The Harlem

Renaissance

1920s – 1930s

JAZZ

DANCE

ART

LITERATURE: POETRY, DRAMA, NOVELS

World War I had just ended

The 18th Amendment made alcohol illegal

Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt were presidents

Radio hit the airwaves

What was going on otherwise?

Yup, twas the Roarin’ Twenties

That’s a radio. She’s a flapper.

What caused the Renaissance in Harlem?

Great Migration from the rural South, 1914-1918

Former slaves were heading North to find work in the urban centers/cities because Reconstruction had failed.

Created their own culture of music, art, literature, and fashion in response to their new surroundings

New York City, 1920

The Harlem Renaissancewas an explosion

of African-American culture that began with jazz, the only music indigenous to the United States

Type of jazz music

Charlie Parker, saxophone

Dizzy Gillespie, trumpet

Charles Mingus, bassist

Scat: Be de be do be do be do be do

Be Bop!

Technically Be Bop be do be do be do be do be dahhh…. Horns played cleanly, like a piano

Emphasis on 8th and 16th notes

Very fast, many solos in one song

Chords are a reference, not a melody

Integrated/quoted/sampled from other songs

Roots of Jazz in the

Southern Spiritual

And roots from Africa

They played their music here

Dance and music blended together…

Rented hall + flyers + cheap food, + good, live music + dime admission + red lights =

RENT! Parties in Harlem

Musicians like Charlie Parker or Billie Holiday would show up after their paid gig and play for free

These were called “Jumps!” or “Shouts!”

IT WAS THE JAZZ AGE

On a really good rent night

Just as colorful as the music

Art of the Renaissance

Some hearkened back to Africa

Characteristics of the Art

L i k e t h e w o r k o f A a r o n D o u g l a s

Much of the Art

This is theCharleston

Reflectedthedancing.

Were always in the back of their minds The reality: lynching and the Ku Klux

Klan

The struggles of these former slaves

This is Denver, COin 1930

Langston Hughes, Theme for English B:

The instructor said,Go home and write a page tonight. And let that page come out of you-Then, it will be true.

I wonder if it's that simple? I am twenty-two, colored, born in Winston-Salem. I went to school there, then Durham, then here to this college on the hill above Harlem. I am the only colored student in my class. The steps from the hill lead down into Harlem through a park, then I cross St. Nicholas, Eighth Avenue, Seventh, and I come to the Y, the Harlem Branch Y, where I take the elevator up to my room, sit down, and write this page:

The Literature Reflected this Dark Reality of Two Worlds: Black and White

It's not easy to know what is true for you or me at twenty-two, my age. But I guess I'm what I feel and see and hear, Harlem, I hear you: hear you, hear me-we two-you, me, talk on this page. 

(I hear New York too.) Me-who? Well, I like to eat, sleep, drink, and be in love. I like to work, read, learn, and understand life. I like a pipe for a Christmas present, or records-Bessie, bop, or Bach. I guess being colored doesn't make me NOT like the same things other folks like who are other races. 

This is what Langston wrote:

So will my page be colored that I write? Being me, it will not be white. But it will be a part of you, instructor. You are white--- yet a part of me, as I am a part of you. That's American. Sometimes perhaps you don't want to be a part of me. Nor do I often want to be a part of you. But we are, that's true! As I learn from you,I guess you learn from me--- although you're older---and white--- and somewhat more free.

And he finished his essay (poem)

This is my page for English B.

http://www.jazzwise.com/catalog/media/AeberHbk/37.pdf

http://www.robinurton.com/history/Harlem.htm

http://www.huntfor.com/arthistory/C20th/harrenaiss.htm

http://www.1920-30.com/ http://uptownflavor.files.wordpress.com/200

8/03/1996.jpg http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/h/harlemrenai

ssance.html

Bibliography