LANGSTON HUGHES MINI-BIO

Langston Hughes was born on February 1st, 1902, in Joplin, Missouri. He was an incredibly versatile writer who wrote in many styles of writing, though he is best known for his plays, fiction, and poetry. He usually wrote about the African-American struggle for survival and for equality from the 20s to the 60s. He produced many popular works, including the Negro Speaks of Rivers and The Weary Blues, a collection of his poetry.

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Julian Perez-Garcia CAP English 9; Period 6 / Red Group December 2, 2013 Simel

The Harlem Renaissance: A Visitors Guide

A History and Overview of the Harlem Renaissance The Harlem renaissance was a series of works of art produced by the African American community in the period of time between the two world wars. It is also the name given to the cultural, artistic, and social explosion that took place. During this time, a group of African-American writers produced a sizable body of literature in the four prominent genres of poetry, fiction, drama, and essay. The best known writers of this time may have been Charles W. Chestnutt and Paul Laurence Dunbar. Langston Hughes, a poet, also is from this time period. The center of this movement was Harlem, in upper Manhattan (New York), though because the renaissance was a movement and not a place, movements of the same name sprung up in cities including Philadelphia and Chicago. Some common themes included alienation, marginality (marked by contact with disparate cultures, and acquiring some but not all the traits or values common to any one of them), the use of folk material, the use of the blues tradition, and the problems of writing for an elite audience.

Art / Music / Writing Countee Cullen wrote many poems about the unclear African-American identity. Claude McKay wrote of the immigrant's nostalgia and of the American Negros pride and anger towards society.Sterling Brown wrote many playful and pessimistic poems, often about strong willed people resisting oppression, poverty, and fate. The Harlem Renaissance also deeply influenced the generations of African American writers that followed, including Gwendolyn Brooks and Robert Hayden. Hale Woodruff, Ernest Crichlow, Robert Joseph, and Ronald Blackburn were all well-known artists of the Harlem Renaissance; Roy DeCarava was a famous photographer. Romare Bearden produced many famous works of art about and during this time period.

Political / Social Impact Apart from being a place of great artists, Harlem during this time was home to many social and political debates. One of these issues was whether blacks should integrate or separate with the rest of society, the two leading proponents of these two sides were WEB DuBois and Marcus Garvey, respectively. Many people in Harlem fell under the influence of the West Indian caste system. In-group racism was common in Harlem. Other issues included: How recent Emancipation still was to many The Southern Diaspora, how many blacks during this time relocated from the agrarian South to the industrialized North Oppression, where many blacks felt freer during the renaissance than any other time, even though racism and race-based violence was rampant during this time, even so in Harlem

Jeunesse Palmer Hayden