The Art of the Harlem Renaissance

In the 1920's, African American life in communities was flourishing. But no other city was thriving more than Harlem, New York. Within just three square miles, The New York city neighborhood was thriving with black owned businesses, nightclubs and theaters. Only 60 years prior to this time period, African Americans were still not free and could not live life the way it should be lived. They lived as property not real humans. Thats why it is surprising to me how much African Americans were able to flourish in this community and during this time period.      The Harlem Renaissance, “...is considered a golden age in African American culture, manifesting in literature, music, stage performance, and art.” (Harlem Renaissance, 2009) The culture African Americans had started to build for themselves in this community would soon bring together whites and blacks to celebrate and live life together. Although Harlem was majority built for the white community, majority of landlord...

      Langston Hughes was born on February 1st, 1902, in Joplin Missouri. He lived with his grandmother till the age of 13 because his parents had divorced and moved away for work. At the age of 13, Langston moved to live with his mother and her newly husband in Lincoln, Illinois. Moving to Lincoln and going through his parents divorce at a young age influenced Hughes to being writing. After high school he had gone off to Columbia University in New York for one year. In November 1924, Hughes dropped out of Columbia and moved to Washington D.C where he would soon publish his first piece of writing called The Weary Blues.      Throughout Hughes's writing, it is easily known that his writing was influenced by the insightful, colorful, musical time period that was known as the Harlem Renaissance. His writing also talked about the many different aspects of African American culture during that time period and how it was to be separated by skin color. Hughes ...

Many of his poems bear the influence of jazz and the blues known as "blues poetry." He was referred to as a jazzpoet because he incorporated music in them. Blues poetry is using the same themes, motifs, language, and imagery common to the blues literature. "He was the one who began writing blues poetry and the one who initiated the process of performing poetry accompanied by jazz musicians" (Chinitz 177). Hughes's poems often use idioms and speech patterns of African-American dissent to tell of the trials and hardships of his people. His use of repetitions, choruses, riffs, scats, audience participation, dissonance, and line irregularity. "During his readings he used groans, moans, shouts, and echoes"(Davidas 268). Hughes made his poetry readings more like concerts. His favorite pastime was sitting in the clubs listening to jazz and blues. This is where he wrote a lot of his poetry that consisted of jazz music. Here he could listen t...

     Although Hughes was mostly known for his artistic filled poetry, he also produced many other works of literature. One of his most famous pieces of literature just so happens to be a theatre play called Mulatto. In fact the play has been performed on Broadway almost 375 times. It was produced on Broadway in 1935 by Martin Jones. It was one of the first ever plays to contain conflict between father and son over racial issues.      The play consisted where a young child grows up on a plantain with his family who are employed on a plantation. The main character's name is Robert Lewis, he was a young African American boy who was sent away at a young age to an all black school. Robert, who is 18 by the time he returns from for for the first time dearly worshipped his father at a young age until he was extremely beaten by his dad for calling him "Papa." The word "Mullatos'' means race mixed children, who live on a plantation but are not actually acknowledg...

In 2016, a women named Renee Watson was responsible for starting the #Langston'sLegacy. Watson is an award winning children's book author who moved from Oregon to New York to continue on his legacy. In 2016, Watson tracked down the owner of Langston Hughes's old home to see if they can set something up to create a museum out of the building. In only 30 days time, Watson had raised enough public funding using her movement to reopen the building to the public for the first time in years. The community of Harlem of course stepped in to donate and reopen the home of an African American legend who spread the art and culture of the Harlem Renaissance. The home consists of the same actual furniture that Hughes had used. This includes his typewriter where over hundreds of pieces of work was made. Watson launched, "I, Too, Arts collective" an organization named after one of Hughes' most famous poems, offering a range of creative arts programs for all ages, like a wee...