Madison M.'s Preposterous English Blog: Harlem Renaissance

Monday, April 4, 2011

I have already researched Zora Neale Hurston and so I'll tell you about another great writer of the Harlem Renaissance instead.
Langston Hughes

He was born in 1902 in Missouri.
He was known for using the rhythm of common African American speech and other parts of their culture into his poetry.
He was the first writer to realistically portray urban black life.
He got famous when he was busing on Vachel Lindsay in a restaurant and left three of his poems next to Lindsay's plate.
Hughes published his first work, Weary Blues, in 1926.
As a prominent figure in the Harlem Renaissance he was often referred to as Poet Laureate of Harlem.
Mulatto, his famous drama, was performed on Broadway a total of 373 times.
He used his poetry to protest social and political causes.
Langston wrote a newspaper column that expressed the thoughts of many black Americans. This aired in the Chicago Defender and the New York Post in the 1940s.
He died May 22, 1967 with over 50 published works.

Sources:

"Langston Hughes." Microsoft® Student 2009 [DVD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2008.

http://globalfusionproductions.com/fbl/langston-hughesfebruary-1-1902-%E2%80%93-may-22-1967-prolific-wordsmith-rest-in-power/
http://langstonhughesfacts.com/
http://receivinghairline.tumblr.com/post/2150540541/langston-hughes

Friday, March 25, 2011

The Harlem Renaissance movement happened in the 1920's and early 1930's.
It was a cultural movement of African American art, literature, theater, politics, and music.
It was centered in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City.
It is also known as the New Negro Movement, the New Negro Renaissance, and the Negro Renaissance.
It was the first time that publishers and critics took African American literature and art seriously.
There was no common literary style or political ideology--this movement was held together by commitment to getting African American art recognized.
Also, racial pride and desire for social and political equality bound them.
During this movement about 16 writers published over 50 volumes.
The literature from this period was read not only by the African American middle class, but the white book-buying public too.
The successful black entertainers even moved downtown so that more white people could come visit.

Josephine Baker

Claude McKay

Claude was a poet and writer.
He was one of the first black authors to be popular among white people.
His poems that told of injustice towards African Americans were sonnets.
He traveled to Russia and France.
His work was mostly at the beginning of the Harlem Renaissance--inspiring others and setting the tone for it.

Zora Neale Hurston

She was a writer, anthropologist, and folklorist.
Zora was the more significant and successful black woman writer for the first half of the 1900's.
She grew up in the African American society in Eatonville, where she experienced a lot of culture that would want her to give that to the rest of the world.
She did not go to school as a teenager, but went back at age 26 and pretended to be 16 and born in 1901. She pretended this was her real birth date for the rest of her life.
She wrote the famous novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, which my English class will soon start reading.

Sources:

Wintz, Cary DeCordova. "Harlem Renaissance." Microsoft® Student 2009 [DVD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2008.