Impact Of The Harlem Renaissance

From 1916 to 1970, about six million African Americans migrated north to places such as Chicago, New York, and Detroit, an era known as the Great Migration. The Great Migration was a chance for African Americans to experience new opportunities by discovering different types of writing, music, and art, especially in a well-known neighborhood in New York called Harlem. This era was known as the Harlem Renaissance, or the New Negro movement, a chance for African Americans to express their creativity. Authors and poets wrote poetry and prose to influence audiences and prove their worth. Visual artists demonstrated African American art and culture. Performing artists, such as musicians, demonstrated African American styles of music, while actors

Prior to the start of World War I, African American artists such as sculptors and painters were not well represented. When the 1920s came around, African American artists “attempted to win control over representation of their people while developing a new repertoire of images…black artists had begun developing styles related to black aesthetic traditions of Africa or to folk art” (Arora 45 and 47). African Americans were able to finally express their creativity and their culture through the art they created. Their art became seen by the population, which were displayed in many public places at the time, and inspired future artists. Harlem Renaissance painters such as Aaron Douglas, displayed black culture through their artwork. Sculptor Augusta Savage paved the way for female artists, and photographer James VanDerZee reflected the Harlem Renaissance through his photographs. Thanks to these artists, “New York City became in the 1930s a center of art education with new galleries, schools, and museums…Most important for aspiring black artists were the School of Arts and Crafts, founded by [Augusta] Savage, and the Harlem Community Art Center…In the middle and late 1930s, federal arts projects under the New Deal provided an unprecedented level of encouragement to the development of black artists and helped start the careers of a new generation of artists that included Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence, and Norman Lewis” (Arora 51 and 53). The artists of the Harlem Renaissance had a great impact on their community. They were able to motivate potential artists to follow their own dreams through