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Harlem RenaissanceThe Harlem Renaissance was an early 20th-century arts movement that took place in the Harlem neighborhood of New York's Manhattan borough, a major destination during the Great Migration of Black people from the American South. Most scholars say that it began in earnest in the mid-1920s and ended with the Great Depression, when high unemployment in Harlem forced many venues to close.
The movement was a groundswell of expression through literature, music, dance, theater, visual art, political activism, and other modes by Black artists that reclaimed Black identity and heritage. Foundational texts by Alain Locke and Langston Hughes in 1925 and 1926, respectively, argued that Black people needed to define their own culture rather than passively accepting the portrayal of Black culture by mainstream media and art.
Harlem Renaissance artists like Cab Calloway, Aaron Douglas, Duke Ellington, Claude McKay, Augusta Savage, Jean Toomer, and Zora Neale Hurston produced innovative works that influenced American culture for generations and helped inspire artistic and political movements like the Beat Generation, the American Civil Rights movement, and the Black Arts Movement.Explore Harlem Renaissance
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Some Harlem Renaissance figures criticized Zora Neale Hurston's most famous novel when it was releasedZora Neale Hurston's "Their Eyes Were Watching God" is now considered one of the masterpieces of the Harlem Renaissance, though some in the movement criticized it when it was released in 1937. Both Alain Locke and the writer Richard Wright felt that Hurston's novel lacked depth. Wright was particularly harsh, writing that "her novel carries no theme, no message, no thought. In the main, her novel is not addressed to the Negro, but to a white audience whose chauvinistic tastes she knows how to satisfy." Literary HubPaul Robeson was the Harlem Renaissance's chief renaissance manRobeson played many roles throughout his life: He was an All-American football player who was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame, earned a law degree while playing in the NFL, starred in numerous films and Broadway shows, and became an outspoken advocate for labor and civil rights. His vocal criticism of US involvement in the Korean War led to his passport being voided and a protracted struggle with the US government. Rutgers UniversityAaron Douglas' art defined the visual aesthetic of the Harlem RenaissanceDouglas learned about Harlem's cultural scene while teaching high school in Kansas City and was eventually recruited to New York by Charles S. Johnson, the editor of the National Urban League's periodical. Soon, Douglas was illustrating periodicals and books affiliated with the movement. In 1934, the Works Progress Administration commissioned him to paint the "Aspects of Negro Life" murals. One of those murals, "Song of the Towers," pictured below, portrays Black life during the Harlem Renaissance. National Gallery of ArtMusician Gladys Bentley defied gender norms during the Harlem RenaissanceThe singer and pianist was known for performing in a white tuxedo, something out of the ordinary for a woman in the 1920s and '30s. She was also openly gay at a time when homosexuality was still widely considered taboo. In the late '50s, she claimed she'd undergone a medical treatment to awaken her "womanliness," which scholars believe was a reaction to the retrenched homophobic attitudes of the McCarthy Era. SidedoorExplore a map of the Harlem Renaissance's nightclubsMany of the Harlem Renaissance's greatest performances happened after hours, in one of the neighborhood's many nightclubs. This 1932 map, illustrated by Elmer Simms Campbell, highlights key hotspots, with insider tips on when to arrive, who to see, and how to fit in. Library of CongressAlain Locke's 'The New Negro' anthology helped define the Harlem RenaissanceThe 1925 collection of poetry, drama, short fiction, lyrics, and essays by Black writers was intended to document what Locke, a Harvard-trained philosopher and the first Black Rhodes Scholar, believed was a burgeoning Black consciousness that was "vibrant with a new psychology." The book is now considered one of the major impetuses for the Harlem Renaissance. Howard UniversityThe NAACP encouraged and accommodated the early Harlem RenaissanceThe National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, a civil rights organization better known as the NAACP, recognized the disenchantment Black soldiers who served in World War I experienced when returning home to a segregated country and began advancing, and, in many ways, funding a "New Negro Movement," which would lead to the Harlem Renaissance. Library of CongressBrowse a collection of Harlem Renaissance poetryThis guide from the Poetry Foundation walks you through the movement's major poems, including works by writers like Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, Anne Spencer, James Weldon Johnson, and more. Helpfully, it's organized them into four major eras, allowing you to analyze the movement's steady evolution. Poetry FoundationA guide to the major figures of the Harlem RenaissanceThe Harlem Renaissance was a multidisciplinary arts movement that included literature, music, dance, film, theater, photography, visual art, political activism, and more. This primer includes some of its most influential artists, including Oscar Micheaux, Zora Neale Hurston, Paul Robeson, Fats Waller, WEB DuBois, and more, and allows you to explore their lives and major works. Kennedy CenterJazz was an integral part of the Harlem RenaissanceThe Great Migration transformed New York City's Harlem neighborhood into the epicenter of Black American art, with artists such as Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Bessie Smith regularly performing. The music not only provided the backbeat to the cultural scene—it often influenced it, with Harlem Renaissance poets, in particular, inspired by jazz's approach to rhythm and improvisation. TheCollectorLangston Hughes wrote a foundational text for the Harlem RenaissanceAlthough the 1920s artistic movement lacked formal leaders, Hughes' 1926 essay "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain" established him as one of its figureheads. Hughes' piece argues that Black artists should not be ashamed of their race; instead, they should embrace it, while simultaneously pursuing their own individual artistic visions. Poetry FoundationHow a Harlem Renaissance poet teamed up with a Wright brotherPaul Laurence Dunbar is one of the most influential poets from the Harlem Renaissance, a loose collection of Black artists who redefined American literature in the early 20th century. He was also an entrepreneur. He founded a short-lived newspaper, the Dayton Tattler, alongside Orville Wright, one of the famous Wright Brothers who pioneered aviation. This article explores how their friendship defied the societal norms of the time and led to a pioneering publication. Literary HubAnalyzing Billie Holiday's impact on American poetryAlthough Holiday is sometimes associated with the Harlem Renaissance, the Black cultural movement of the 1920s and '30s, scholar Whit Frazier Peterson argues that her real impact in poetry was on the Black Arts Movement, the more radical Black literary movement of the '60s and '70s that featured writers like Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, and Nikki Giovanni. African American Intellectual History SocietyAugusta Savage's sculptures emphasized realistic Black figuresThe artist became known for her realistic busts of prominent Black figures, like WEB DuBois and Marcus Garvey, which emphasized their natural features, a stark contrast to stereotypical depictions of Black people in popular culture. Below is "Gamin," Savage's 1929 sculpture of her nephew. Smithsonian American Art MuseumThe Black cultural renaissance happened in places other than HarlemAlthough the Harlem Renaissance is often cited as the singular Black arts movement of the early 20th century, similar cultural movements were occurring concurrently in other American cities. Places like Kansas City, Washington, DC, and Roanoke, Virginia, also had innovative Black cultural scenes. National ArchivesNovelist Jean Toomer was uncomfortable with the term 'Negro writer'Toomer's modernist novel "Cane" is, among critics, one of the great works of the Harlem Renaissance. Toomer, however, was uncomfortable with his work being labeled as "Negro," including in Alain Locke's movement-defining collection "The New Negro." He found the title both reductive and inaccurate: He was mixed-race, telling writer Claude McKay that he was "French, Dutch, Welsh, Negro, German, Jewish and Indian," and preferred to be considered "American." PloughsharesRudolph Fisher was an incisive writer—and a practicing physicianFisher was one of the luminaries Langston Hughes cited in "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain" and was known as an impressive polymath, writing stories, acting in plays, and practicing medicine. In this deep dive, science writer Harriet A. Washington explores why he's often neglected in modern narratives about the Harlem Renaissance. The American ScholarDuke Ellington's 'Harlem' takes listeners on a stroll through the neighborhood"Sir Duke" was one of the Harlem Renaissance's major musicians, recording several songs that would become jazz standards. 1950's "Harlem" is an ode to the neighborhood, alternating styles (including a Latin groove and a New Orleans funeral dirge) to pay homage to the diverse cultures that populate it. Kennedy CenterWatch a 1934 short film starring Cab CallowaySinger and bandleader Cab Calloway was a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance's music scene. He was also one of the biggest names in jazz's swing era and would go on to be the first Black American to have a nationally syndicated radio show and the first to sell a million copies of a record. In this 1934 short film, "Cab Calloway's Hi-De-Ho," he reenacts his upbeat performances at Harlem's Cotton Club. Reelblack One'Shuffle Along' helped pave the way for Black theater on BroadwayThe 1921 musical revue featured an all-Black cast and brought jazz music and dance to Broadway. It opened at the 63rd Street Theater and ran for over 500 performances, attracting white and Black audiences alike. It was so popular, in fact, that in 1948 Harry Truman used one of its songs in his presidential campaign. Theater historian Loften Mitchell later credited the show with effectively launching the Harlem Renaissance. Kennedy CenterRead the first (and only) issue of the magazine started by Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and others"Fire!!" was founded in New York in 1926 by Wallace Thurman, Zora Neale Hurston, Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, and several other artists involved in the Harlem Renaissance. The publication was intended to flout the respectability of the middle-class Black tradition and instead engage with sometimes controversial ideas in a contemporary vernacular. The magazine's offices were, ironically, burned to the ground shortly after the first issue. Issuu
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