THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE
• FINE ART
• PERFORMING ART
• LITERATURE
The Great Migration• African Americans
looked to the North to find freedom and economic opportunities
• During World War I, African Americans found factory jobs in the North
Harlem
• By the early 1920s, about 200,000 African Americans lived in the city of New York.
• Blacks were allowed to live in the neighborhood of Harlem.
• It became the unofficial capital of African American culture
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The Harlem Renaissance
• Transformations in the African American community contributed to a blossoming of black culture in Harlem, New York
• Numerous Black artists, musicians, and writers inspired one another to reach new heights of creativity
• It reflected a strong sense of racial pride
New York Customs HouseMuseum of the American Indian
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The 4 statues represent the Four Corners of the World
FINE ART
1. What do you see in this painting or sculpture?
2. What is the figure doing?
3. What symbols do you see?
4. What is the message the artist is trying to communicate?
Asia (c 1904) by Daniel Chester French
Europe (c 1904) by Daniel Chester French
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by
By: Daniel Chester French
1. What do you see in this sculpture?
2. What is the figure doing?
3. What are the symbols?
AMERICA
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AFRICA by Daniel Chester French
1. What do you see in this sculpture?
2. What is the figure doing?
3. What are the symbols?
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AFRICA
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CONTRAST
Stereotype
• A stereotype is a commonly held popular belief about specific groups or types of individuals
• “Stereotype” and “Prejudice” are often confused
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Stereotypes• White men can’t ___________
• Asians are really ___________
• Asians can’t ___________
• If you are Black, you must be really ___
• If you are Mexican, you must be _____
StereotypesEthiopia Awakening (1914)
by Meta Fuller
Stereotypes of African Americans in the 1920’s portrayed in this sculpture
1.2.3.4.5.
The Ascent of Ethiopia By Lois Mailou
Jones (1932)
1. What do you see in this painting?
2. What are the figures doing?
3. What are the symbols?
4. What is the message?
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LiteratureIt has been argued that the Harlem
Renaissance, or the New Negro Movement, is the defining moment in African American literature because of an unprecedented
outburst of creativity among black writers.
The importance of this movement to African American literary art lies in the efforts of its
writers to exalt the heritage of African Americans and to use their art as a means to
re-define African Americans.
What is a Negro?
• Term used to refer to people of African American ancestry
• Used in the 20th century through the Civil Rights Movement
• The term is no longer acceptable in contemporary speech
The Old Negro vs. The New Negro• Mythology of Black
people being backward
• Stereotypes of mammy, coon, sambo
• The black person believes these myths about himself
• Modern• Has self-respect and
self-dependence• Excited about the
future• Leads boldly away
from the past
If We Must Die (1919)
• Claude McKay• Jamaican immigrant• Poet at age 10• Novelist and
Journalist• Wrote about black
life, violence, and political injustice
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If We Must DieIf we must die, let it not be like hogsHunted and penned in an inglorious spot,While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,Making their mock at our accursed lot.If we must die, O let us nobly die,So that our precious blood may not be shedIn vain, then even the monsters we defyShall be constrained to honor us thought dead!O kinsmen, We must meet the common foe!Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,And for their thousand blows deal one deathblow!What though before us lies the open grave?Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack,Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!
Pair - Share
• Describe the theme of “If I Must Die”
• How does this describe the “New Negro?”
Connection• The Harlem Renaissance,
or the New Negro Movement, was the kick-off to the Civil Rights Movement
• It was the inspiration and the motivation for change
• Notice the connection of the poem to pictures of the Civil Rights Movement four decades later
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