The Harlem Renaissance from 1920 to 1940 was a flowering of African-American literature and art. Based in the African-American community of Harlem in New York City, it was part of a larger social thought and culture. Numerous Black artists, musicians and others produced classic works in fields from jazz to theater; the renaissance is perhaps best known for the literature that came out of it. Jazz music spread like wildfire in the US, making it the most popular music genre of the decade.
Jazz
Jazz music spread from New Orleans with the Great Migration of African Americans in search of improved economic opportunities. W.C. Handy's "St. Louis Blues" became an instant classic. Jazz captured the spirit of the time, and even today it is considered classical American music. Cars also gave young people the freedom to go where they pleased and do what they wanted. What many young people wanted to do was dance: the Charleston, the cake walk, the black bottom, the flea hop.
Writers
- James Mercer Langston Hughes was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist. He was one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form called jazz poetry
- Another notable writer of the renaissance is novelist Zora Neale Hurston, author of the classic novel Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937). Although Hurston wrote 14 books that ranged from anthropology to short stories to novel-length fiction, her writings fell into obscurity for decades.