Harlem Renaissance

Harlem Renaissance
   Embracing all of the arts—literature, painting, music, dance, and theatre (in all of its forms)—the African American cultural flourishing first known as "The New Negro Movement" and later renamed "The Harlem Renaissance," is usually identified with the decade of the 1920s, although purists would situate it more precisely between 1917 and 1935. A number of factors converged to generate the extraordinary outpouring of African American arts, beginning with the return of black soldiers who had participated in World War I in France, followed by the "great migration" of southern blacks bringing their rural songs and stories into northern cities.
   The death of Booker T. Washington in 1916 left the way open for W. E. B. DuBois's more militant leadership and commitment to the arts. His activist predilection for didactic drama was balanced by Alain Locke's emphasis on the aesthetic qualities of work that was integral to a self-defined black culture. As the author of several seminal essays, Locke emerged as a strong, nurturing influence on African American artists like poet-playwrights Langston Hughes and Georgia Douglas Johnson. He also encouraged Negro folk dramas like those of white playwright Ridgely Torrence, whose three one-acts—Granny Maumee, The Rider of Dreams, and Simon the Cyrenian—were both published (as Plays for a Negro Theatre) and performed (by Emily Hapgood's company of Negro Players at the Garden Street Theatre) in 1917. Interest in black culture was taken up by white intellectuals like Carl Van Vechten and by socialites, who frequented Harlem night spots like the Cotton Club and helped make jazz rhythms so prevalent in the 1920s. Zora Neale Hurston invented the term "Niggerati" for talented blacks who were suddenly fashionable among whites.
   In theatre, the all-black musical Shuffle Along (1921), written by Eubie Blake, Noble Sissle, Flournoy Miller, and Aubrey Lyles, ran for 484 performances on Broadway. It ushered in a second blossoming of African American musicals (the first had been in the 1890s with works by Cole and Johnson, Williams and Walker, and others): Put and Take (1921), Strut Miss Lizzie (1922), The Chocolate Dandies (1924), and many others. Anita Bush founded the Lafayette Players to perform legitimate drama; among the actors who worked there were Charles Gilpin, Paul Robeson, Evelyn Preer, and Abbie Mitchell. Other theatre groups followed: Raymond O'Neil's Ethiopian Art Theatre in Chicago (1922), Gilpin Players in Cleveland (1922, later at Karamu House), KRIGWA Players (1926), New Negro Art Theatre (1927), Harlem Experimental Theatre (1928), and many others. African American legitimate drama came to Broadway with Garland Anderson's Appearances (1926). Actress Rose McClendon earned acclaim in In Abraham's Bosom (1926) and in Porgy (1927). Academic theatre participated in the renaissance led by African American educators, including Randolph Edmonds (1900-1983), Owen Dodson (1914-1983), and cofounder of Howard Players with Alain Locke, Montgomery Gregory (1887-1971).

The Historical Dictionary of the American Theater. .

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  • Harlem Renaissance —   [ hɑːləm rɪ neɪsəns], literarische Bewegung in den USA von Anfang der 1920er bis Anfang der 1930er Jahre, die mit Harlem als Zentrum eine entscheidende Phase in der Entwicklung der afroamerikanischen Kultur darstellt. Erstmals entstand ein… …   Universal-Lexikon

  • Harlem Renaissance — For the eponymous basketball team, see New York Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned the 1920s and 1930s. At the time, it was known as the New Negro Movement , named after the 1925 anthology by Alain Locke.… …   Wikipedia

  • Harlem Renaissance — a renewal and flourishing of black literary and musical culture during the years after World War I in the Harlem section of New York City. Also called Black Renaissance. * * * or New Negro Movement Period of outstanding vigour and creativity… …   Universalium

  • Harlem Renaissance — Führende Akteure der Harlem Renaissance Die Harlem Renaissance (auch New Negro Movement genannt) war eine künstlerische Bewegung afroamerikanischer Schriftsteller und Maler zwischen ungefähr 1920 und 1930. Sie war die erste Blüte… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Harlem Renaissance — Renaissance de Harlem La Renaissance de Harlem est un mouvement de renouveau de la culture afro américaine, dans l’Entre deux guerres. Son berceau et son foyer se trouvent dans le quartier de Harlem, à New York. Cette effervescence s’étend à… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Harlem Renaissance — post World War I period of renewal and prosperity in Black culture literature and music (began in the New York City neighborhood of Harlem) …   English contemporary dictionary

  • Harlem Renaissance — noun a period in the 1920s when African American achievements in art and music and literature flourished • Instance Hypernyms: ↑historic period, ↑age …   Useful english dictionary

  • Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance — The Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance (Facts On File Publishing ISBN 0816045399) by authors Sandra L. West and Aberjhani, is a book that made history in 2003 when it became the first published encyclopedic volume to chronicle the lives,… …   Wikipedia

  • (the) Harlem Renaissance — the Harlem Renaissance [the Harlem Renaissance] (also Renaissance) a movement in ↑African American culture in the 1920s which began in the New York district of ↑ …   Useful english dictionary

  • Harlem (New York) — Harlem Localisation de Harlem dans Manhattan …   Wikipédia en Français

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