Make 5 sentences

Harlem

Poets

Activists

Performers

The great Migration

Excitement

Rebirth/ renewal

Artist

Jazz

1920-1940

Musicians

Emerge

African Americans

Capital of the Negro World

Overview

During the early 20th century, African-American poets,

musicians, actors, artists and intellectuals moved to Harlem in

New York City and brought new ideas that shifted the culture

forever. From approximately 1918 to the mid 1930s, talent

began to overflow within this newfound culture of the black

community in Harlem, as prominent figures—Langston

Hughes, Duke Ellington and Billie Holiday, to name a few—

pushed art to its limit as a form of expression and

representation. These are some of the famous African

Americans who shaped the influential movement known as

the Harlem Renaissance.

Hardships and

Transformation

The continuing hardships faced by African Americans in the

Deep South and the urban North were severe. It took the

environment of the new American city to bring in close

proximity some of the greatest minds of the day. Harlem

brought notice to great works that might otherwise have been

lost or never produced. The results were phenomenal. The

artists of the Harlem Renaissance undoubtedly transformed

African American culture. But the impact on all American

culture was equally strong. For the first time, white America

could not look away.

Harlem during the Renaissance

Hand out Population

Primary Document1. HARLEM: THE BLACK

MECCA

2. 1900-1940

People of the Harlem

Renaissance

Famous Harlem Renaissance People

Actors

Singers

Activists

Hand out Primary

Document

What shaped the stories of the time?

Writers

Countee Cullen

Arna Bontemps

Sterling Brown

James Baldwin

Claude McKay

Langston Hughes

Zora Neale Hurston

Primary Documents

A professional writer edits!

Artists E. Simms Campbell

Augusta Savage

Aaron Douglas

Lois Mailou Jones

Jacob Lawrence

Hand out

Primary document The beginning of Jazz

Jazz Duke Ellington

Ella Fitzgerald

Billie Holiday

Henry Allen

No aspect of the Harlem

Renaissance shaped America and

the entire world as much as jazz.

JAZZ flouted many musical

conventions with its syncopated

rhythms & improvised

instrumental solos. Thousands of

city dwellers flocked night after

night to see the same performers.

IMPROVISATION meant that

no two performances would ever

be the same. Harlem's COTTON

CLUB boasted the talents of

DUKE ELLINGTON. Singers

such as BESSIE SMITH and

BILLIE HOLIDAY popularized

blues and jazz vocals LOUIS

ARMSTRONG drew huge

audiences as white Americans as

well as African Americans.

•Bill Bojangles Robinson

•Florence Mills

•Lena HornePerformers

Renaissance

Definition/synonyms:

Rebirth

Resurgence

New start; new beginning

Revitalization

Reawakening

Recovery

What was the Harlem

Renaissance?

As a group, create 3 claims for the

Harlem Renaissance.

Provide 2 pieces of evidence for each

claim.

EXAMPLE: The 1920’s and 30’s were a

prominent time for the arts in Harlem.