Modernism In Langston Hughes And The Harlem Renaissance

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Modernism Essay By definition, Modernism refers to the period beginning in the early 1900s climaxing between 1910 and 1930. It was during this time that the world experiences two World Wars and also the Great Depression. In the United States of America, the period saw the emergence of the black movement known as the Harlem Renaissance which was a great artistic movement in Harlem New York. The movement places much emphasis on creating a new black identity through arts, social and cultural explosion in the 1920s until the mid-1930s (www.history.com). Ironically, while the black community was experiencing this awakening, the Klu Klux Klan or KKK, America’s most deadly hate group was also experiencing its climax. As a group, it carries out gruesome acts such as bombing and lynching on the black community (www.counterpunch.com). It was a time of great struggle for the black community in America. From this, one can conclude that the efforts of the Harlem Renaissance was geared towards giving the black community a voice in echoing there cause and using art as a tool of positivity. One of the foundation members of the Harlem Renaissance was poet, author and activist Langston Hughes. As a poet, even before becoming a part of the movement, Hughes poetry was an echo for the black community. Evidence of this can be seen in what is considered his first mature poem written when he was seventeen years old, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”. Much of his later poems written directly in line