The Harlem Renaissance

[Patrick Murtha]

Even though I personally am not much of a “joiner”, I am captivated by literary and cultural circles and have an enormous file on them. If pressed to name my favorite, I would have to say the Harlem Renaissance. What a surge was there! And reading about the personality clashes and realignments, as with any such group, is extremely interesting.

This book by Steven Watson is an excellent introduction. (He wrote another good book in the same series, The Birth of the Beat Generation.)

 

[Patrick Murtha]

Langston Hughes’s Collected Poems is an essential collection with many self-evidently great poems. But from a readerly standpoint, I have to dock a point or two because, as even Hughes’ editors admit, there is a ton of inferior verse here - “doggerel”, they all too accurately call it. Hughes did not wait for inspiration to produce; maybe he couldn’t, from a survival perspective. And because the output seems terribly choppy in its poetic value, so too seems the quality of thought - from sharp as a tack to extremely mushy.

 

[Patrick Murtha]

Unlike the poetically profligate Hughes, Sterling Brown (1901-89) kept his game tight. His Collected Poems are at a high level and don’t fall below that level. He is not so famous as some other members of the Harlem Renaissance, but I for one am a great admirer.

 

[Ben Jackson]

Langston Hughes sperheaded the Harlem Reniassance, an artistic movement with members of Afro-American descent, that shook America from Jazz Age (1920s) up till about late 1940s--- early 1950s. If I remember fully, there was Claude Mckay and Sterling Brown. Some poets took inspiration from Jazz and wrote poems that tried to capture American experience from a black perspective. Their poetics/aesthetics influenced Senghor and Cesaire, who formed an artistic and philosophic concept that would be termed, and known famously, as Negritude, which emphasized on blackness (praise of culture and history mainly as a reaction to Colonialism). Not every poem I have read from Hughes that I like (and I don't consider him my poetic influence at all, in fact no African-American poet is for me), but he's certainly he's a fine poet. I haven't read Sterling Brown yet but I will soon.

 

[Patrick Murtha]

I haven’t read Hughes’ biography, but one theme I picked up from reading the lengthy Collected Poems was that past a certain point, and for better or worse, he was very caught up in being the public figure “Langston Hughes”. Brown was a serious-minded professor at Howard University, an HBCU (Historically black colleges and universities), and had no interest in fame, hence he could be much more sparing in his output and give every single poem he published his “all”. Two very different writing strategies!

Of all the Harlem Renaissance figures, I definitely feel closest to Zora Neale Hurston. Great quotation from her: “Sometimes, I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company?"

Zora was attacked by Richard Wright, Alain Locke, and others for her supposedly insubstantial and socially irrevelevant fiction. She was treated shamefully altogether, but took it with grit and good humor.

Zora is a touchstone for me. I ask myself, "What would Zora do?", and I know that's the right thing.

 

[MichaelHW]

While browsing an old time radio archive online, I came across an episode about Langston Hughes, the legendary African American poet. I noticed that the acting was pretty decent, but that the production values were low. They only had horrific organ music. I thought it didn't fit the show very well. A long time has passed since the radio episode was produced in the 1940s, and tools are available to me at the push of a button that they could not even dream of back then. So, I found public domain jazz and re-edited the episode using public domain sound effects. The episode is a learning tool for teachers who wish to inspire a little interest in literary history. I also found two images that I combined, and added a filter to make the graphics. It took me a whole day, but this was great fun

 

[Leseratte]

While browsing an old time radio archive online, I came across an episode about Langston Hughes, the legendary African American poet. I noticed that the acting was pretty decent, but that the production values were low. They only had horrific organ music. I thought it didn't fit the show very well. A long time has passed since the radio episode was produced in the 1940s, and tools are available to me at the push of a button that they could not even dream of back then. So, I found public domain jazz and re-edited the episode using public domain sound effects. The episode is a learning tool for teachers who wish to inspire a little interest in literary history. I also found two images that I combined, and added a filter to make the graphics. It took me a whole day, but this was great fun

Just listened to the video and I liked it very much. No one would say it is post edited. Train sounds and the music complete the play. It made me want to read Hughes poetry.

 

[Benny Profane]

Library of America published a boxedset in 2 volumes of Harlem Renaiscence:

Harlem Renaissance Novels (boxed set) - Library of America

“To have all these novels in one place is the best gift any reader could ever ask for.”—Junot Díaz

www.loa.org

BTW, here are some Afro-American writers who aren't from Harlem but very important for Afro-American Literature in general: Ann Petry, Albert Murray, Adrienne Kennedy, Toni Cade Bambara, Toni Morrison (obvious choice), Paul Laurence Dumbar, Octavia Butler, Countee Cullen, etc.

 

[Leseratte]

Library of America published a boxedset in 2 volumes of Harlem Renaiscence:

Harlem Renaissance Novels (boxed set) - Library of America

“To have all these novels in one place is the best gift any reader could ever ask for.”—Junot Díaz

www.loa.org

Afro-American writers who aren't from Harlem but very important for Afro-American Literature in general: Ann Petry, Albert Murray, Adrienne Kennedy, Toni Cade Bambara, Toni Morrison (obvious choice), Paul Laurence Dumbar, Octavia Butler, Countee Cullen, etc.

But a small fortune for Brazilian buyers, sigh! Maybe there will be also an electronic version.

 

[Stevie B]

But a small fortune for Brazilian buyers, sigh! Maybe there will be also an electronic version.

Really nice set of Harlem Renaissance books. Plum Bun by Jessie Fauset is the only new title/author to me. I just had a quick glance at the first few pages of the novel on archive.org and it has already pulled me in. Speaking of fortunes, I found only one copy of the first edition for sale online. $45,000.00! ?