Who Is The Center Of The Harlem Renaissance

During the 1920s and 1920s, African-American culture came to the forefront of the American art industry. The interest was not limited to literature but included music and movies as well. Jazz music gained traction during the Prohibition Era from underground speakeasies in the city and African-American actors and actresses such as Josephine Baker and Caterina Jarboro rose to popularity. However, the Renaissance typically refers to the rise of African-American literature during this period. Although African-American authors around the world rose to popularity, the center of the movement was in the namesake neighborhood of Harlem, a predominantly black neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Langston Hughes describes the influx of outsiders into the neighborhood in his autobiography “When the Negro Was in Vogue.” He tells us that “white people began to come to Harlem in droves” (1126).

The Harlem Renaissance was a unique movement because it centered around an existing culture as a whole instead of cultural issues, such as the Victorian Era, or mythological works such as the Literary Renaissance. Whites were infatuated, intrigued, and curious about African-American culture which led to the Harlem Renaissance. Instead of an appreciation for their culture, it was only a fascination. Most other literary movements included an appreciation for the center of the movement, but the Harlem Renaissance was only a fad for whites to gawk at African-American