Migration and cultural identity in the Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance included new African-American cultural expression across other urban areas in the Northeastern United States and the Midwestern United States. Harlem was the final destination of the largest number of those who migrated north.

2 articles, 1 video, 1 book · about 46 min of reading and viewing

The reading path

1. Read
   

   the harlem renaissance · Wikipedia · 34 min read

   Alain Locke's anthology The New Negro was considered the cornerstone of the Harlem Renaissance's cultural revolution. Many Harlem Renaissance poets tied threads of African-American culture into their poems, helping jazz poetry develop during this time. Shuffle Along was produced, composed, directed, and written by African Americans, and its popular success among mixed audiences brought jazz to Broadway. With 504 Broadway performances and three tours, it "generated a demand for more" and proved that Black and White audiences would pay to see African Americans on Broadway. The migration of Southern blacks to the North changed the image of African Americans from rural, undereducated peasants to urban, cosmopolitan sophistication. The Harlem Renaissance brought the black experience into American cultural history and helped shape a new racial consciousness and self-definition.

2. Read
   

   Harlem Renaissance - Definition, Artists & How It Started | HISTORY · HISTORY · 7 min read

   By 1920, some 300,000 African Americans from the South had moved north, and Harlem was one of the most popular destinations. This population shift resulted in a Black Pride movement focused on ensuring Black Americans received credit for their cultural contributions. Harlem Renaissance novelist Jessie Redmon Fauset's 1924 novel There Is Confusion explored Black Americans finding a cultural identity in a white-dominated Manhattan.

3. Watch
   

   Exploring African American History and Literature | Big Think · YouTube · 5 min watch

   Ta-Nehisi Coates says counter-narratives written by Black historians and social scientists helped him understand his identity. The video explores African American history and literature.

4. Book
   

   Their Eyes Were Watching God · Bookshop.org

   Their Eyes Were Watching God is a 1937 novel by American writer Zora Neale Hurston. It is considered a classic of the Harlem Renaissance and is also considered Hurston's best-known work.

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