Harlem Renaissance Essays (Examples)

Langston, in his commentary, sought to point out that the Negro condition was crucial to their development as artists. "We younger Negro artists who create now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame." (Hughes). In this declaration, one does not detect racial pride or bitterness, but rather, a tender plea for the right to create art without being judged by society as vulgar or threatening.

Hughes viewed negro art before the Harlem Renaissance as restricted by shame of their unique cultural features as negro, so foreign to Western art at the time, and fear of the scorn they would receive from the public and their peers if this negro culture ever were to leak out in their art. (Hughes). ecause of these self-imposed restraints, negro art was missing the passionate, unself-conscious desire for self-expression which is so vital to art.

Evaluation

Locke tried too hard to define the movement.…

Harlem Renaissance was a noteworthy era in human history that was triggered immediately after the upheaval of World War 1. It is largely characterized as a period in which African-Americans searched for greater self-actualization, and struggled for racial equality in an America drowned in ethnic bias. The lack community deemed it absolutely necessary to realize their dreams of a world with no prejudice and equitable opportunities in all walks of life. Political and economic movements reigned supreme and many iconic personalities lent their philosophies to the cause of lack Pride. As the lack community resorted to articulating their tumultuous views through art and literature, many specific ideologies sprang up through names such as W.E.. Du ois and James Weldon Johnson. The result was an aesthetic tide of expression that changed the face of America for all times to come. Many instances of heart wrenching tales and poems can be found,…

Harlem Renaissance
The Southern Roots of Harlem Renaissance

The African-American artistic, literary, and intellectual self-development, known as the Harlem Renaissance, is one of the most important and pivotal moments in the history of African-Americans -- and that of the United States in general. The Harlem Renaissance greatly influenced African-Americans' perception of who they were, their roles in American society, and their place within the racialized society dominated by Whites. The Renaissance movement, however, did not start out of nothing. What happened in Harlem in the 1920s and '30s was the result of a series of socio-economic and political events that preceded it. Among the most important events that contributed to the emergence of the African-American Renaissance movement in Harlem was the great migration from the South. The failure of the post-Emancipation reconstruction in the South forced many African-Americans out of Southern states to the North where industrial boom required cheap labor. Many…

Harlem Renaissance- Literature and Art
The Harlem or Negro Renaissance marked the 20s and 30s as a period where the spirituality and potential of the African-American community was expressed in the most explosive way possible. lack art had been relatively unknown to the American public until then, at least to the urban communities. Centered in the Southern states and with a freedom of expression generally trampled with, black art expression was simply censored or manifested itself in its raw forms. The migration to the Northern metropolis after the First World War was similar and implied the development, in all its forms, of lack culture. This included literature (poetry and prose), music (jazz played in the notorious Cotton Club and elsewhere), visual arts (painting) and acting in musicals.

Langston Hughes, one of the most representative creators of the Harlem Renaissance, best resumed this period as being a period when "Negro was in vogue."…

Harlem Renaissance is also known as the period of renaissance and development of lack art and writing in the United States. Literature was used as a means of promoting and projecting the realities of social oppression that African-Americans felt at the time. Literature was also one of the modes of expression that was used to articulate the complex emotions that many African-Americans felt in an oppressive society. On a related level, the Harlem Renaissance was, in essence, the search for identity and meaning as well as for the expression of cultural roots of lack people in the United States. There were a number of writers and artists who became famous as propagandists of the search for lack identity and meaning. One of the most well-known was Langston Hughes, whose poetry will be discussed as an example of the literature of the Harlem Renaissance.
The meaning of the Harlem Renaissance.

In order to…

Harlem enaissance
There were many influential people that changed the shape of American culture during the Harlem enaissance. Among them included Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver. These two individuals were responsible for much of the ideology of the Harlem enaissance. Another key person responsible for the Harlem enaissance this paper will review was Hubert Harrison, who was often referred to as the "Father of Harlem adicalism." He found the Liberty League, and the Voice, an organization and the first newspaper of what was referred to as the "New Negro Movement.

Booker T. Washington was among many things an educator, speaker, American author and lead politician; he was a representative of great American leaders that was among the last politicians to speak out against slavery, and among blacks that still did not have the right to vote. Washington had much support among white politicians, religious organizations, educational institutions and many other…

First she moved back to northern Florida to Jacksonville. Stymied there, Augusta Savage moved to New York City. Her move paralleled that of many other Harlem Renaissance figures, who migrated to the northern American city in search of greater opportunities for financial and personal growth. In 1921, Augusta enrolled in a free art program at Cooper Union in New York City. The course helped her acquire formal training for her future career, and Savage washed laundry to earn a living.
In spite of her tremendous efforts, Savage met with serious obstacles because of her race, poverty, and correspondingly low social status. She applied and was accepted to a summer art program in France. The French government turned her away "because of her color," ("Augusta Fells Savage"). Savage used the incident to draw attention to the issue of racism. She therefore contributed to the growing awareness of the systematic oppression of…

Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes and his "Refugee in America," and Zora Neale Hurston and her "The Eatonville Anthology." Specifically, it will relate the thoughts of these two writers to the statement by .E.B. Du Bois in "The Souls of Black Folk." "It is a peculiar sensation, this double consciousness, this sense of always looking at oneself through the eyes of others...One ever feels his two-ness...An American, a Negro."
THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE

Zora Neale Hurston's "The Eatonville Anthology" is a delightful account of the small Florida town of Eatonville and its colorful residents. Each short vignette discusses a different resident of the town, seen through the eyes of the narrator. Hurston is literally showing the reader the entire town as if the reader were a voyeur, standing back and watching, never seen. This is exactly what Du Bois speaks about in his quote regarding double consciousness, and Hurston vividly illustrates it here.…

Modernism and Harlem enaissance
The Modernist Movement

Modernism during the early part of the 20th century was a recognition of power in the human heart and mind ot make, improve, and reshape the environment (History of Visual Communication, 2012). This reshaping process was made possible with the assistance of science, technology, and experimentation. In addition to the political and cultural implications of this recognition, this reshaping process also manifested itself in the artistic movements of Western society. Particularly, it was a movement that encompassed European-born art and culture, while at the same time attempting to create something alternative, new, and indeed "modern" in response to the artistic and cultural movements that have prevailed to date. The movement embraced change and the present in rebellion against the academic and historicist traditions of the late 19th century. Instead, the movement sought to embrace the new economic, social, and political realities of the world it…

20th Century
he Harlem Renaissance was an important aspect of American history and to African-American history specifically. he Harlem Renaissance took place during the first few decades of the 20th century, particularly after the first world war. hough it is named after Harlem, an area of New York City, Manhattan island, the spirit of this artistic, literary and cultural expansion spread across the United States and Europe. Some of the most prominent members of the Harlem Renaissance traveled and flourished in Europe, then returned to the states to rejuvenate and invigorate the African-American community and in turn American culture. Major participants were novelists, musicians, poets, dancers, singers, and political leaders. Some of the noted participants of the Harlem Renaissance include W.E.B. Du Bois, Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, James Baldwin, Dorothy West, Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey and many more.

he benefactors began as the African-American community. he…

Female Figures of the Harlem Renaissance
Throughout the tumultuous span of America's existence, perhaps no era in our national history has come to define both the promise of freedom and the tortured path taken to its deliverance than the Harlem Renaissance of the early 20th century. Inspired by the collective yearning for artistic expression which consumed many newly liberated African-Americans during the heady days of the Reconstruction, the term Harlem Renaissance came to describe a period from 1918 through 1935 in which thousands of former slaves and their descendants migrated from the broken South to the urban centers of the northeastern states. Today modern scholars observe that "as the population of African-Americans rapidly urbanized and its literacy rate climbed, Harlem, New York, the 'Negro capital of America' rose out of the vast relocation" (Lewis, 999) to stand as a monument to the creative and professional heights that were now suddenly in…

ashington was not afraid to appeal to intelligence. He was also a great believer in hope. ashington lived to see his world change in incredible ways and while he did not know if he would see reconciliation, he believed it would happen anyway. He wrote, "The great human law that in the end recognizes and rewards merit is everlasting and universal" (318). Here we the true definition of hope as it extends from one individual to all of mankind.
The writers of the Harlem Renaissance are especially important because they capture the essence of what most African-Americans were feeling at a time of turmoil. Art has a way of accomplishing many things. It can express ideas and it can open eyes. Through art, people can learn about others and begin to understand more of their fellow men. Fiction has a way of opening up the lives of others. hen people…

Aron Douglas and the Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance is the term given to a period in American history where a new focus on the African-American experience emerged. This emergence began in the Harlem region of New York.

It was a time when African-American artists began to express their culture and at this time in history there came a new focus on the African-American artist and African-American Art.

The Harlem Renaissance has been described as "a cultural and psychological watershed, an era in which black people were perceived as having finally liberated themselves from a past fraught with self-doubt and surrendered instead to an unprecedented optimism, a novel pride in all things black and a cultural confidence that stretched beyond the borders of Harlem to other black communities in the Western world" (Powelland).

This Renaissance extended to all areas of the arts including painting, singing and performing. What was similar about these…

Carl Van Vechten Carl Van Vechten was a white man with a zeal for blackness who had a fundamental role to play in aiding the Harlem Renaissance, which was a movement shepherded by the blacks, come to understand itself. Van Vechten played a pivotal role in the Harlem Renaissance and aided in bringing increased clearness and transparency to the African American movement. Nonetheless, for an extensive period of time, he was perceived as a controversial figure. The main objective of this essay is to write out a descriptive annotated bibliography on Carl Van Vechten and the influence that he had on the Harlem Renaissance. Specifically, this will touch on the importance of Van Vechten in the Renaissance and also how his book created a great deal of controversy amongst the black press and artists as well.
Annotated Bibliography
Bernard, E. (1997). What He Did for the Race: Carl Van Vechten and the Harlem…

American Life in the Great Gatsby and the Harlem Renaissance
The Great Gatsby and the Harlem Renaissance (the world of Jay Gatsby, Nick Carraway, Daisy and the other inhabitants of Long Island, New York are the other side of the coin compared to the residents of Harlem, New York. F. Scott Fitzgerald's the Great Gatsby was written as not only a tribute to the Roaring Twenties, but also as a scorn for the giddiness and gaudiness of the era. The circle of people in Jay Gatsby's world were educated, socially connected, and wealthy. They were what is referred to as old money, meaning the present generations had never wanted for anything nor could their parents ever remember being in need. Their lives were filled with parties and social events Fitzgerald 1995). Fitzgerald painted the life of the rich and empty. Although, never wanting, they were nothing without their wealth. Few…

Carl Van Vechten and his Influence on the Harlem Renaissance: Annotated Bibliography Introduction
The best way to describe Carl Van Vechten is to say that he was a wealthy, upper class white male from Middle America, who moved to the big city, loved the concept of blackness and thus played a pivotal role in shaping and supporting the Harlem Renaissance. Van Vechten was a photographer, a novelist, and an artist and his patronage of the Harlem Renaissance helped make the movement come to life, though not everyone saw his literary contributions as worthwhile. Ralph Ellison viewed Van Vechten’s Nigger Heaven as a book that had a negative influence on the Negro novel’s development (Sanneh, 2014). This annotated bibliography will describe a number of different sources that help to explain and describe Carl Van Vechten and his influence on the Harlem Renaissance.
Annotated Bibliography
Bernard, E. (1997). What He Did for the Race: Carl Van…

Harlem enaissance.
Two Poet Writers from Harlem enaissance

Many people familiar with Langston Hughes' works refer to him as the literature Nobel laureate of Harlem because of the way he accurately captured Harlem's passions, moods and events. However, his works were never provincial. By telling the story of Harlem through his poems, he shed light on truths that were important to people from all backgrounds.

Langston Hughes was without a doubt one of the main figures of the Harlem enaissance -- the 1920s' blossoming of arts and culture among people of color that happened in that New York area. Hughes knew for sure that being black was beautiful and powerful and for this reason he did all he could to advocate for the cause of all the other people who mainstream white artists had pushed out of the public's eye (Langston Hughes: Harlem enaissance).

Langston's professional career took off in 1926 when Knopf…

African-American culture flourished during the Harlem Renaissance. Although often characterized by and punctuated with the “double consciousness” of being both black and an American, the work of Harlem Renaissance writers and poets was variable and diverse. Countee Cullen is unique among Harlem Renaissance poets. Many of his works reflect the English poetic traditions, even more so than American or African-American ones. “Cullen considered the Anglo-American poetic heritage to belong as much to him as to any white American of his age,” (“Harlem Renaissance: American Literature and Art”). Implicit in Cullen’s poetic styles and formats was the belief in a blended identity, and yet the poem “Simon the Cyrenian Speaks” shows that Cullen indeed did struggle with the double consciousness. Langston Hughes took a different approach than Cullen did, in terms of poetic style, subject matter, and approaches to race. Contrary to Cullen, Hughes believed “black poets should create a distinctive…

Harlem Renaissance
How does literature contribute to history, and what does the Harlem Renaissance reveal about U.S. History?

Modern U.S. History

Content Learning Objective (content and product):

e.g., students will be able to [content analysis] by [product and activity].

What historical content will students know at the end of the lesson?

At the end of the lesson students will know the literary significance of the Harlem Renaissance within a historical context. Specifically, they will understand how the literary aspirations realized through the Harlem Renaissance contributed to United States history in terms of literature and the fine arts.

State using Formal Objective format.

Historical Thinking Learning Objective (thinking skill and product):

e.g., students will be able to weigh [historical thinking learning objective] by [activity].

Describe what students will know and be able to do at the end of the lesson related to your chosen historical thinking skill.

The students will be able to name some of the more notable authors of the…

The roots of such music can be traced back still further to the gospel hymns, work songs, and field calls that developed amongst slave populations in the south during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (Scholastic 2011). The Southern and decidedly African-American sounds of blues and early jazz were brought along with the Great migration, where New Orleans styles like Dixieland met with the calmer strains of the Mississippi blues and other styles (Scholastic 2011). In New York, with the greatest concentration of African-Americans, new collaborations and iterations sprang up quite rapidly.
The Harlem enaissance, named for the neighborhood in Manhattan where the African-American community was concentrated and centralized, was an explosion of artistic, literary, and musical expression largely because it represented the first major community of African-Americans located in a small geographical area (McDougal & Littell 2008). The jazz music that developed in New York as a part of this…

Secondly, even the beginning of the film presents an African motif. The drums that open the scene are representative for the ancient tribal singing and dancing. The same drums are present in Cullen's poetry, revealing a deep African symbol. Moreover, the drums also make the passage from the contemporary life in which the film is first set, to the imaginary and ancient time of slavery.

The characters are as well particularly chosen. For instance, Joe, a white skinned slave is important for pointing out the traditional individual that tries to escape his past, through all means possible. He rejects his mother, who is the embodiment of the African spirit, he worships a white God, Virgin Mary, and in the end, he takes on a position that implies behaving in a similar manner as the white oppressors.

Joe's mother, Nunu, represents in the film the symbol of the African heritage. She stands up…

This is why people that had financial resources to move away from the agitated center often chose Harlem. At the same time however,
On the periphery of these upper class enclaves, however, impoverished Italian immigrants huddled in vile tenements located from 110th to 125th Streets, east of Third Avenue to the Harlem iver. To the north of Harlem's Italian community and to the west of Eighth Avenue, Irish toughs roamed an unfilled marshlands area referred to by locals as "Canary Island."

In this sense, it can be said that in the beginning, Harlem represented the escape place for many of the needy in search for a better life. From this amalgam, the Jews represented the largest group, the reason being the oppressive treatment they were continuously subject to throughout the world. Still, the phenomenon that led to the coming of a black majority of people in this area was essential for…

Their main arguments are based on historical assumptions and on facts which have represented turning points for the evolution of the African-American society throughout the decades, and especially during the evolutionary War and the Civil War. In this regard, the Old Negro, and the one considered to be the traditional presence in the Harlem, is the result of history, and not of recent or contemporary events.
From the point-of-view of historical preconceptions and stereotypes, it would unwise to consider Harlem as being indeed a cancer in the heart of a city, taking into account the fact that there is no objective comparison being made. Locke points out the fact that the Negro of today be seen through other than the dusty spectacles of past controversy. The day of "aunties," "uncles" and "mammies" is equally gone. Uncle Tom and Sambo have passed on, and even the "Colonel" and "George" play barnstorm…

Harlem enaissance
Harlem's Poets

Claude McKay and Langston Hughes became like two poster boys for the Harlem enaissance. They burst from the "Harlem Shadows" and underground jazz world into the mainstream, crossing the racial divide to find support and fame not only in America but all over the world. Their poems, however, like African-American music, were co-opted by white culture and exploited for aims entirely divorced from the ethnicity that justified the poems existence in the first place. And, as McKay's own life shows, when the poetry took a deeper, less visceral, more theological turn, the poet was rejected by that same white (Protestant) establishment, which seemed to only want a "jungle fever" type of poetry. This demand of the surrounding white culture is what led the Harlem poets to have a "double consciousness" regarding their poetry. To make it to the top, they still needed the support of the very culture…

Some artists, such as Aaron Douglas, captured the feeling of Africa in their work because they wanted to show their ancestry through art. Others, like Archibald J. Motley Jr., obtained their inspiration from the surroundings in which they lived in; where jazz was at the forefront and African-Americans were just trying to get by day-to-day like any other Anglo-American. Additionally, some Black American artists felt more comfortable in Europe than they did in America. These artists tended to paint landscapes of different European countries. Most of the latter, however, were ostracized for this because many black politicians felt they should represent more of their African culture in their work (Campbell 1994, Powell and Bailey).
Whatever the case, most African-American artists during this period of time had a similarity that tied them together. Black art was often very colorful and vivacious; having an almost rhythmic feel to it. This was appropriate…

Black ay, Kinloch, and the Spirit of the Los Angeles Renaissance
In Chapter One of the The Great Black ay: L.A. in the 1940s and the Lost African-American Renaissance, R. J. Smith describes John Kinloch, the up-and-coming young African-American editor of the California Eagle. A charming personality with erudite expression and a radio gig to boot, Kinloch made a particular impression on Los Angeles in the 1940s. He had the ears and eyes of society and his goal was to report what he saw and report it in such a way that people actually took notice. The thesis that Smith uses to frame the book is that L.A. was a thriving Mecca of black culture -- imported to some extent from the East, but completely moving in a unique direction that was more grassroots and organic than the elitist-led and white patronized Renaissance in Harlem had been. This thesis is…

Harlem Dancer" and "The eary Blues"
Times Change, but the Struggle is Still the Same

The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural and political movement during the 1920s and 1930s that sought to celebrate African-American culture through literary and intellectual means. Two of the era's prominent poets were Claude McKay and Langston Hughes. Their poetry helped to highlight the struggles that African-Americans were faced with. In "The Harlem Dancer," written by McKay, and "The eary Blues," written by Hughes, the poets use music as a backdrop for the narratives of their poems. Although the blues, as music, are not limited to African-Americans, the style emerged from the experiences of African-Americans. Furthermore, the Harlem Renaissance sought to celebrate these experiences by bringing together the struggles of past generations and juxtaposing them with the struggles that younger generations were going through. "The Harlem Dancer" and "The eary Blues" are depictions of the struggles that…

" (Line 19) Her art creates joy but she still has to exist in the mundane world of everyday strife and problems.
e also find this concern with the strife and woes of the world in the second poem "The eary Blues." In this poem the art form is music and particularly 'blues' music, which echoes the suffering, problems and anxieties of human life and existence. The sense of being tired and troubled is emphasized through repetition and by the refrain " O. Blues!." The state of mind of the blues player is clearly depicted in the language of the poem; for example, the way that the blues swinger sways to the music.

Both these poems show how art forms such as music and dance can express the feelings of the soul of mankind. Both also suggest that art is also a way of transcending or going beyond the problems of everyday…

Harlem enaissance was a true flourishing of African-American arts, music, and literature, thereby contributing tremendously to the cultural landscape of the nation. Much Harlem enaissance literature reflects the experience of the "great migration" of blacks from the rural south to the urban north. Those experiences included reflections on the intersections between race, class, gender, and power. Many of the Harlem enaissance writers penned memoirs that offer insight into the direct experience of racism, such as ichard Wright's "The Ethics of Living Jim Crow." Poets worked with classic literary devices like symbolism and imagery to convey the intense emotions linked to experiences of prejudice and violence. Emerging in conjunction with social and political justice movements such as women's rights and labor rights, the movement to empower black communities through the arts also spilled beyond the borders of the African-American community. For example, F. Scott Fitzgerald's novels and short stories addressed…

They were followed in 1936 by the Harlem River Houses, a more modest experiment in housing projects. And by 1964, nine giant public housing projects had been constructed in the neighborhood, housing over 41,000 people [see also Tritter; Pinckney and oock].
The roots of Harlem's various pre 1960's-era movements for African-American equality began growing years before the Harlem Renaissance itself, and were still alive long after the Harlem Renaissance ended. For example:

The NAACP became active in Harlem in 1910 and Marcus Garvey's Universal

Negro Improvement Organization in 1916. The NAACP chapter there soon grew to be the largest in the country. Activist a. Philip Randolph lived in Harlem and published the radical magazine the Messenger starting in 1917.

It was from Harlem that he organized the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car

Porters. .E.B. DuBois lived and published in Harlem in the 1920s, as did

James eldon Johnson and Marcus Garvey. ("Harlem")

Later, the lingering economic residue…

tomorrow / Bright before us / Like a flame. (Alain Locke, "Enter the New Negro," 1925)
rom the 1920's Alain Leroy Locke has been known as a prominent figure in the Harlem Renaissance. Through his writings, his actions and his education, Locke worked to educate not only White America, but also the Negro, about the beauty of the Negro heritage. He emphasized the idea that no single culture is more important than another. Yet it was also important to give sufficient attention to one's own culture and its beauty. This was Locke's philosophy of cultural pluralism.

The White heritage has enjoyed prominence for a large part of American history. During the colonization period, the Whites have emphasized their own superiority while at the same time ensuring that people of other ethnic heritages knew in no uncertain terms their own inferiority. This gave rise to a nearly monocultural America, where all other…

his League advocated the peaceful and friendly expansion and recognition of African-American culture and roots in Africa. It also helped pave the way for more militant African-American advocacy groups that found their way into popular African-American culture and society during the Harlem Renaissance. he Universal African Legion also had affiliate companies and corporations, which gave African-Americans more cultural, economic, and political clout and representation during this time period. Garvey was a crucial figure in the uniting of African-Americans toward the singular goal of improving their cultural and social conditions inside the U.S.
he New Negro movement was an over-arching hopefulness that African-American culture and society could successfully flourish in the post slavery era. Garvey played a major role in helped to culturally establish the African-American agenda of upward social mobility and desegregation (Locke, 1997). he Harlem Renaissance was a movement with limited scope that took place during the 1920's and…

In O'Connor short story, "A Good Man is Hard to Find," the antagonist is an outlaw, in keeping with the frequent use of alienated members of society in Romantic poetry and literature. The alienated member of society is contrasted with the crass materialism and superficiality of the family the Misfit kills. The child June Star is so poorly brought up that she says: "I wouldn't live in a broken-down place like this for a million bucks!" To the owner of the roadside restaurant the family stops at, and is punished dearly for her transgression by the author O'Connor with death.
Yet the grandmother, upon hearing of the story of the Misfit says: "hy you're one of my babies. You're one of my own children!" The grandmother is said to "reached out and touch" the Misfit him on the shoulder, but the Misfit is said to have "sprang back as if…

Palmer C. Hayden and Laura Wheeler Waring were two of the painters of the Harlem Renaissance, and they focused on painting stylized portraits of prominent African-Americans and scenes of black life from a variety of perspectives.
4)

The dynamism of the machine age is exhibited not only in the engineered workings of inventions like automobiles and early airplanes, but also in the Futuristic paintings of the period. There is a blend of very strong geometry and straight lines that combine to create larger images of fluidity and movement that almost seems impossible when the smaller constituent elements of the painting are focused on. It is as though magic and passion are meeting science and cool logic, which is a way of describing things like the combustion engine as well. This period was a time when the world seemed to be moving in two directions, at once looking forward to the amazing…

Some writers had been overwhelmed by the sudden changes brought by the Harlem Renaissance and they preferred writing about certain things which didn't involve it. Sometimes they chose to write about a place in the U.S. which had a special effect on them at some point of their lives.

3. Black people had not been the only ones struggling to receive credit for their writings during the 1920s, as it had been also hard for women to become appreciated in a majority of men writers. Despite having to fight the severe gender discrimination which existed during the period, many American women writers managed to become successful.

Bess Streeter Aldrich is one of the women who succeeded in getting a positive feed-back from a public that had not been accustomed with women writers. Aldrich's writing "A Lantern in Her Hand" had won her international recognition for having created a great literary work.

"A Lantern…

As a character, Celie's own experiences have not engaged her on the same levels that Shug's sexual experiences have. This is to say that Celie's life and collection of experiences have not been personally gratifying or freeing in the way that Shug suggest sexual experiences should or can be. To Shug, sex is more about the personal gratification and the freedom of bodily and emotional expression that comes with the act of making love (Selzer, 69). Since Celie's life has revolved around taking care of her children and making sure the men in her life are happy, she really hasn't had much time to develop her own personal sex life in a gratifying or selfish way.
It is important to make the distinction between acting selfishly as the men in Celie's life have and acting selfishly as Shug suggests Celie do. These are two separate things, and the act of…

e. women) (Millay 1611, lines 4, 2). But although the first and most commonly used definition of zest is "keen relish; hearty enjoyment; gusto," the word can also refer to "liveliness or energy; animating spirit" (dictionary.com). Taken this way, the seemingly passive and accepting sexuality seen in the beginning of he poem is disingenuous and even coy. This interpretation is borne out by another structural details of the poem -- the repeated use of so-called feminine endings in the closing six lines (or sestet). In adding an eleventh unstressed syllable to the end of a line of iambic pentameter, Millay is not simply marking the sonnet's structure as her own, but she is doing so in a way that coyly hints at the changing tide of feminine perspective -- the feminine endings in lines 9, 11, and 13 make the sonnet a feminine sonnet, just at the point where the…

Disillusionment and the Harlem enaissance and Post-Modernism
Distortion of the American Dream

The American dream has been as old as the American constitution. From the text, there is a highlight of the American dream and its distortion over years. It is presented as an old dream, which is as old as the Constitution of the United States of America. According to the text, those who framed the American dream were engaged the country in a state where everyone will gain the good as from working hard. Through working hard, people will be able to make it possible to attain different levels of their fulfillments. Nonetheless, today many things have changed with the changes in time (Hemingway, 2013). With the aspects of capitalism and materialism taking root in every society, the dream has been distorted. The possible supports for a statement that many of the people live within their required states of living…

They reasoned that reputable people would take precautions against being arrested. If the workers were discreet and protective of their jobs, it follows that they would, in return, protect the policy operation. Teachers and unemployed wives of prominent community leaders, people who would feel a lasting shame to be arrested, worked in policy banks. ("Harlem Policy ackets" website)

Yet, despite all the struggles in her life she did not fail to have the last word, over Dutch Shultz. She sent him a telegram, on his death bed, after he had been shot during one of his many illegal activities. The telegram simply stated: "As ye sow, so shall ye reap." From "The Queen of Policy." ("Dutch Shultz is Dead" website)

eferences

http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5001557345

Arnold, G. (1997, August 29). Bumpy oad for Star: Fishburne's 'Hoodlum' ecalls Harlem Thug. The Washington Times, p. 12. etrieved November 19, 2004, from Questia database, http://www.questia.com. http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=101010770

Bailey, F.Y., & Green, a.P.…

e are consuming too many of our natural resources and our use of fossil fuels threaten the survival of our planet. The developing world seems to placing further strains upon the earth, with no signs of abatement in population growth or industrialization. e are torn apart by nationalism rather than united as a species, in the Middle East, in Africa, and Eastern Europe. e have more material goods, but less spiritual satisfaction.
In answer to all of these questions, we must look to the persona of Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi, first and foremost, grappled with issues afflicting the region, and the cultures and faiths that are most troubling to the geopolitical crisis of today, namely the tensions between the Muslim and Hindu populations of East Asia. He also provided many solutions to all peoples, not just his own. His philosophy of nonviolence inspired Martin Luther King Jr. He also embraced people…

African-Americans: Harlem Renaissance and the Black Power Movement
History does show that America has been a nation that has been seeing itself do some changes that have been happening over and over again. Also, America is recognized as being the home of the free and the brave. However, this nation that is considered to be beautiful has not at all times been this way. America has had to gone through a lot of ups and many downs to become the beauty that many look at today. Racial discrimination had a very strong part in American society. Although today, there are still racial dissimilarities. These racial dissimilarities are not as bad as they were in the back in the days of slavery and afterwards. Two of the main explanations that positive steps have been made in the direction of removing racial disparity is the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Power Movement. It…

American writers from both the antebellum South and the North commented on the great differences between the white people in the two regions (Ibid; Samuda).
Note though, the table data below regarding the percentage of males who completed high school by race, 1940-1980, which will provide data for further discussion regarding utilization of testing to stratify recruits:

Table 1 -- Males 18-21 Who Completed High School By Percentile

ace

1940

1950

1960

1970

1970

White

40

49

56

68

78

Black

11

18

33

49

60

(Source: Binkin, p.94)

How is it that tests designed to measure information that was given in school could be administered to populations who did not even attend school? And, when one takes population and demographic statistics into account, this historical bias deepens. At the outbreak of World War I, for instance, African-Americans were about 11% of the general population, and the Selective Service draft act ensured that about that proportion would be enlisted. Despite Black leaders like W.E.B. Dubois, who hoped that if Blacks served…

about.com/cs/harlemrenaissance/a/harlemren.htm
From Jessica McElrath, Your Guide to African-American History)."

In addition to the renaissance the new found self-confidence and pride that was found by Southern Blacks who moved north also impacted the work environment.

Social protest was not only possible it was available to those who were not happy with their working conditions in the North (the BLACKS and the UNIONS (http://www.socialdemocrats.org/blktu.html).While it was extremely oppressed compared to the life of African-Americans today, it was still a far cry and significantly better than anything they had experience in the south up to that point.

Currently the nation is facing a social crisis when it comes to the plight of Mexican immigrants. Whether they are here legally or illegally there are an estimated 12 million Mexicans working and living inside the American boundaries. If one were to compare their plight to those of the Southern blacks they would find several similarities. They arrived on foot,…

Patriarch
Nothing stays with us in life as powerfully as the images of our parents we take with us into adulthood. A harsh father, a loving mother, a single parent who was on the edge of exhaustion, but always available... The emotions attached to these memories affect our adult decisions. These recollections influence how we see ourselves, who we believe we can be in the adult world, and who we see when we look in the morning mirror.

In the equity of the universe, it seems unfair that the species which spends the most time in its home before heading into the world is most influenced by its parents. When looking across the animal kingdom, lion cubs are ready to hunt for themselves after a number of months. Sea turtles are born on the beaches, devoid of any parental influence.

Those lucky enough to make it back to water are immediately on…

OZ and Transition
The izard of Oz provides Americans with a text that helps them make the transition from the country to the city and sets the stage for the commodified American popular culture of the 20th century. This paper will show how, thanks to its pristine (Emerald) beauty and adventurous episodes, Oz makes "the city" much more appealing than the muted, old-fashioned of America. It will also explain why Dorothy returns to Kansas (someone has to take back home the message of how amazing "the city" is).

Baum's Oz shows that everyman can become a king if he pursues his own desires: thus, the Scarecrow is awarded leadership over the Emerald City, the Tinman leadership over inkie County, and the Cowardly Lion kingship over the forest. Each character, of course, rises to meet his own personal challenge -- but, nonetheless, these are clear examples of how the American Dream is perfectly…

play "Tambourines to Glory," by Langston Hughes. Specifically it will discuss the significance of the work, and what Hughes was trying to say through his fiction.
TAMBOURINES TO GLORY

This is a comic book about religion and morals, not often subjects of comedy. Critics have often called Hughes dramatic works "folk plays," and "Tambourines to Glory" is no exception. In fact, Hughes himself said about the work in the program notes, it was "a fable, a folk ballad in stage form... -- if you will, a comic strip, a cartoon -- about problems which can only be convincingly... presented very cleanly, clearly, sharply, precisely, and with humor'" (Peterson 346).

The protagonists are two women who pose as sisters and decide to start a church, not for spiritual salvation or a great belief in the Lord, but for money. "Money! I sure wish I had some. Say Essie, why don't you and me…

" Prohibition, the Red Scare, and the Klan were responses to the flapper, reflecting anxieties about newly pluralistic demographics in the form of Mexican and Japanese immigrants as well as Africa-Americans and religious minorities such as Jewish people and Catholics. Many Americans saw modernity, as they conceptualized it, as a curse, not a blessing. The causes of the "Modern Temper were thus a culture clash of old and new, of a reaction to Progressivism as well as a desire to kick up the nation's heels at the end of World War I and a delight at the ability of more individuals to enter the more leisured consumer class. The national focus shifted to private solutions for social problems, such as women's interest in work rather than winning the vote, the Harlem Renaissance's emphasis on literature and newspapers to give Blacks a voice, and the retreat of organized labor and government's…

" (Adams et al.)
hat the report went on to show was how a decades long deception was practiced on a race that was viewed primarily as a guinea pig for medical science.

The Tuskegee Institute had been established by Booker T. ashington. Claude McKay had passed through there in 1912 to study agriculture (under the patronage of alter Jekyll, a man who provided the basis for Robert Louis Stevenson's classic horror tale character). Around the same time that Eleanor Dwight Jones was striving to preserve the white race, the United States Public Health Service began the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. hat took place was a forty year analysis of the life of syphilis. The two hundred black men who had syphilis were "deliberately denied treatment" (Adams et al.) in what was just one more step in oppression and callous social engineering.

And at the same time the Tuskegee experiment was going on, .E.B.…

Imagery Helps Communicate Its General Theme
Imagery in Jean Toomer's "Reapers"

Jean Toomer's poem, "Reapers" (1923) contains many darkly powerful images, physically and metaphorically, based largely (although not entirely) on the poem's repeated use of the word "black," in reference to both men doing harvesting work in the fields, and the beasts of burden that help them. ithin this poem, Jean Toomer effectively employs repetitions of key words, phrases, and ideas, thus evoking within the reader feelings of both monotony and starkness, as the "Reapers" of the title go about their work. Toomer also creates, through the poem's images, a sense of unceasing mechanical motions (i.e., motions by human beings as well as by the sharp harvesting machinery itself), and equally mechanical, unfeeling scenes of death, such as when a field rat is chopped up by a mower drawn by black horses. The rhythmic, monotonous feeling of the poem is strongly…

e. The lack of a collective intellectual voice. In response to this and in part as a result of new affluence gained by some as well as a growing exposure to education, albeit mostly segregated, many began to develop what is known as the Harlem enaissance.
The 1920s in American history were marked by a sociocultural awakening among Afro-Americans. More blacks participated in the arts than ever before, and their number increased steadily throughout the decade. This florescence of creative activity extended to many areas -- music, poetry, drama, fiction. In literature, the few Negro novels published between 1905 and 1923 were presented mainly by small firms unable to give their authors a national hearing. However, in the succeeding decade, over two dozen novels by blacks appeared, and most of them were issued by major American publishers. (Singh, 1976, p. 1)

The Harlem enaissance came about for many reasons not the least…

Cullen Poem
Cullen's "For a Lady I Know": Biography in Poetry

Counte Cullen, a prominent poet of his time and a standout from the Harlem Renaissance, illuminates the extremely controversial issue of racism towards African-Americans as well as societal class issues in "For a Lady I Know." His short poem (only two stanzas) is terse as it illustrates the inequalities African-Americans face as well as the ignorance and superior attitude rich white people often have towards them. It is not often that such a short work can accomplish conveying copious amounts of information and elicit numerous feelings in one reading but "For a Lady I Know" certainly does.

As popular as he was, it is interesting to learn that Counte Cullen's life is shrouded in mystery. He was born Cullen Porter in 1903 but the location of his birth is much debated even today. New York City and Baltimore have become the two…

Hughes' poems. Don't tell us about theme or how you relate to it. Tell us about the form of the poem. Name and define some of the elements of the form. Tell us about its attributes and history, what Hughes' influences were in this poem, and so on. Can you find Whitman's influence here, where and how?
Langston Hughes was one of the great artists of this period, and the themes of Black identity and frustration against slavery and discrimination can be seen in many of his poems as, for instance, the famous one of "Bound No'th Blues"

In the poem "Bound No'th Blues" (http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/bound-no-th-blues/), the rhythm supports the pome's theme of the woman's fatigue and loneliness. The poem reiterates: "Road, road, road, O!

Road, road…road…road, road!

Road, road, road, O!"

The road is ongoing and eternal; there is no end to this.

The words are truncated. The sentences are incomplete. This reflects the pedestrian's…

Myrna Colley-Lee was a collector of art who traveled the world to enhance her collection. She was a pioneer of Black Theater and Costume design and established the SonEdna organization that promotes literary arts. Reflections is a personal story of her discovery of African-American life and community; including 50 works of art including painting, paper, photography and fabric. The works are on tour from 2013 to 2015 (International Arts and Artists, 2013).
One of the more interesting works in this collection was Barefoot Prophet by James Van Der Zee. This is a silver gelatin print from 1929, an older style of photography. Van Der Zee (1886=1983) was an African-American photographer best known from his portraits of New Yorkers. He was active in the Harlem Renaissance, the resurgence of Black artistry during the 1920s-1940s in New York City. He was known for experimenting with double exposures, retouching negatives and the manipulation of…

Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906) wrote his 1913 poem "e ear the Mask" in open defiance of the commonly accepted fallacy of his day that African-Americans were happy in the subservient roles they were forced to assume in the face of white racism. Dunbar, through the use of irony, through inverting the positive connotations of smiling, and through the religious rhetorical tropes of exclamation and crying out to God, conveys the cognitive dissonance between the false face African-Americans were forced to portray to earn a living in white society.
The title of Dunbar's and first lines of the poem may at first suggest a mask that an actor or a performer wears. "e wear the mask that grins and lies, / It hides our checks and shades our eyes." (Lines 1-2) However, the next lines of the poem suggest that the nature of the mask that is worn is far more…

The gothic elements in the novel serve to portray even better the squalor and the fierceness of the environment in which they were impelled to live. Even though Harlem was an African-American community, the life of the black woman was by no means improved by this fact. The place itself was degenerate and full of crime and as such, it did not offer any protection. All this was due to the racial discrimination of the white people against the black. Although the black had some economical and political rights, the society was very far from equality. The white people simply considered them less than human, and persecuted them only in a subtler way than during the years of slavery. A black person could not rise to a better social or economical statute simply because the prejudices against him or her were permanent obstacles. As Petry shows, the condition of…

American history [...] changes that have occurred in African-American history over time between 1865 to the present. African-Americans initially came to this country against their will. They were imported to work as slaves primarily in the Southern United States, and they have evolved to become a force of change and growth in this country. African-Americans have faced numerous challenges throughout their history in this country, and they still face challenges today.
After the Civil War ended in 1865, African-Americans were freed from slavery. However, that did not end their struggle for freedom. In fact, in many ways, it only made their situation worse. Many slaves who were in fairly decent situations were thrust out to fend for themselves, or they became sharecroppers for their former masters, barely making enough money to stay alive. This was the time of "reconstruction" in the South, and it was recovering both politically and economically…

My appearance was always good and my ability to play on the piano, especially ragtime, which was then at the height of its vogue, made me a welcome guest."(Johnson, 139) Nevertheless, this only increases his feeling that he does not belong to his own race, and his sense that everything is a bitter irony. As the hero passes as a white man, he is forced many times to listen to unjust commentaries that are made against the black race and he realizes that he himself is ironically a disproof of these unfavorable remarks and an evidence that blackness does not render a man 'unfit': "The anomaly of my social position often appealed strongly to my sense of humor. I frequently smiled inwardly at some remark not altogether complimentary to people of color; and more than once I felt like declaiming, 'I am a colored man. Do I not disprove…

Ella Baker
Barbara Ransby has written a thoughtful, analytical and very readable account about the uniquely important political life of American civil rights activist Ella Josephine Baker. The work is incredibly significant because Baker is one of those handful of people to whom very much is owed by very many. Beyond the documentation of a critical era in American history, the book is a seminal investigation of the history of the African-American freedom and civil rights movement in America. This is not to mention that Ransby has added immeasurably to the understanding of black women's history as well. In the age of the teleprompter and prepackaged news, original thinkers like Baker are a rarity and their stories need to be treasured like gold. She is proof that even little people can have an impact for good. Truly, her activism provides a template for anyone who wants to have an impact in…

"Ballad in Birmingham" expresses this sentiment eloquently. Love can also be something intimate that only two people can share. In addition, an artist must love his or her work in order to be successful.
Dudley Randall is a poet's poet. His work illustrates just what a poet should be: compassionate, passionate, open, honest, and real. His work brings his messages home to the reader and through imagery, symbolism, and rhythm. "Ballad of Birmingham," "A Poet is Not a Jukebox," and "The Profile on the Pillow" are excellent examples of Randall's techniques and style. e will always remember the image of the mother who discovers her daughter's shoe as well as the image of the poet that refuses to told what to say. Love becomes a theme in his works, as he always comes back to the notion that we will only survive as a people when we are open to…

Shannon, Jr.
"Outsiders" in a Multicultural Society

The United States is generally recognized for the multitude of cultural values present in the country as a result of the wide range of ideas that have been introduced here across the years. hile the majority of individuals in the country have often discriminated against people that they considered "outsiders," many notable non-white persons in the country's history have managed to emphasize the fact that they too are an active part of its culture and that they are able to contribute to making society as a whole acknowledge its complex nature. Langston Hughes and Jhumpa Lahiri are two of the most prominent artists responsible for making the American community accept its multicultural character and for influencing Americans to adopt less discriminatory attitudes concerning non-white individuals. Hughes got actively involved in changing the way that the masses and African-Americans in particular saw discriminated groups in the…