The American Vision: Modern Times © 2008

"The Harlem Renaissance"

Introduction
During the jazz and the jive of the early 1920s, African American writers began making their voices heard in the pages of American literature. Many of these writers met, lived, and supported one another in a suburb of New York City called Harlem. Their expressions of African American experiences and cultural heritage inspired an explosion of African American literature and poetry. As African Americans in all areas of the arts and society joined in, a movement was born that came to be known as the Harlem Renaissance. Find various websites that chronicle the historic events and important people that brought the Harlem Renaissance to life.

Sample web sites:
University of Michigan -- http://www.si.umich.edu/chico/Harlem/index.html
Library of Congress -- http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/harlem/harlem.html
Kennedy Center -- http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/exploring/harlem/artsedge.html
Visual Arts -- http://www.iniva.org/harlem/home.html

Note: Clicking on the links above will launch new browser windows.
Need help using your browser for this activity? Click here for tips.

After you have read through the information, answer the following questions.

1			Where was Harlem located?
2			List several African American authors of the Harlem Renaissance and their works.
3			List several African American visual artists of the Harlem Renaissance and their works.
4			What influence did Duke Ellington have on music?
5			The Harlem Renaissance injected American society with the rhythms and yearnings of the 1920s' African American. On a separate sheet of paper, write a short essay that describes the impact of the Harlem Renaissance on American culture. Include in your short essay examples of people, works, and ideas that added the African American voice to the texture of our society. Conclusion The Harlem Renaissance was a turning point in African American cultural history in the United States. The movement was a broad expression of popular culture, seen in a wide variety of art forms. Why do you think the Harlem Renaissance was so significant to African American history?