Harlem Rensissance

Harlem Renaissance-
In researching this topic I found out some very interesting ideas and new views on the subject. In my high school AP US History class we talked about briefly about the subject at hand and I wanted to learn more about it. In my research I found some very interesting things that I never really thought about. I knew the Harlem Renaissance was a artistic movement based in Harlem with African American ideals, but it was much more than art and literacy to African Americans. What I found out that it was more of a finding of self identity and a celebration of African American culture and that's what I found most interesting of it all.

Connecting this to the readings I feel like the reading connect to the theme that I found in my research about how these pieces of art and readings go about the daily lives of a African American in our Society in America. I feel like in "How it feels to be colored me" it talks about some of the differences she felt even in a more diverse community and I think one of the biggest things that showed from this is that when and her white friend went out and listened to the music she was very moved by the music but when her friend also tuned in she didn't feel the same emotion as she did. I feel that shows how the different styles of music or art within the Harlem community differed from the white community on the outside and how African Americans took pride in their work and that's what the Harlem Renaissance was all about.

I think with this new background knowledge and research I did for the topic helped me understand the whole goal of the piece and understand what each reading stood for. Usually I just look at the story and learn the morals from that but when you look at something like this and loo from the outside in, you can find a lot more details and morals than you would of got with just reading the story itself which I found very interesting.

In this last paragraph I am going to talk about the poem America. I find this one very interesting to read as it describes a lady that really is being quite brutal to the author of the poem. "She feeds me bread of bitterness, and sinks into my throat her tiger's tooth". I feel obviously that this Lady is America or even Lady Liberty. I think both would fit into the description of the piece since their almost the same thing but depicted a little differently. I think in this poem it talks about the obvious discrimination against African Americans through the Jim Crow Laws. Limiting the culture and rights they do want. At the end of the poem I think is the most important part of the whole thing. After countless lines of depicting what I think is what she feels and knows about being an African American in the United States but in the end the last two lines are the most powerful. To me it describes the time to fight for their rights needs to be now or it will slip away through time which is described in the last line of the poem. "Like priceless treasures sinking in the sand"

Sources:

"Harlem Renaissance." History, www.history.com/topics/black-history/harlem-renaissance. 

"The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow: Harlem Renaissance." PBS, www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/ 
     stories_events_harlem.html. 
"Claude McKay." Poetry Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poets/detail/ 
     claude-mckay. 
"Langston Hughes." Poets, www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/langston-hughes.