The Harlem Renaissance

The 1920s flowering of Black writing, art, and thought centered on Harlem's streets and salons.

Specifications & Metrics

era

c. 1918 – 1935

region

Harlem, New York City

key figures

Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Countee Cullen, Claude McKay, Alain Locke

exemplar

The New Negro (1925); Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937)

introduced

1918

Core Principles & Analysis

• Alain Locke's 1925 anthology The New Negro named the movement's self-conception.
• The Great Migration supplied the population and audience that made Harlem its capital.
• Jazz, poetry, and painting cross-fertilized in its salons and periodicals.

Sources

• Wikipedia: Harlem Renaissance