Transcript The Harlem Renaissance

The Harlem Renaissance
Ch. 7.5
What is a renaissance?
• Rebirth or revival; to be born again.
• a movement or period of vigorous artistic and
intellectual activity
Harlem Renaissance Music
• http://www.pbs.org/jazz/biography/artist_id_
ellington_duke.htm
The Lindy Hop
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTg5V2oA_hY
• The Lindy Hop, and social dance in general, formed bridges
between different art forms. Dancers practiced the Lindy Hop
alongside bands booked at the Savoy Ballroom. Jazz great Duke
Ellington wrote a song as a tribute to Florence Mills, a dancer, jazz
singer and actress. Louis Armstrong composed a piece for dancer
Shorty George, "King of the Savoy," who is often given credit for
giving the Lindy Hop its name. Countee Cullen wrote about the joy
of dance in his poem "She of the Dancing Feet Sings." Painter
William H. Johnson's work, Street Life, was inspired by the stylish
people he saw at the Savoy Ballroom. Jazz musicians and dancers
are pictured in Palmer Hayden's painting, Jeunesse. Margaret
Brassler Kane's sculpture, Harlem Dancers, depicts embracing dance
partners. And so on.
Street Life, Harlem
Jeunesse
The Negro Speaks of Rivers
I've known rivers:
I've known rivers ancient as the
world and older than the
flow of human blood in human
veins.
My soul has grown deep like the
rivers.
I bathed in the Euphrates when
dawns were young.
I built my hut near the Congo and
it lulled me to sleep.
I looked upon the Nile and raised
the pyramids above it.
I heard the singing of the
Mississippi when Abe Lincoln
went down to New Orleans,
and I've seen its muddy bosom
turn all golden in the sunset.
I've known rivers:
Ancient, dusky rivers.
My soul has grown deep like the
rivers.