Harlem Renaissance

Face Mask

This is unrelated to The time period of Harlem but it's an important aspect of history I felt necessary to include, this Face mask of oval form with multi-perforations on two sides and a raised H-shaped panel in the center. This rare mask is worn by an executioner or "Kumi" during circumcision rituals and funerals of the Lilwa society. The side areas are painted with a mixture of kaolin and palm oil and the middle or center section is stained a dark brown and is highly patinated.

The Janitor Who Paints

This piece depicts an artist in his studio, but the painting is described as “a sort of protest painting” of his own economic and social standing as well as that of his fellow African Americans. Hayden said his friend Cloyd Boykin, an artist who, like Hayden, had supported himself as a janitor, inspired this piece: “I painted it because no one called Boykin the artist. They called him the janitor.” Details within the cramped apartment — the duster and the trashcan, for example — point to the janitor’s profession; the figure’s dapper clothes and beret, much like those Hayden himself wore, point to his artistic pursuits. Hayden’s use of perspective was informed by modern art practices, which favored abstraction and simplified forms. He originally exaggerated the figure’s facial features, which many of his contemporaries criticized as African American caricatures, but later altered the painting. He maintained the janitor as the protagonist as it represented larger civil rights issues within the African American community.

Aspects of Negro Life: From Slavery to Reconstruction

This piece was made by Aaron Douglas and is a panel series of four murals. The four panels revealed the emergence of Black America, beginning with life in Africa and tracing the history of African Americans through slavery, emancipation, and the rebirth of African traditions. Slavery Through Reconstruction answered a crucial calling. It was 1934 – the peak of the Great Depression and the philosopher Alain Locke inspired the Harlem Renaissance. Aaron Douglas was one of the artists who filled this need. The Federal Arts Project funded him with a New York Public Library project. The mission was to: create murals about the African American experience. This painting focuses on African Americans after the Civil War. Douglas reveals a transition from the left side of the painting to the right. It represents traveling from the pre-war South to the post-war North.

Storytime

This a work by Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller and the work depicts a woman and three children it fits in well with Fuller's other works which revolve around depictions of the African and African-American experience. She created intimate portraits of friends and family, and self-portraits, and commissioned works for national and international expositions. her works represent broad themes as African-American artists and sought to formulate and celebrate an African-American cultural identity and express racial experience and social issues in America.

Langston Hughes

Born in 1901 in Joplin, Missouri. He moved around for a while when he was younger. One of his destinations, Lincoln, Illinois is where his writing and love for poetry was born. In 1926 his first book of Poems was published starting off his career. Hughes said he took influence from poets such as Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Carl Sandburg, and Walt Whitman. Langston became one of the biggest if not the biggest poet and writer of the Harlem Renaissance. He continued to produce work up until his complications with cancer that ultimately was the end for him in 1967. The poem I chose, Mother to son tells a story of a mother talking to her son about her life, and how she has been trying to be successful and combat racism at the same time. Langston Hughes describes people who are white as climbing up a crystal stair, the path to success is a lot easier for them. However, the mother in Hughes' poem, her road to success has had splinters, darkness, tacks in it, and the boards are torn up. To which compares its self with the nice and beautiful crystal stair, showing a common goal of getting up the stairs but the stairs on the way there are very different.

Ma Rainey- "Jealous Hearted Blues" 1924

One of Ma Rainey's very popular songs during the 1920's.

Langston Hughes Digital "The Blues" Poem

Langston Hughes was a very popular poet during the Harlem Renaissance. This exact poem describes "The Blues" and the emotions regarding what was around it.

MaRainey

A picture of Gertrude "MaRainey" Pridgett from the 1920s. She was an American Blues singer known as the "Mother of Blues" and she influenced many new early blues recording artists.

One Act Play Magazine

Plays by: Langston Hughes, N.K Smith, Felix Fair, Jean Jacques Bernard, and J. Niggli

One Act Play Magazine

Plays by: Langston Hughes, N.K Smith, Felix Fair, Jean Jacques Bernard, and J. Niggli

One Act Play Magazine

Plays by: Langston Hughes, N.K Smith, Felix Fair, Jean Jacques Bernard, and J. Niggli

"The Wedding Blues"

An advertisement for the American comedy/short film "Wedding Blues"

Left All Alone Again Blues: Music Sheet

From the Broadway musical "The Night Boat"

Fire: Devoted to younger negro artists (Reprint)

This is a Reprint of the original issue of fire being (Vol. 1) and this showcases many different authors, poets, and artists. Some Big names are Charles S. Johnson, Countee P. Cullen, Aaron Douglas, Helene Johnson, Richard Bruce, Wallace Thurman, Zora Neale Hurston, Waring Cuney, Arna Bontemps, Edward Silvera, Langston Hughes, and more Ect.