Download Harlem Renaissance

HARLEM RENAISSANCE
 Took Place in the 1920’s
 A cultural flowering
 Took place in Harlem
 Involved writers,
musicians, poets, and
visual artists.
 Following WWI, this was a time of change
and living in excess to break free from war
time ideologies
 People began to invest more time and money
into leisure activities
The Jazz Age
 Black musicians performed in “white only”
clubs, performing African American style Jazz
for white clientele
 Jazz music began to influence everyone
 It became a
source of
inspiration to
visual artists
Jacob Lawrence
 Arrived to Harlem in 1930 after the height of the
Harlem Renaissance
 Did paintings about heritage of his people and
their struggle for equality
 Uses angular, hard edge style
 One of the Largest Race Riots occurred in east St.
Louis
James Van Der Zee
 Photographer of African
American life
 He would take studio
portraits, weddings, pool halls, barber shops, sports
teams, and celebrities
 Van Der Zee wasn’t “discovered” until the age of
82 and held a show at New York’s Metropolitan
Museum of Art in a show called “Harlem
on my Mind”.
 He became an instant celebrity and
began photographing people like Bill
Cosby and Muhammed Ali