Music And The Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance was created for the simple purpose of letting African Americans express themselves through music, art, and poetry. At the time, African Americans weren’t violent in any nature, as they were prone to use art and music as their weapon to stand their ground and show the world the beautiful things they can create to overcome the hatred. But how did music and art keep the Harlem Renaissance alive for so long? Was it the culture and foundation? Or was it leading the world into a new era that it became so popular? Some people may never know the real reason for the Harlem Renaissance's success, but maybe they can come up with their own theory as to how the Harlem Renaissance influenced the art and music world today. As far as America can remember, there has always been a great Blues and Jazz influence on the world of music. At the time there were typically no notes to follow, it was just about feeling the music and letting it flow and communicating with the sound of music, not with notes. As far as poetry goes, Langston Hughes dominated the playing field with his very artsy and prolific writing. During the “Harlem Renaissance” period--Roughly 1920 to 1940--while African Americans in Minneapolis and St. …show more content…
Paul and elsewhere in the Mississippi River--bordering state of Minnesota took courage and cheer and inspiration from the artistic and literary activities centered in Harlem, they also found their colleagues from the East Coast too parochial, too unconcerned with the impact of art on society, too urban-centered, too pessimistic for Upper Midwest test. The Harlem Renaissance Emerged as the first concerted African American artistic movement. Once it started, it seemed as though everyone was doing it. Some took on art, others took on poetry, and the rest, of course, found music for motivation. To see such a large population of people moving towards the same goal in life with such exaltation must have been a wonderful sight to see. With all of the beautiful things happening in Harlem, it was heartbreaking to know that the Harlem Renaissance was ending so quickly because of the segregation between the whites and blacks. As this scene started to unfold, African Americans became more violent towards their caucasian neighbors, but this didn’t happen overnight. This happened over the span of a couple years. Without music, art, and poetry to keep them going, they turned to crime and gangs to get what they wanted, but it wasn’t always so peaceful. The Italian Mob controlled most of New York City, especially Harlem, but one Mob father split New york City into five different crime families. His name was Lucky Luciano. Harlem was full of speakeasies, gin joints, Tammany Hall, and the crooked politicians of Harlem and New York City who were controlled by the Mob who were primarily Italian, Jewish, or Irish. During this time, the United States also had passed the 18th Amendment in January of 1920 prohibiting the use, sale, and possession of alcohol …show more content…
There were many other fantastic people from that era, but these names stand out almost instantly to the right people. “The influx of blacks into Harlem was not new, but simply the most recent historical iteration of the infiltration of immigrants into native populations of cities like New York City and Philadelphia” said Du