2. The adjective accidental
means unintentional or
happening by chance.
The adjective incidental
means secondary or
nonessential. It often
refers to something that
occurs in connection with
a more important activity
or event.
3. AGENDA
Choose new teams
The Harlem Renaissance
Historical Context
The Poems of Langston Hughes
Author Introduction:
Zora Neale Hurston
4. 2. You must change at least 50% of your team.
3. You may never be on a team with the same person
more than twice.
4. You may never have a new team comprised of more
than 50% of any prior team.
1. Your teams
can be made
up of 4 or 5
people.
6. The Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance was a period between World War I
and the Great Depression when black artists and writers
flourished in the United States.
Most critics and historians agree that 1917 marks the first
comprehensive signs of increased cultural activity among
black artists in the Harlem section of New York City and that
by the mid-1930s the movement had lost much of its original
vigor.
While Harlem was the epicenter of black culture during this
period, and home to more blacks than any other urban area in
the nation in the years after World War I, other cities, such as
Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia, also fostered
similar but smaller communities of black artists.
What Are We Talking About?
7. Between 1890 and 1920, the near collapse of the southern
agricultural economy, coupled with a labor shortage in the
north, prompted about two million blacks to migrate to
northern cities in search of work.
In addition, World War I had left an entire generation of
African Americans asking why, when they had fought and
many had died for their country, they were still afforded
second-class status.
Why This Movement?
8. Harlem had become an entertainment capital. Musical performers moved to
Harlem, drawn by the hundreds of nightclubs and other venues where the jazz
sound was wildly popular. Performers Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong,
Fats Waller, and others played at nightspots like Smalls’s Inn and the Savoy
Ballroom. Whites from other parts of New York City “discovered”
Harlem and made it the place to be on a Saturday night. Ironically, some of
the nightclubs were off-limits to blacks, including the famous Cotton
Club, until 1928. Instead, they catered to a wealthy white clientele intent on
experiencing the “exotic” Harlem atmosphere.
How did Harlem Change?
9. A number of black intellectuals, for example W. E. B. Du Bois,
made it clear that the time had come for white America to
acknowledge the achievements of African-American artists
and thinkers. The idea that whites might come to accept blacks
if they were exposed to their artistic endeavors became a
popular one.
To this end, magazines such as the Crisis and Opportunity
featured the prose and poetry of Harlem Renaissance stars
Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Claude McKay, Nella
Larsen, and Zora Neale Hurston. Major New York-based
publishing houses began to search for new black voices and
print their poems, short stories, and novels.
What Happened Next?
10. White intellectual society
embraced these writers and
supported— financially and
through social contacts—their
efforts to educate Americans
about their race, culture, and
heritage through their art.
Ultimately, however, the
financial backing began to run
dry in the early 1930s with the
collapse of the New York stock
market and the ensuing
worldwide economic depression.
The Renaissance had run its
course.
How did it turn out?
13. “I, too, sing
America”
How does “I, too, sing
America” make you think
about what it means to be
an American?
How is "America"
presented in this poem,
and how does it make you
feel about America?
14. “The Weary Blues”
What connections can be made between race and blues
music in "The Weary Blues"?
15. Author Introduction
Zora Neale Hurston
A novelist, folklorist, and anthropologist, Zora Neale Hurston
was the prototypical authority on black culture from the
Harlem Renaissance.
16. Zora Neale Hurston combined literature with anthropology. She first gained
attention with her short stories such as "John Redding Goes to Sea.” After several
years of anthropological research financed through grants and fellowships, Zora
Neale Hurston's first novel Jonah's Gourd Vine was published in 1934 to critical
success. In 1935, her book Mules and Men, which investigated voodoo practices in
black communities in Florida and New Orleans, also brought her success.
Hurston's greatest novel, Their Eyes Watching God, was published in 1937.
Zora Neale Hurston was a utopian, who held that black Americans could attain
sovereignty from white American society and all its bigotry, as proven by her
hometown of Eatonville.
Her work did not address the issue of racism of whites, and as this became a
emerging theme among black writers in the post World War II era of civil rights,
Hurston's literary influence faded.
She further damaged her own reputation by criticizing the civil rights movement and
supporting ultraconservative politicians. She died in poverty and obscurity.
17. HOMEWORK
Read Zora Neale Hurston: “The Eatonville Anthology”
530-38 and “How it Feels to Be Colored Me” 538-541
Post #21 Choose one
Community is a consistent theme in the works of Zora
Neale Hurston and the primary bond among the smaller
stories contained in "The Eatonville Anthology." How does
the image of a front porch act as a symbol of the social
concept of community? Cite specific incidents from the
story that prove this connection.
How does the narrator's viewpoint direct the reader's
understanding and approval of the citizens presented in "The
Eatonville Anthology"? Discuss specific examples.
