The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual revival of African American art and literature centered in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, in the early 20th-century and the subsequent social and artistic explosion that resulted.
At the time, it was known as the “New Negro Movement”, named after The New Negro, a 1925 anthology edited by Alain Locke.
Lasting roughly from the 1910s through the mid-1930s, the period is considered a golden age in African American culture, manifesting in literature, music, stage performance, and art.
References:
- Library of Congress. 2013. “NAACP: A Century in the Fight for Freedom.” Library of Congress.
- New York Times. 1987. “Harlem in the Jazz Age.” New York Times.
- Cotter, Holland. 1998. “ART; A 1920s Flowering That Didn’t Disappear.” New York Times.
Video:
- Three African American women in Harlem during the Harlem Renaissance, ca. 1925. Public Domain via CC BY-SA 4.0 Wikimedia Commons.