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Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual and cultural movement of African-American music, dance, art, fashion, literature, theatre, politics, and scholarship centred in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, spanning the 1920s and 1930s. At the time, it was known as the "New Negro Movement," named after The New Negro, a 1925 anthology edited by Alain Locke.

Historical Context

Great Migration and Urban Development

The movement emerged from the Great Migration of African-American workers fleeing the racist conditions of the Jim Crow Deep South. Harlem became the final destination for the largest number of those who migrated north. During the early 20th century, Harlem was a destination for migrants from around the country, attracting both people from the South seeking work and an educated class who made the area a centre of culture.

The district had originally been developed in the 19th century as an exclusive suburb for the white middle and upper middle classes. During the enormous influx of European immigrants in the late 19th century, the once exclusive district was abandoned by the white middle class, who moved farther north.

Timeline

The zenith of this "flowering of Negro literature," as James Weldon Johnson described the Harlem Renaissance, took place between approximately 1924—when Opportunity: A Journal of Negro Life hosted a party for black writers where many white publishers were in attendance—and 1929, the year of the stock-market crash and the beginning of the Great Depression.

Cultural Expression and Art

Literature

The Harlem Renaissance came with a sense of acceptance for African-American writers. As Langston Hughes put it, with Harlem came the courage "to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame." Alain Locke's anthology The New Negro was considered the cornerstone of this cultural revolution.

Key literary figures included:

Langston Hughes - Poet and writer known for jazz poetry such as "The Weary Blues"
Zora Neale Hurston - Novelist and anthropologist
Claude McKay - Poet whose militant sonnet "If We Must Die" introduced political dimensions
Jean Toomer - Author of Cane
Jessie Fauset - Novelist and editor
Countee Cullen - Poet who explored themes of heritage and identity

Music and Performance

The Harlem Renaissance was integral to the development of jazz culture. A new way of playing the piano called the Harlem Stride style was created, helping to blur the lines between poor African Americans and socially elite African Americans.

Duke Ellington gained popularity during this period, opening an influential residency at the Cotton Club in 1927. Other influential musicians included Louis Armstrong, Fletcher Henderson, Ethel Waters, Adelaide Hall, and Florence Mills.

The musical Shuffle Along with a score by Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle debuted in 1921, becoming the first African-American musical to play in white theatres across the country. It proved that Black and White audiences would pay to see African Americans on Broadway.

Visual Arts

Aaron Douglas, often referred to as the "Father of African-American Art," was one of the most influential painters of the Harlem Renaissance. Through his paintings that utilise colour, shape, and line, Douglas creates a collapsing of time as he merges the past, present, and future of African-American history.

Augusta Savage, born in Florida in 1892, was a sculptor, advocate, and teacher who put black everyday people at the forefront of her works. In 1932, Savage founded the Savage Studio of Arts and Crafts, providing free art classes. She was the only African American commissioned to create an exhibit for the 1939 World Fair in New York.

Fashion and Style

During the Harlem Renaissance, the African-American clothing scene took a dramatic turn from the prim and proper styles many young women preferred. Fashion evolved to include:

Women's Fashion

Drop-waisted dresses and cloche hats
Loose-fitted garments
Long strand pearl bead necklaces
Feather boas and cigarette holders
Egret-trimmed berets (popular by the 1930s)

Men's Fashion

Loose suits that led to the later "Zoot" style
Wide-legged, high-waisted, peg-top trousers
Long coats with padded shoulders and wide lapels
Wide-brimmed hats, coloured socks, white gloves
Velvet-collared Chesterfield coats
Leopard-skin coats (expressing respect for African heritage)

Josephine Baker, while performing in Paris, was a major fashion trendsetter for black and white women alike. Her gowns from couturier Jean Patou were copied, especially her stage costumes. She is credited for highlighting the "art deco" fashion era after performing the "Danse Sauvage."

Women and LGBTQ+ Expression

The Harlem Renaissance provided unprecedented space for women's artistic expression and LGBTQ+ identity. Although societal constraints remained, Harlem offered more acceptance than most places in America at the time.

Female Artists and Performers

Gertrude "Ma" Rainey was known to dress in traditionally male clothing, and her blues lyrics often reflected her sexual proclivities for women, which was extremely radical at the time. She was also the first person to introduce blues music into vaudeville.

Bessie Smith, Rainey's protégé, used blues to express unapologetic views on same-gender relations. Gladys Bentley, who was known to cross-dress, was the club owner of Clam House on 133rd Street in Harlem, which was a hub for queer patrons.

Safe Spaces and Challenges

Places such as the Cotton Club and Rockland Palace routinely held gay drag shows in addition to straight performances. The Hamilton Lodge in Harlem hosted an annual drag ball, drawing thousands of people to watch young men dance in drag.

However, there were prominent voices of opposition, such as Abyssinian Baptist Church's minister Adam Clayton Powell Sr., who actively opposed homosexuality.

Themes and Characteristics

The "New Negro"

Characterising the Harlem Renaissance was an overt racial pride represented in the idea of the New Negro, who through intellect and production of literature, art and music could challenge pervading racism and stereotypes to promote progressive politics and racial integration.

Common Themes

The influence of slavery and emerging African-American folk traditions on black identity
Effects of institutional racism
Dilemmas of performing and writing for elite white audiences
How to convey the experience of modern black life in the urban North
Exploration of sexuality and gender expression

Writing About the Harlem Renaissance

For writers crafting characters and scenes from this period, the Harlem Renaissance offers rich material for exploring themes of identity, sexuality, and artistic expression:

Character Development

Artists navigating between authentic expression and commercial success
Women exploring newfound freedoms in dress, behaviour, and sexuality
Queer individuals finding community and expression in underground venues
The tension between traditional values and modern urban life

Setting and Atmosphere

Smoky jazz clubs with intimate lighting and pulsing rhythms
Art salons where intellectual and creative discussions flourished
Speakeasies where racial and social boundaries blurred
Studios and galleries showcasing revolutionary artistic expression

Writing Examples

"The saxophone's wail seemed to speak directly to her soul, its blue notes echoing the longing she'd never dared voice. In this Harlem club, surrounded by artists and dreamers, she felt the intoxicating possibility of becoming who she truly was."

Why it works: Connects the sensual nature of jazz with personal sexual and artistic awakening, emphasising the transformative power of the Harlem environment.

"She adjusted her beaded headband and stepped into the gallery, her drop-waisted dress swaying with newfound confidence. Here, amongst Douglas's bold geometric paintings, she could envision a future where her own art—and her own desires—might finally be celebrated."

Why it works: Links fashion and visual art to personal empowerment, emphasising how the Renaissance created space for women's artistic and sexual expression.

Legacy and Influence

The Harlem Renaissance was successful in bringing the black experience clearly within the corpus of American cultural history. The migration of Southern blacks to the North changed the image of the African American from rural, undereducated peasants to one of urban, cosmopolitan sophistication.

The progress during this period became a point of reference from which the African-American community gained a spirit of self-determination that provided a foundation for the Civil Rights struggles in the 1950s and 1960s.

As Henry Louis Gates Jr. wrote in 1993, the Harlem Renaissance "was surely as gay as it was black," acknowledging the significant role of LGBTQ+ artists and themes in the movement.