388. DSC 251- Harlem Renaissance (1)

The Harlem Renaissance.

Harlem Renaissance:

Harlem in New York city in North America brought thousands of blacks from the South because of New York's economic prosperity. They brought their art, music and literature and Harlem became the cultural capital of the world. 

1910-30s saw the African American artists, writers, visual artists, and intellectuals, broke barriers and soared to new heights. Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston demanded equality through their writings and black culture stirred the blacks. Jazz legends like Duke Wellington and Louis Armstrong, Aron Douglas an artist together filled the air with same vibes. They were victims of black sufferings and they wanted to share their music and art with the world. Blues and Jazz got best space here and spread to the whole world. It was also political movement. Du Bois was a political writer. Together it reshaped American literature. But racial segregation continued. Riots broke out.

Literature :

A True Relation of Virginia in 1608 in 17th century by John Smith is the beginning of the American literature. He was a British armyman in America. William Penn and Daniel Denton were others who wrote and glorified colonialism. These were mainly soldiers in America and imitated English literature of UK. Even during American Independence time in 18th century, war literature or imitative literature prolonged. Yankee Doodle was a famous song and others of this time were used to provoke the soldiers. Contrast was a comedy was first American drama. In the War of 1812, the first indigenous American literature began.