, a black sociologist and director of the Urban League, gathered a dozen writers for lunch at the New York Civic Club. This meeting then paved the way for many black writers, including Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Aaron Douglas and Countee Cullen. These writers created Fire!! Magazine in 1926 to express the African American experience. Though it only lasted for one issue, a new African American identity was being created.

Several of the writers, including Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes had the backing of a wealthy white patron, Charlotte Osgood Mason. According to Wikipedia, she subsidized Hughes for 3 years beginning in 1927. There was, however, a downside to her patronage, as she was very controlling regarding his writing and other aspects of his life such as the music he could listen to and books he could read. He cut ties with her after 3 years. Charlotte Mason's relationship with Hurston was also controlling.

The website "Harlem Renaissance: History, Notable Figures and Decline", mentions Langston Hughes as a prominent leader during the Renaissance and he "wrote poetry mainly to promote equality, condemn racism and injustice, and celebrate African American culture, humor, and spirituality." Zora Neale Hurston was also a literary leader. "With her striking wit, irreverence, and folk writing style, she soon gained a reputation as one of the major figures of the Harlem Renaissance." Another key figure was Countee Cullen "who used art as a vehicle to minimize the distance between blacks and whites."

The following are a few lines from Hughes, Hurston, and Cullen -

1926: Langston Hughes published the "Weary Blues": "Droning a drowsy syncopated tune, Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon, I heard a Negro play. Down on Lenox Avenue the other night By the pale dull pallor of an old gas light He did a lazy sway. . . . He did a lazy sway. To the tune o' those Weary Blues. With his ebony hands on each ivory key He made that poor piano moan with melody. O Blues!"

1927: Countee Cullen's "From the Dark Tower":

"We shall not always plant while others reap The golden increment of bursting fruit,
Not always countenance, abject and mute,
That lesser men should hold their brothers cheap;
Not everlastingly while others sleep
Shall we beguile their limbs with mellow flute,
Not always bend to some more subtle brute;
We were not made to eternally weep."

1926: Zora Neale Hurston published "Spunk". She often wrote in southern dialect - "But that's one thing Ah likes about Spunk Banks - he aint skeered of nothin' on God's green footstool."

From literature, the rebirth spread to include the other arts. According to Smithsonian -"The Harlem Renaissance encompassed poetry and prose, painting and sculpture, jazz and swing, opera, and dance. What united these diverse art forms was their realistic presentation of what it meant to be black in America, what writer Langston Hughes called an "expression of our individual dark-skinned selves," as well as a new militancy in asserting their civil and political rights." At the height of the movement, Harlem was the center of black American culture, with black owned publishing houses, newspapers, music venues and playhouses.

The Kennedy Center's website -Drop Me Off in Harlem, contains "Faces of the Harlem Renaissance" - photos and short biographies of the musicians, artists, actors, dancers, writers, and activists. There is also a large map of Harlem with the names and locations of the famous clubs. This was the Roaring Twenties - folks were listening and dancing to jazz and blues everywhere - at the Cotton Club, the Savoy Ballroom, Small's Paradise and many others. The Cotton Club was for many years a venue for black musicians playing to white audiences. The Savoy was one of the first to integrate, and Smalls was also integrated and owned by an African American. Billie Holiday and Fats Waller were frequent entertainers at Smalls.

In musical theater, the musical revue "Shuffle Along" made history in 1921 and proved that audiences were interested in African American talent on Broadway. Many other musicals followed, creating a new era and unique art form.

The Gay Scene

Harlem during this time also had its gay side. According to Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History & Culture, Harlem was a haven for several prominent queer writers and entertainers. Among them were writer Langston Hughes, cabaret performer Jimmie Daniels, and jazz musician Billy Strayhorn. History.com lists another 6:

1. Wallace Thurman: playwright, poet, and publisher. He wrote "The Blacker the Berry: A Novel of Negro Life" in 1929. He was also editor of "The Messenger", a socialist journal for blacks.

2. Ethel Waters: blues singer - her 3 marriages ended in divorce, and she also had a relationship with dancer Ethel Williams, known as "The Two Ethels". Later in life, she became religious and toured with Billy Graham!

3. Countee Cullen: poet; he had relationships with black and white men. A few lines from his poem "Heritage": "What is Africa to me: Copper sun or scarlet sea, Jungle star or jungle track, Strong bronzed men, or regal black Women from whose loins I sprang When the birds of Eden sang?"

4. Alain Locke: writer, philosopher, patron, and Rhodes Scholar. In 1925 he published the article "Enter the New Negro" - a term meaning advocating for dignity, self respect and refusal to submit to racial segregation.

5. Gladys Bentley: singer, often using risqulyrics. She married a white woman in 1930, then married a man later in life.

6. Richard Bruce Nugent: writer and painter; He was openly gay but later married. According to Wikipedia, he "had a long productive career bringing to light the creative process of gay and black culture."

Welcometoharlem.com adds a few more:

1. Alice Dunbar Nelson: poet, political activist. She married but was also had relationships with women.

2. Angelina Weld Grimke: poet, activist, journalist, and the first black woman to have her play - "Rachel" performed. The website includes a sample of Angela's correspondence with Mamie Burrill: "Oh Mamie if you only knew how my heart overflows with love for you and how it yearns and pants for one more glimpse of your lovely face." She signed the letter, "Your passionate lover."

The South Florida Sun Sentinel ran the following article about gay Harlem in May 2010: "Harlem Renaissance's Gay Side". It featured an exhibit at Florida Atlantic University entitled "Gay Voices of the Harlem Renaissance" - black gays and lesbians were said to be "in the life". They usually found safe spaces in Harlem, including the Hot-Cha Club and the Clam House. They also gathered at rent parties, private nightclubs and drag balls.

End of the Renaissance

As the 1920's drew to a close, and the stock market crashed in 1929, the Renaissance also began to decline. During the 1930's social and political attitudes began to change, and the culture was becoming more conservative. The increasing poverty of the 1930's plus the race riot in 1935 finally ended the Renaissance in Harlem. However, its ideas continued for many years.

The Renaissance Remembered

From the 1970's through the early 2000's newspaper articles all over the country celebrated and memorialized the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920's:

• The Tennessean, August 1972 reviewed "The Harlem Renaissance Remembered", a group of essays edited by Arna Bontemps. "Ask Arna Bonetmps. He was there - in Harlem in the Twenties, a young man sensitive, talented, and creative, when 'the Negro was in vogue'."

• Philadelphia Inquirer, July 1994: "looking Back at the Harlem Renaissance" it mentioned "The Portable Harlem Renaissance Reader" by David L. Lewis.

• The Journal News (White Plains), December 2000: "Harlem Renaissance Revisited: Library program recalls black culture in Manhattan in '20s".

• The Daily Press of Newport News, Virginia, August 1987: article about a touring exhibit - "Harlem Renaissance: The Art of Black America".

• Rocky Mount Telegram, North Carolina, September 1985: "The Harlem Renaissance is Explosion of Black Creative Expression": it mentioned an exhibit in Washington, D.C. of writers, poets, painters, and musicians of the Renaissance.

• Bangor Daily News, March1990: listed the production of a play - "Harlem Renaissance" to be performed in Ellsworth, Maine. The play was on a national tour. Langston Hughes' poem "Harlem" headed the article - "What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?...Or does it explode?"

• Macon Telegraph Georgia, January 1996: "Hurston's Harlem: Festival Celebrates Literary Renaissance of '20s"

Many books were also written about the Renaissance in the last 30 years, including:

• "Black Culture and the Harlem Renaissance", by Cary Wintz, 1988

• "Voices from the Harlem Renaissance" by Nathan I. Huggins, 1995

• "I Too Sing America: The Harlem Renaissance at 100" by Wil Haygood et. al., 2018

• Audiobook, "The Harlem Renaissance Remembered: Duke Ellington, Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen and the Sound of the Harlem Renaissance", by Jonathan Gross (author/narrator) et. al., 2010, available on Amazon.

Amazon's ad for the audiobook states - "Everyone who was anyone wanted to come to Harlem and hear the music of jazz genius Duke Ellington, the rap-like stylings of Langston Hughes, and the classical lyricism of Countee Cullen. It was a true time of rebirth for African Americans who were striving for recognition and respect. It was The Harlem Renaissance - an explosive celebration of African American life and culture like the world had never seen before... Filled with energy and the spirit of freedom and creative expression, the Harlem Renaissance changed America forever."