Roosevelt Island Historical Society » Thursday, June 6, 2024 – AN ERA OF CULTURAL DISCOVERY (2024)

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THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2024

ISSUE #1250

byRebecca Rector

NEW YORK ALMANACK

June 3, 2024byRebecca RectorLeave a Comment

Renaissance is a French word meaning rebirth or revival. TheHarlem Renaissancewas a social revolution and cultural explosion among the growing Black community ofHarlemduring the 1920s and early 1930s. Some of the best-known black artists of the period include Duke Ellington, Bessie Smith, Zora Neale Hurston, and Langston Hughes.

In 1900 Harlem was home to mostly white Americans. But over-development in 1905-06 left many apartments empty and African Americans began renting there in increasing numbers. They typically came from other parts ofManhattan– like the Tenderloin and San Juan Hill.

They also came from the South during theGreat Migration, when Black people were escaping violence and racism and looking for freedom and new job opportunities in the north.

Although Black people were excluded from unions and many professions, the arts offered them some success.

“Traditionally the Harlem Renaissance was viewed as a literary movement centered in Harlem,” according to Cary D. Wintz in“The Harlem Renaissance: What Was it and Why Does It Matter?”

Wintz notes that in 1924 Charles S. Johnson, a black sociologist and director of the Urban League, gathered a dozen writers for lunch at the New York Civic Club. This meeting then paved the way for many black writers, including Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Aaron Douglas and Countee Cullen.

These writers createdFire!!magazinein 1926 to express the African American experience. Although only a single issue was published, it was impactful in expressing African American identity.

Several of the writers, including Hurston and Hughes had the backing of a wealthy white patron, Charlotte Osgood Mason. According toWikipedia, she subsidized Hughes beginning in 1927.

There was, however, a downside to her patronage, as she was very controlling regarding his writing and other aspects of his life – ioncluding in the areas of the music he listened to and the books he read. He quickly cut ties after three years. Charlotte Mason’s relationship with Hurston was also controlling.

The website“Harlem Renaissance: History, Notable Figures and Decline,”mentions Langston Hughes as a prominent leader during the Renaissance and he “wrote poetry mainly to promote equality, condemn racism and injustice, and celebrate African American culture, humor, and spirituality.”

Zora Neale Hurston was also a literary leader. “With her striking wit, irreverence, and folk writing style, she soon gained a reputation as one of the major figures of the Harlem Renaissance,” according to one observer. Another key figure was Countee Cullen “who used art as a vehicle to minimize the distance between blacks and whites.”

The following are a few lines from Hughes, Hurston, and Cullen –

1926: Langston Hughes published “Weary Blues”:

“Droning a drowsy syncopated tune, Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon, I heard a Negro play. Down on Lenox Avenue the other night By the pale dull pallor of an old gas light He did a lazy sway. . . . He did a lazy sway. To the tune o’ those Weary Blues. With his ebony hands on each ivory key He made that poor piano moan with melody. O Blues!”

1927: Countee Cullen’s “From the Dark Tower”:

“We shall not always plant while others reap The golden increment of bursting fruit,
Not always countenance, abject and mute,
That lesser men should hold their brothers cheap;
Not everlastingly while others sleep
Shall we beguile their limbs with mellow flute,
Not always bend to some more subtle brute;
We were not made to eternally weep.”

1926: Zora Neale Hurston published “Spunk.” She often wrote in southern dialect:

“But that’s one thing Ah likes about Spunk Banks – he aint skeered of nothin’ on God’s green footstool.”

From literature, the rebirth spread to include the other arts.

According toThe Smithsonian: “The Harlem Renaissance encompassed poetry and prose, painting and sculpture, jazz and swing, opera, and dance. What united these diverse art forms was their realistic presentation of what it meant to be black in America, what writer Langston Hughes called an “expression of our individual dark-skinned selves,” as well as a new militancy in asserting their civil and political rights.” At the height of the movement, Harlem was the center of black American culture, with black owned publishing houses, newspapers, music venues and playhouses.

The Kennedy Center’s website –Drop Me Off in Harlem, contains “Faces of the Harlem Renaissance” – photos and short biographies of the musicians, artists, actors, dancers, writers, and activists.

There is also a large map of Harlem with the names and locations of the famous clubs. This was the Roaring Twenties – folks were listening and dancing to jazz and blues everywhere – at the Cotton Club, the Savoy Ballroom, Small’s Paradise and many others.

The Cotton Club was for many years a venue for black musicians playing to white audiences. The Savoy was one of the first to integrate, and Smalls was also integrated and owned by an African American. Billie Holiday and Fats Waller were frequent entertainers at Smalls.

In musical theater, the musical revue “Shuffle Along” made history in 1921 and proved that audiences were interested in African American talent on Broadway. Many other musicals followed, creating a new era and unique art form.

Harlem during this time also had its ownLGBTQscene. According to Smithsonian’sNational Museum of African American History & Culture, Harlem was a haven for several prominent queer writers and entertainers. Among them were writer Langston Hughes, cabaret performer Jimmie Daniels, and jazz musician Billy Strayhorn.History.comlists another 6:

1. Wallace Thurman: playwright, poet, and publisher. He wroteThe Blacker the Berry: A Novel of Negro Lifein 1929. He was also editor ofThe Messenger,” an African American socialist journal.
2. Ethel Waters: blues singer – her three marriages ended in divorce, and she also had a relationship with dancer Ethel Williams, and the two were known as “The Two Ethels.” Later in life, she became religious and toured with Billy Graham.
3. Countee Cullen: poet; he had relationships with black and white men. A few lines from his poem “Heritage”: “What is Africa to me: Copper sun or scarlet sea, Jungle star or jungle track, Strong bronzed men, or regal black Women from whose loins I sprang When the birds of Eden sang?”
4. Alain Locke: writer, philosopher, patron, and Rhodes Scholar. In 1925 he published the article “Enter theNew Negro” – a term meaning advocating for dignity, self respect and refusal to submit to racial segregation.
5. Gladys Bentley: singer, often using risqué lyrics. She married a white woman in 1930, then married a man later in life.
6. Richard Bruce Nugent: writer and painter; He was openly gay but later married.According toWikipedia, he “had a long productive career bringing to light the creative process of gay and black culture.”

Welcometoharlem.comadds a few more:

1. Alice Dunbar Nelson: poet, political activist. She married but also had relationships with women.
2. Angelina Weld Grimke: poet, activist, and journalist who wrote the influential play “Rachel.” The website includes a sample of Angela’s correspondence with Mamie Burrill: “Oh Mamie if you only knew how my heart overflows with love for you and how it yearns and pants for one more glimpse of your lovely face.” She signed the letter, “Your passionate lover.”

For years I walked by this abandoned and deteriorated building. Today the interior was landmarked. The hotel has been open for a few years just a minute from City Hall.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

Christina Delfico of I dig2learn and Jovemay Santos, Director of Therapeutic Recreation at Coler worked with a team or residents and staff to do a massive planting around the main entrance yesterday,

CREDITS:

NEW YORK ALMANACK

Illustrations, from above: Allan Rohan Crite’s “School’s Out” (Smithsonian Museum of American Art); United Negro Improvement Association parade in Harlem on August 2, 1920 at 135th Street and Lenox Ave (NYPL); A film still representing gay Black men in Harlem (British Film Institute Gay).

All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN &ROOSEVELTISLANDOPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.

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