Art and Literature

During the Harlem Renaissance, art and literature made by African Americans were recognized in mainstream culture. The art reflected what the artist was experiencing at the time, which could be anything from clubs to societal issues.

Many artists earned their fame during the Harlem Renaissance, drawing from their African ancestors for inspiration.

Zora Neale Hurston was a leader of the Renaissance in the south. She wrote articles as well as the book, Their Eyes Were Watching God. In her article, How It Feels to be Colored Me, she addresses her race and the way she thinks about compared to the way the world thinks about it. Hurston discusses how she doesn't see herself as colored all the time because it is something that is normal for her. 

"For instance at Barnard. "Beside the waters of the Hudson" I feel my race. Among the thousand white persons, I am a dark rock surged upon, and overswept, but through it all, I remain myself. When covered by the waters, I am; and the ebb but reveals me again."

"I have no separate feeling about being an American citizen and colored. I am merely a fragment of the Great Soul that surges within the boundaries. My country, right or wrong. Sometimes, I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company? It's beyond me."

~ Zora Neale Hurston

Langston Huges was a popular author, known for his poems in the new style called 'jazz poetry'. He also wrote several articles discussing the realities of the time. His magazine article The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain discusses the unconscious ‘want’ to be white African Americans experience. Hughes says this subconscious want is a mountain that is blocking any true African American art in America. 

"One of the most promising of the young Negro poets said to me once, "I want to be a poet–not a Negro poet," meaning, I believe, "I want to write like a white poet"; meaning subconsciously, "I would like to be a white poet"; meaning behind that, "I would like to be white." And I was sorry the young man said that, for no great poet has ever been afraid of being himself.​​​​​​​" ~  Langston Hughes

Below is a few classic novels from the Harlem Renaissance:

Cane by Jean Toomer

Home to Harlem by Claude McKay

The Blacker the Berry by Wallace Thurman

Passing by Nella Larson

Black No More by George Schuyler

Not Without Laughter by Langston Hughes

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston