United States
Harlem Renaissance
First Edition©2008 Jeffrey Brown Ferguson
Creating a framework to analyze the contents and meaning of the unprecedented artistic outpouring centered in 1920s and 1930s Harlem, Harlem Renaissance presents signature works and lesser known pieces in a way that allow you to examine the issues its writers and artists faced. Political theorists and civil rights activists, as well as poets, artists, musicians, and novelists, explore the character of the so-called New Negro, the influence of African and Southern heritage, the implications of skin color, race and gender, and the question of whether black artistic expression should be directed toward the black freedom struggle through their work.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents Foreword Preface List of Illustrations PART ONE Introduction: The Harlem Renaissance as History, Memory, and Myth
The New Negro
Harlem Real and Imagined
Beginnings of the Harlem Renaissance
Themes in Black Identity
Controversies over Art and Politics
The Harlem Renaissance: Vogue or Watershed?
Major Harlem Renaissance Figures and Publications
PART TWO The Documents
Background and Beginnings
1. W.E.B. Du Bois, Returning Soldiers, May 1919
2. A. Philip Randolph and Chandler Owen, The New Negro — What Is He? August 1920
3. Marcus Garvey, Speech to the Second International Convention of Negroes, August 14, 1921
4. James Weldon Johnson, Black Manhattan, 1930
5. Helene Johnson, Sonnet to a Negro in Harlem, 1927
6. Claude McKay, Harlem Shadows and The Liberator, 1922
The Harlem Dancer
Harlem Shadows
If We Must Die
America
The White House
7. Jean Toomer, Cane, 1923
Karintha
Reapers
November Cotton Flower
Becky
8. Countee Cullen, Color, 1925, and Copper Sun, 1927
To John Keats, Poet. At Spring Time
Yet Do I Marvel
From the Dark Tower
Harlem Wine
9. Langston Hughes, The Weary Blues, 1926
The Negro Speaks of Rivers
The Weary Blues
Dream Variation
Harlem Nightclub
Epilogue: I, Too, Sing America
10. Opportunity, The Debut of the Younger School of Negro Writers, including Gwendolyn Bennett, To Usward, May 1924
11. Alain Locke, Editor, The Survey Graphic, Harlem Issue, March 1925
Winold Reiss, cover
Alain Locke, Harlem
12. Alain Locke, ed., The New Negro, 1925
2. Themes in Black Identity
13. Claude McKay, A Long Way from Home, 1937
14. Langston Hughes, Fine Clothes to the Jew, 1927
Jazz Band in a Parisian Cabaret Song for a Dark Girl
15. Countée Cullen, Hentage, 1925
16. Gwendolyn Bennett, Heritage, 1923
17. Richard Bruce Nugent, Sahdji, 1925
Aaron Douglas, illustration
18. Zora Neale Hurston, Mules and Men, 1935
19. Sterling Brown, Southern Road, 1932
Odyssey of Big Boy
Southern Road
Ma Rainey
Strong Men
20. Ma Rainey, See See Rider, 1924
21. Bessie Smith, Young Woman’s Blues, 1926
22. Joel A. Rogers, Jazz at Home, 1925
23. Nella Larsen, Passing, 1929
24. Jessie Fauset, Plum Bun, 1929
25. Nella Larsen, Quicksand, 1928
26. Georgia Douglass Johnson, The Heart of a Woman, 1918
27. Anne Spencer, Lady, Lady, 1925, and Letter to My Sister,1928
3. Controversies in Art and Politics
28. George S. Schuyler, The Negro Art-Hokum, 1926
29. Langston Hughes, The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain, 1926
30. Wallace Thurman, Editor, Fire!!, 1926
Aaron Douglas, Cover Art
Wallace Thurman, Cordelia the Crude
31. W.E.B. Du Bois, Criteria of Negro Art, 1926
32. Alain Locke, Art or Propaganda, 1928
33. Richard Wright, Blueprint for Negro Writing, 1937
34. Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God, 1937
35. Alain Locke, The Negro: "New" or "Newer"?
Appendixes
A Brief Chronology of the Harlem Renaissance (1914–1939)
Questions for Consideration
Selected Bibliography
Index
The New Negro
Harlem Real and Imagined
Beginnings of the Harlem Renaissance
Themes in Black Identity
Controversies over Art and Politics
The Harlem Renaissance: Vogue or Watershed?
Major Harlem Renaissance Figures and Publications
PART TWO The Documents
Background and Beginnings
1. W.E.B. Du Bois, Returning Soldiers, May 1919
2. A. Philip Randolph and Chandler Owen, The New Negro — What Is He? August 1920
3. Marcus Garvey, Speech to the Second International Convention of Negroes, August 14, 1921
4. James Weldon Johnson, Black Manhattan, 1930
5. Helene Johnson, Sonnet to a Negro in Harlem, 1927
6. Claude McKay, Harlem Shadows and The Liberator, 1922
The Harlem Dancer
Harlem Shadows
If We Must Die
America
The White House
7. Jean Toomer, Cane, 1923
Karintha
Reapers
November Cotton Flower
Becky
8. Countee Cullen, Color, 1925, and Copper Sun, 1927
To John Keats, Poet. At Spring Time
Yet Do I Marvel
From the Dark Tower
Harlem Wine
9. Langston Hughes, The Weary Blues, 1926
The Negro Speaks of Rivers
The Weary Blues
Dream Variation
Harlem Nightclub
Epilogue: I, Too, Sing America
10. Opportunity, The Debut of the Younger School of Negro Writers, including Gwendolyn Bennett, To Usward, May 1924
11. Alain Locke, Editor, The Survey Graphic, Harlem Issue, March 1925
Winold Reiss, cover
Alain Locke, Harlem
12. Alain Locke, ed., The New Negro, 1925
2. Themes in Black Identity
13. Claude McKay, A Long Way from Home, 1937
14. Langston Hughes, Fine Clothes to the Jew, 1927
Jazz Band in a Parisian Cabaret Song for a Dark Girl
15. Countée Cullen, Hentage, 1925
16. Gwendolyn Bennett, Heritage, 1923
17. Richard Bruce Nugent, Sahdji, 1925
Aaron Douglas, illustration
18. Zora Neale Hurston, Mules and Men, 1935
19. Sterling Brown, Southern Road, 1932
Odyssey of Big Boy
Southern Road
Ma Rainey
Strong Men
20. Ma Rainey, See See Rider, 1924
21. Bessie Smith, Young Woman’s Blues, 1926
22. Joel A. Rogers, Jazz at Home, 1925
23. Nella Larsen, Passing, 1929
24. Jessie Fauset, Plum Bun, 1929
25. Nella Larsen, Quicksand, 1928
26. Georgia Douglass Johnson, The Heart of a Woman, 1918
27. Anne Spencer, Lady, Lady, 1925, and Letter to My Sister,1928
3. Controversies in Art and Politics
28. George S. Schuyler, The Negro Art-Hokum, 1926
29. Langston Hughes, The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain, 1926
30. Wallace Thurman, Editor, Fire!!, 1926
Aaron Douglas, Cover Art
Wallace Thurman, Cordelia the Crude
31. W.E.B. Du Bois, Criteria of Negro Art, 1926
32. Alain Locke, Art or Propaganda, 1928
33. Richard Wright, Blueprint for Negro Writing, 1937
34. Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God, 1937
35. Alain Locke, The Negro: "New" or "Newer"?
Appendixes
A Brief Chronology of the Harlem Renaissance (1914–1939)
Questions for Consideration
Selected Bibliography
Index
Jeffrey Brown Ferguson
Jeffrey B. Ferguson (PhD, Harvard University) is Assistant Professor of Black Studies and American Studies at Amherst College in Massachusetts, where he teaches a course in the Harlem Renaissance. He is the author of The Sage of Sugar Hill: George S. Schuyler, Satire, and the Harlem Renaissance (2005). His 1998 dissertation on the African American journalist George S. Schuyler was awarded the Helen Choate Bell Prize. He has been a fellow at the W. E B. Du Bois Institute.
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