Langston Hughes And Arna Bontemps During The Harlem Renaissance

In the 1920’s many African American were searching for a refuge to escape from racism,discrimination, and violence. Many went to place called Harlem, a neighborhood in New York, where they commenced a new style of art, writing, and music. This was known as the Harlem Renaissance, where African Americans had their chance to be known for their skill. Langston Hughes, Louis Armstrong, were some of the important people who help express the African culture through writing and and music. They became an important figure in the birth of the Harlem renaissance. Even today they are remembered for their African American cultural success.

The Harlem Renaissance began with The Great Migration, a period of time where many of the African American population in the U.S. migrated from the south to the north. the reason being that the promise of land had not been delivered, the black codes restricted them, and in turn the African American population was forced into an endless cycle of debt and sharecropping. In the early 1900s, African Americans, also known as Negroes back then were considered inferior, ignorant, unskilled,

Langston Hughes and Gwendolyn Brooks are regarded as highly influential poets in African American literature, which continues to inspire writers to this day. Langston Hughes is a well-known pioneer of the Harlem Renaissance, a movement in which African Americans in Harlem during post World War I and the early 1930’s began a cultural and artistic revolution. During this time, African American musicians, artists, writers, and poets revolutionized their position in and through many artistic fields of expression. This cultural and artistic revolution redefined how America viewed the African American population, which garnered respect and criticism from Americans nationwide. Gwendolyn Brooks, an African American poet also in the 19th century, was introduced to Langston Hughes at a young age peeking her interest in the Harlem Renaissance that eventually became a foundation and influence in her writing. Gwendolyn Brooks and Langston Hughes share similarities in the writing as she was highly inspired by Langston Hughes, but also share many differences that are responsible for making their pieces of writing unique to other authors and each other.

The Harlem Renaissance was a time where creativity flourished throughout the African American community. At the time many African Americans were treated as second class citizens. The Harlem Renaissance acted as artistic and cultural outlet for the African-American community. The Harlem Renaissance, otherwise known as “The New Negro Movement” was an unexpected outburst of creative activity among African Americans In the poems Harlem by Langston Hughes, America by Claude McKay, and Incident by Countee Cullen all use frustration and hope as reoccurring themes to help empower the African-American population and realize the injustices they face day to day. The Harlem Renaissance was a period marked by great change and forever altered the

During the early 1930s many black writers begin to produce works that helped to shape and define the Civil Rights movement. Among them was Langston Hughes whose poems and writing contributed directly to the rhetoric of the day and inspired many African-Americans, both in and out of the Civil Rights movement. Much of this grew out of what was called the Harlem Renaissance, which emerged during turbulent times for the world, the United States, and black Americans. World War I and the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 had left the world in disorder and stimulated anti-colonial movements throughout the third world. In America, twenty years of progressive reform ended with the red scare, race riots, and isolationism throughout 1919 and led to

Harlem Renaissance was undoubtedly a cultural and social-political movement for the African American race. The Renaissance was many things to people, but it is best described as a cultural movement in which the high level of black artistic cultural production, demanded and received recognition. Many African American writers, musicians, poets, and leaders were able to express their creativity in many ways in response to their social condition. Until the Harlem Renaissance, poetry and literature were dominated by the white people and were all about the white culture. One writer in particular, Langston Hughes, broke through those barriers that very few African-American artists had done before this

during this time he quickly became a part of the Harlem Renaissance. Four years later,

Known as one the most impactful movements on African American arts, the Harlem Renaissance Movement represented a period of artistic and intellectual change that initiated a new identity on black culture. Often called the “New Negro” Era, the Harlem Renaissance opened doors for African American to express themselves in the form of visual arts, musical elements, and even performing arts during the 1920s. Due to this movement, Harlem became the city that “gave African Americans a physical cultural center.” [1] Renowned black artists such as Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, and Ralph Waldo Ellison were primary figures that became well-known for their many artistic and creative pieces during this popular time. Created by a class of English teachers in April of 2003, a Wikipedia page was made in dedication of the Harlem Renaissance Movement. In comparison to the beginning, numerous edits and additions have been made to the page that has included a tremendous about of information and important events that took place during such a popular era. The initial contributors to the page only defined this period as an “arts movement in Harlem, New York in the 1920s. However, later editors included information with regards to what defined the period, the transformation of Harlem into a black community, and ways the movement was used to create a new identity for blacks.

The Harlem Renaissance was a movement of cultural appreciation of African Americans looking for better life in the neighborhood of Harlem. Producing works in music, literature, and art, stressing the importance of equality and appreciation amongst their different cultures between Whites and Blacks. After The Migration, very important figures of the time of the Harlem Renaissance emerged such as Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Jean Toomer, Arna Bontemps, and Claude McKay who contributed literary works which had large influences. The Harlem Renaissance changed the lives of African Americans and viewpoints of their own culture along with other cultures viewpoint of their own.

Langston Hughes’ style of poetry renounced the classical style of poetry and sought out a more jazz and folk rhythm style. Most of Hughes’ poems were written during the Harlem Renaissance, named after the cultural activity African Americans participated in, such as: literature, music, art, theatre, and political thinking. William Blake, on the other hand, was a nonconformist who was associated with the leading radical thinkers of his day. Although, considered a lyric poet and a visionary, Blake’s poetry was not read by many, yet he still believed that his poetry could be understood by common people and was determined not to sacrifice his vision to become popular.

Jones, Kirkland C. Renaissance Man from Louisiana: A Biography of Arna Wendell Bontemps. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1992. The first full-length biography of Arna Bontemps. An excellent source not only for information about the man himself but also for information about the background of his works, including Black Thunder. Includes a bibliographic essay that serves as a handy guide to primary and secondary material about Bontemps.

     The Harlem Renaissance was a time of racism, injustice, and importance. Somewhere in between the 1920s and 1930s an African American movement occurred in Harlem, New York City. The Harlem Renaissance exalted the unique culture of African-Americans and redefined African-American expression. It was the result of Blacks migrating in the North, mostly Chicago and New York. There were many significant figures, both male and female, that had taken part in the Harlem Renaissance. Ida B. Wells and Langston Hughes exemplify the like and work of this movement.

“The Harlem Renaissance was a time where the Afro-American came of age; he became self-assertive and racially conscious… he proclaimed himself to be a man and deserving respect. Those Afro-Americans who were part of that time period saw themselves as principals in that moment of transformation from old to new” (Huggins 3). African Americans migrated to the North in great numbers to seek better lives than in the South as the northern economy was booming and industrial jobs were numerous. This movement brought new ideas and talents that shifted the culture forever. Black writers, such as Langston Hughes, used their work to claim a place for themselves and to demand self-respect in society. Poems that Langston Hughes wrote captured the essence of the complexity of a life that mixes joy and frustration of black American life through the incorporation of jazz and blues in order to examine the paradox of being black in mostly white America, the land of the not quite free.

Research Assignment Education and the knowledge acquired from the pursuit of it are like waking up from a dream. This is so because education makes one cognizant of their environment. Education personifies things that seem abstract from the past. Education makes one know their identity because knowing your identity gives you a sense of purpose in life. Through this class, I have come to know and appreciate African American history, culture, and value; all of which define the African American’s identity.

     The most accomplished writer of the Harlem Renaissance was Zora Neale Hurston. Hurston's many novels, books of folklore, poems, and short stories portrayed the lives of poor, unschooled Southern blacks, whom, in her words, were the greatest cultural wealth of the continent. Much of her work celebrated,