Remembering the Renaissance: The History of Harlem

Wouldn’t you love to travel time into a different decade or world? A world where creativity was at its peak, in a space for cultural, artistic, and intellectual ideas. That’s precisely what the Harlem Renaissance was and continues to be. Breaking away from the racial identities black people were being forced into, the Harlem Renaissance broke stereotypes and created new labels: artists, creators, musicians, collaborators.Β 

Literature was one of the big mediums in which African Americans flourished during this Renaissance. Writers such as Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, Zora Neale Houston, and others expressed the intricacies of being black in an alienated society–they told their true stories, not the stories people wanted or assumed about them. These themes also expressed resistance, resisting the cultural norms around them, and uniquely tearing down walls. Famous literature from the Harlem Renaissance includes, β€œIf We Must Die,” by Claude McKay and β€œThe Negro Speaks of Rivers.” These poems allowed people to see that there is more to living under the status quo that most people didn’t even agree with.Β 

Music and performance had also grown into new genres of creativity. Two of these are jazz and blues. Artists such as Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, James Hubert Blake (!), and Bessie Smith paved the way for jazz and blues today.Β  Experimenting with this new sound which caught on very quickly in America, also changed the perception of African Americans in other countries. Jazz fused European musical traditions with African music, and connected different races with one another.Β 

Many more other revolutionary subjects of the Harlem Renaissance can be named, but you would be reading all day. The artistic freedom within the era could never be duplicated, nor can it be replaced. The essence of the people and entertainment’s popularity continues to be significant to others to this day.