harlem reneisiacnance

common HR motifs

• pride in culture, heritage, identity

• rejection of racism, stereotypes

• AA kinship

• revolutionary, controversial

biggest negative of the HR

still too interested in white approval

why HR ended

great depression

america’s predicted future in “america”

the future will be dark / collapse if things don’t change

contradictory nature of “america”

even though it is bad to him, he does not hate america at all

intended audience of “if we must die”

african americans

type of death desired in “if we must die”

a valiant death where he fights back and does good for his people and the oppression they face

tone shift in “weary blues”

he starts out very sad but ends up more content as he let his emotions out

harlem’s place in world in “harlem”

they were wronged and now they’re on the outside watching the world but not forgetting what was done to them

mood in 1930s harlemn

ignored, waiting, vengeful

• folklorist, political activist, and anthropologist

• barnard college

• inspired writers like alice walker

zora neale hurston

• most successful HR writer

• raised by grandma

• traveled africa + europe

• lived in Paris as expatriate

• wrote the weary blues

• never married

• died of cancer

• compared to shakespeare (bard)

• vachel lindsay “discovered” him

• AA culture + oral tradition

• jazz rhythms

  • influenced by sandburg and whitman

langston hughes

• black keats (compared to famous poet)

• origin myterious

• mom died, grandma died, adopted

• married WEB DuBois’s daughter

• sought to trascend race

• “color” earned his awards and reputation

  • translated greek tragedy, medea

countee cullen

• most controversial

• abandoned by parents, uncle murdered

• joined WIPA Federal Writer’s Project

• married twice

• wrote for communist party

• expatriate in Paris

• wrote native son

  • FBI surveilled him for years

richard wright

notes on “my city”

says how much he loves his city of Manhattan even saying he loves it more than trees, flowers, and birds because he loves being a part of it and it’s so beautiful.

notes on “the negro speaks of rivers”

talks for all african americans from different times and places and how the rivers are essential to them and their souls

the poem argues that people of African descent have not simply been present for all of human history, they have been a guiding force shaping civilization.

the "blood" serves as a symbol or synecdoche for human beings themselves.

Sure, they are real rivers, but they also stand in metonymically for the cultures that have risen and fallen on their banks. More broadly, the rivers themselves come to serve as symbols for human history.

notes on “a black man speaks of reaping”

The phrase explains that, you get out of a situation what you put in. The speaker feels that, because he is of African American descent, what he has sown, will not be returned to him in an equal volume, in part because of racial prejudice.

Extended Metaphor. The author is comparing planting and reaping to his own experiences as an African American

notes on “from When the Negro was in Vogue”

first hand account on what it was like to be in harlem when white people came, how nobody wanted them there but they were there, how black people then got to do crazy things and live crazy lives and crazy things were happening all around and they were writing and being written about and were in vogue magazine

define red summer

anti-AA riots in north

define great migration

african americans move from rural south to urban north

define free vs blank verse

blank verse: no rhyme but has regular meter

free verse: no rhyme no regular meter

define naturalism

stressed realism/lack of control in life

define memoir

a historical account or biography written from personal knowledge or special sources

define emulate

imitate; match or surpass (a person or achievement)

define adhere

believe in and follow the practices of

define cohere

be united; form a whole

define patrons

Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another.

aaron douglass vs jacob lawrence art style

aaron douglass: geometric shapes and monochrome and silhouettes

jacob lawrence: USES A LOT OF STRAIGHT LINES and bright colors from harlem, abstract forms, cubism

harlem push/pull factors

push: racism, natural disasters

pull: jobs, safety, opportunity

define reap

cut, gather, harvest (farming or received by other peoples actions)

despite being socially-politically controversial, hr writers still looked to…?

romantic forms

what does hurston claims leads to her success

her soul, spirit, inner strength

hughes portrays remembering the past as bringing only __

grief, pain, and frustration

what movement did the HR effect

civil rights movement

overall mood/tone of tropics in NY

sadness, nostalgia, homesickness

critical reaction towards bigger

critics didnt like it because it enforced stereotypes

what does musician symbolize in weary blues

all african americans

speakers attitude in “I, Too”

optimistic for positive change in the future

elements of naturalism / modernism in native son

bigger is victim to his environment and has no happy ending as everything keeps going wrong for him and stems from his race

though they were diverse, what did aa writers not mimic?

ancient roman poetry

what was one reason they did not go to harlem?

communism