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No the harlem renaissance Marie great migration began nineteen sixteen

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in there and confirm thanks used began writing about thirteen

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zora neale hurston Let's do this jazz is the music

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of my soul It speaks through me with whisper of

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my ancestors food breaths a harlem new york in the

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nineteen twenties with a fine time and place to be

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alive It was a special era for music and literature

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unlike any other before or since it was such a

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big deal in fact that history books and literary scholars

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alike have since dubbed this time as the harlem renaissance

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Fancy words for the best party ever throw The harlem

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renaissance took place when our whole lot african americans found

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new homes in cities like new york and began producing

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some seriously incredible music art and literature No longer bound

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by the horrendous constructs of slavery and servitude These folks

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had newfound freedom and were able to create like they

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never could before You can bet some classic work came

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out of this time period Think about it until the

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eighteen sixties when the thirteenth amendment to the constitution was

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ratified and slavery was abolished the on ly life in

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america that african americans knew Was that of slavery For

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the most part they were completely cut off from western

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literacy and art So roughly fifty years after slavery was

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abolished african american stormed the city's found inspiration and community

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within the place and in each other and went tat

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town creating and all the fun began with a little

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thing called the great migration the great migration better than

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the pretty good migration but not a spiffy as the

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totally excellent migration started in the early to mid nineteen

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tens in nineteen fourteen a minor footnote in history called

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world war one began an american men were leaving their

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jobs to go fight over seize this opened up many

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positions and factories in the city's southern african americans eager

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for a new life and new opportunities rushed to fill

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these open positions Hey it appears that war can be

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good for something with new jobs came new money and

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these migrant workers were able to forge new identities for

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themselves as well Part of building identity is in creation

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and these folks went all out with their imaginative processes

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They've never had the ability to freely create art and

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literature that expressed their own Life and struggles and this

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was it between the nineteen tens and about nineteen seventy

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around six million african american people moved from the south

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to the north to start new lives It was pretty

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great for everyone I keep going on and on about

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how fabulous this time period wass so we need to

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check out the actual work of some of its most

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noteworthy artists Let's meet langston hughes Little langston was born

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in joplin missouri in nineteen o two At the tender

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age of thirteen he began writing poetry and had his

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first poetry collection the weary blues published when he was

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just twenty four by twenty eight he added award winning

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novelist to his rapidly expanding literary resume overachieve much langston

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sheesh slow your roll it's virtually impossible to talk about

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the harlem renaissance without talking about hughes Since he's known

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as the driving force of the entire movement his work

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was so compelling to a wide audience because he wrote

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about the black american experience unapologetically and with no hold

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bart hughes understood the importance of capturing and sharing the

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rial experience of the people he grew up with and

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lived around His work reflects Addiction dialect pain and passions

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of african american people in the early nineteen hundreds in

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his lifetime hughes wrote and published tons of poems eleven

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plays and a grip of books too He died in

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nineteen sixty seven due to complications from prostate cancer Hughes

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left such a mark in his time at his home

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in harlem was decreed a historical landmark and the street

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it sits on is now called langston hughes place Yeah

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the dude was pretty lovable to say the least Least

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I want to see some of hugh's work of course

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ugo let's start by reading one of his most famous

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pieces harlem dream deferred We'll talk more about its significance

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afterward Harlem dream deferred What happens to a dream deferred

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Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun

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or fester like a sore and then run Does it

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stink like rotten meat or crust and sugar over like

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a syrupy sweet Maybe it just sags like a heavy

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load or does it explode Hoof it's so good to

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give me the chills What does the title tell us

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about this poem It's a place name title which to

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be honest is a fairly ambitious way to kick off

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a poem gaming your poem after an entire city assumes

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you have some sort of authority to tell the readers

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something poignant or meaningful about the place your name in

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but we know that langston was more than well equipped

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to handle this challenge We also know that even though

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he doesn't specifically discuss the business is or the people

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in harlem the poem is meant to represent the city

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as a whole This poem might well be considered the

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anthem for harlem it's so powerful of lasting two diving

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deeper let's touch on hues use of imagery imagery those

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amazing pictures that spring up in our brains when you're

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reading an awesome piece of literature poetry harlem might only

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be eleven lines long but it doesn't seem likely that

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hughes could have crammed anymore imagery into it After posing

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the initial question what happens to a dream deferred He

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was immediately smacks the audience with one amazing image after

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the next does it dry up like a raisin in

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the sun or fester like a sore and then run

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Does it stink like rotten meat or crust and sugar

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over like a syrupy sweet maybe it just sags like

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a heavy load Hughes uses his similes comparisons using the

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word like or as in each of these images similes

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are direct an effective way to create a madrid poetry

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and he was certainly wasn't afraid to use them Each

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piece of imagery and harlem stand strong on its own

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two feet and causes the reader to envision exactly what

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he's saying Remember the question is what happens to a

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dream deferred Each subsequent image is a possible answer to

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this question That's the good stuff right there Next up

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we're going to check out another one of hugh's best

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love poems The negro speaks of river's side note it

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wasn't considered a kn pc in hughes's day to use

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a term like negro We're not just throwing down racist

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leg on you Here we go I've known rivers I've

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known rivers ancient as the world and older than the

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flow of human blood in human veins My soul has

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grown deep like the rivers i bathed in the euphrates

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When dawns were young i built my hut near the

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congo and it lulled made asleep I looked upon the

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nile and raised the pyramids Above it i heard the

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singing of the mississippi when abe lincoln went down to

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new orleans and i've seen it's muddy bosom turn all

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gold i've known rivers ancient dusky rivers My soul has

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grown deep like the river miami hughes sure knew how

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to put words together did need theme is a crucial

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element to poetry we haven't yet discussed As you may

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recall the theme of a piece is the main idea

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to it The theme often focuses on one central subject

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So what do you think the theme of the negro

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speaks of rivers could be We're dealing with race in

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this poem we know as much from the title but

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connected to the theme of race is the theme of

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identity for instance when he says i looked upon the

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nile and raised the pyramids above it he's speaking of

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ancient egyptians erecting the pyramids of giza and when he

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says i heard the singing of the mississippi when abe

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lincoln went down to new orleans he's talking about a

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trip the former potus took when he was a teen

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lincoln saw the slave market of new orleans and its

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horror contributed to his views Of how awful slavery was

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and his fight to abolish it fuses referencing specific instances

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from history when african people have interacted with rivers or

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that a river has played a major role in their

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life lives by doing so he's giving the black race

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as a whole a sense of belonging he's celebrating their

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history as a whole again which connects race and identity

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as overarching theme hughes wrote and published a lot of

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poem in this lifetime so we don't have time to

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read them all today If you're interested Though some of

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the other big titles are the weary blues I too

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sing america mother to son and theme for english feet

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we could hang out and dish about langston hughes all

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day long but we've got another remarkable figure from harlem

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renaissance to meet so let's hop to it Meet zora

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neale hurston the queen of the harlem renaissance party Zorro

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was born in alabama in eighteen ninety one but moved

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to florida as a toddler This would become the home

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she referenced in her own written work Both of her

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parents were former slaves which likely shaped her feelings toward

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the horrible practice and caused it to become active and

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civil rights movements later in life she received an associates

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degree from howard university in washington d c for her

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writing career began to take form as she wrote and

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published pieces in their newspaper Not long after getting her

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degree sora took off for the big apple and quickly

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became entrenched in the harlem renaissance A likable and friendly

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sort zohra made quick friends good all langston hughes was

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already an established figure in the movement and was one

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of the folks who are on the front Both her

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charm and writing skills helped her to create and maintain

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a place in the harlem renaissance as the new negro

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Until she came along the renaissance had been dominated by

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male writers and artists Sora change that by asserting herself

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in the scene but unlike use she wasn't trying to

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capture the essence of all african american women or men

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for that matter she was more concentrated with demonstrating her

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talent and power as an individual This was controversial in

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a movement that relied on the ideals of unity and

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togetherness But zordon back down during her lifetime zohra published

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many short stories and a handful of novels including her

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memoir her most famous novel their eyes were watching god

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wasn't well received by her peers when it was published

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in nineteen thirty seven zohra didn't have much commercial success

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during her lifetime due to the controversial nature of her

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writing and died pennant many years after she died Alice

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walker who inspired by nora's work wrote the award winning

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novel the color purple wrote an article that sparked renewed

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interest in zara's writing once more in this way zohra

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became posthumously celebrated and study i know you can't wait

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to get your hands on controversial books good thing we're

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going to get a closer look next while we don't

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have time to hang out and read all of their

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eyes were watching god we're going to talk about some

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of the novels major themes of the stories big ideas

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through imagery the mental pictures hurston creates with words and

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read passages that support each one side note We totally

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recommend checking out this incredible novel on your own time

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ready So the book in a nutshell is about janie

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crawford a mixed race woman looking for love her whole

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life she marries a man Her grandmother ranges for her

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but leaves when has abused turns into threats to kill

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her Nice janey then meets and marries the mayor of

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eatonville florida Does that name ring a bell but he's

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way older than her and eventually dies leaving her a

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widow Finally janey meets a wandering dude called tea cake

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They goto work in the everglades together but then a

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hurricane hits and jamie is attacked by a rabid dog

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Cake saves her and contracts rabies when he's bitten by

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the dog So much for those heroic efforts tea cakes

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rabies cause him to go mad and attacked jane She

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shoots him kills him to save herself and is found

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not guilty of murder since it was self defense Who

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Now that you know that just the plot we can

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turn to our themes One of the major themes is

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love Janey wants it and searches for it her whole

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life This passage comes from early in the book When

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janey is a young girl she was stretched on her

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back beneath the pear tree and the alto chant of

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the visiting bees and son of the pending breathe mobile

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And janey felt a pain Remorse Lis suite that left

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her limp and later hot diggety This is the pivotal

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moment that shapes janey's thoughts about love for the rest

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of her life She believes in perfect romance and expects

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every future suitor to live up to this ideal Sadly

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we already know this doesn't quite happen but it's a

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striking image for the steam of love that runs throughout

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the entire course of the book Another major theme in

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this novel is race and how it affects the characters

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Check this out The sun was gone It was the

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time to hear things and talk These sitters had been

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tongue lis fearless eyeless conveniences all day long Mules and

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other brutes had occupied their skins But now the sun

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and the osman were gone so the skins felt powerful

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Inhuman They became lords of sounds and lesser things They

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passed nations through their mouths They sat in judgement This

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potent passage shows what the daily life of an african

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american looks like while under the white boss man's watchful

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eye These people worked hard but in their own time

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they can hear things and talk their their own bosses

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They can discuss subjects they choose at their own leisure

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in this way person gives us a strong sense of

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the time place and economic and political climate of her

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setting in this novel society and its classes of people

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is another prevalent theme and their eyes were watching god

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Janey is an enigma The people don't get her because

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she doesn't fit in or conform to basic societal norms

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Food for thought think this might have been hurston's own

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feeling about society right at the beginning of the novel

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were given this passage from even ville gossips Was she

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doing Come back here and them overalls What a title

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for the old man has down back like some younger

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for janey she's lost her husband and now all the

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neighborhoods busybodies are on her case about what else Her

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looks Jamie was likely envied as the mayor's wife Then

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she confused everyone when she ran off with tea cake

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for the more she's pretty and refined So people feel

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threatened by her and turned to criticism instead of getting

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to know janey as a person and find out her

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real story This passage also touches on the themes of

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both jealousy and appearance it's also runs the entire course

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of the novel their eyes were watching God also has

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themes of memory in the past Freedom and confinement free

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well and pride among others as usual There's A lot

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more we could say and no more time to say

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it do yourself a big favor and pick up their

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eyes were watching not to read all the good details

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on your own our time's winding down once more friends

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as we've seen the harlem renaissance was an important period

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in literary history The poetry of langston hughes and zora

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neale hurston's phiri Individual ism are some of the most

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important takeaways from this period Without these two who knows

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what the renaissance would have looked like or if it

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even would have happened at all Fortunately this isn't the

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case and we've got hughes and hurston's amazing work to

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study and discuss It seems like it's time to hit

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up some poetry right about now In fact south may

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have you heard this one Jazz is the music of

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my soul It speaks through me with the whisper of 00:14:42.299 --> [endTime] my ancestors soothing breath

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