African American poets

During the 1900’s, there were hundreds of thousands of African Americans who moved from the south to the north in an event called the Great Migration. Many of those African Americans migrated to a place in New York called Harlem and this is where it all began. African Americans began to build a new place for themselves. This is where life for them actually blossomed, bringing many great changes. It was a time for expressing the African American culture, which was later called the Harlem…

Defending Jazz As African-American artists, LeRoi Jones, poet, playwright, and jazz critic, and Max Roach, drummer and jazz lecturer, believe that jazz is a representation of African-American culture and attitudes about the world. More importantly, they believe that the creation of jazz music is reserved for only African-Americans. This is evident when Roach says in his essay, “Beyond Categories”: “I am often asked, ‘Can whites play your kind of music?’ My answer is ‘Yes’...But no whites have…

The Harlem Renaissance was a period in American history that brought forth an “cultural, social, and artistic explosion” (PBS) centered around the African-American neighborhood, and its residence, in New York known as Harlem. Sadly, Harlem currently is becoming more gentrified as the years pass. This is something I noticed on my many visits to New York over the past few years. However, Harlem became famous during this period bringing Iconic establishments still respected today such as the Apollo…

Phillis Wheatley was an African American woman born in West Africa in the year of 1753. Enslaved and brought to America at only age 8, Phillis Wheatley served as a house slave to the Wheatley family in Boston. After converting her to Christianity, the Wheatley family gave Phillis a formal education, and when Phillis demonstrated a talent for poetry the Wheatley family encouraged her artistically. Phillis Wheatley’s poems mainly dealt with her Christian faith and won her fame in both America and…

Throughout history many African American protested through literature. D.E.B Dubois and Langston Hughes are African American authors who have famous works that have gotten attention though the work of literature. These two authors have a lot of the same beliefs and has made a big impact of the African American culture. The two works I’m going to be talking about are “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain” and “The Souls of Black Folk”. The type of racial inequalities African Americans faced…

movements within American poetry, the conversation would be incomplete without mentioning the Harlem Renaissance. Through its lyrical influence of blues and jazz, many writers at this time inspired African Americans to stand up for equal rights within society. The Harlem Renaissance, which was based in Harlem, New York, was an outburst of African American artistic creativity during the 1920s. The movement took place during the time of the Great Migration, in which African Americans moved from…

This underlying resolve is known as the author’s poetics. Some poets take it upon themselves to write for the benefit of others or just for the sake of writing. Harlem renaissance poet, Langston Hughes, has a combination of both extremes featured in his poems. Hughes heavily encouraged art where African Americans told their stories instead of what they thought the white man wanted to hear. Hughes’ poetics is representing African Americans as they are; every flaw and victory included. His desire…

Poetry is an artistic expression, and can be interpreted in various ways. Langston Hughes is an extremely distinguished African- American poet, during the Harlem Renaissance period. Langston’s writings have inspired other poets like the very notable Countee Cullen. Cullen’s “Incident” and Hughes” I, too, sing America” writings are centered around the racial adversities of Blacks living in “White America”. The poems generate thought provoking questions and paints images in the minds of the…

In a time when many African Americans were struggling to transition into a life of freedom, Langston Hughes illustrates the importance of celebrating ones cultural roots in his essay “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain”. Written in the beginning of his career, the essay serves as an introduction for all that he would accomplish in his work as a revolutionary poet of the Harlem Renaissance. Hughes discusses the threat to the individuality of African American culture and the duty of young…

The Harlem Renaissance was a period in which African American arts were celebrated with vivacity through prominent individuals. This was the result of, “… the Great Migration of African Americans from rural to urban spaces and from South to North… [which] opened up socioeconomic opportunities and developing race pride” (Gale). The reason for the movement was due to “economic depression… and racial tension” (Songs of the Soul). These African Americans migrated to metropolises such as New York,…