The Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance was a flourishing of artistic, intellectual, musical, and literary accomplishments by African Americans between the World Wars. The movement took its name…
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Jean Toomer (1894—1967)
Jean Toomer (26 December 1894—30 March 1967) was an American writer associated with literary modernism and the Harlem Renaissance. He was born as Nathan Pinchback…
Johnson, Georgia Douglas (1877?–1966)
Georgia Douglas Johnson was a multitalented artist of the New Negro/Harlem Renaissance era who wrote poetry, plays, short stories, music, and newspaper columns from her…
Modernism in Canada and The United States
In Canada and the United States modernism emerges from transnational engagements with global intellectual movements while also grappling with local intellectual, cultural, and political developments…
Harlem Nightclubs
In the 1920s and 1930s, Harlem became a major hub of New York City nightlife and a prolific space for African American artistic creation. It…
Jook House
The jook house (also juke joint), an African American institution found mainly in semiurban areas in the Southern United States, is an important cultural phenomenon…
Douglas, Aaron (1899–1979)
Aaron Douglas was an African American artist and educator often referred to as the father of “Black Art.” He was a leading figure of the…
Hughes, Langston (1902–1967)
Langston Hughes was one of the most accomplished, influential writers of the 20th century. Influenced by the inclusive ‘I’ of Walt Whitman and the musical…
McKay, Festus Claudius ‘Claude’ (1889–1948)
Claude McKay was a Jamaican poet, novelist, essayist, activist, and editor. He is best known for his involvement in the New Negro movement of the…
Winfield, Hemsley (1907–1934)
An early initiator of Black modern dance, Hemsley Winfield first gained recognition as an actor and director of the New Negro Art Theater in New…
Guy, Edna (1907–1983)
Edna Guy was a major figure in establishing African-American modern dance in the 1930s. Grounded in the technique of her mentor Ruth St. Denis, Guy…
Ellington, Duke (1899–1974)
Duke Ellington was an American jazz composer, pianist, and big-band leader who authored over 1,000 compositions throughout his career. Having studied piano since the age…
Locke, Alain LeRoy (1885–1954)
Alain Locke was an American philosopher, editor, and critic whose influence helped to inscribe modernist aesthetics within the history of black artistry, which he defined…
Cunard, Nancy (1896–1965)
A poet, journalist, publisher, radical intellectual, and political activist, Nancy Cunard operated at or near the centre of multiple modernist discourses. Her early poetry, especially…
Négritude
The literary and cultural movement known as négritude was started in Paris in 1932 by Black students from French-speaking colonies in West Africa, the Caribbean…
Williams, Charles H. (1896–1978)
In a career spanning 1910–1951, Charles H. Williams was a pioneering educator, author, choreographer, and athletic director at the Hampton Institute in Virginia, an all-Black…
Hurston, Zora Neale (1891–1960)
Zora Neale Hurston was a writer and anthropologist. Since the Black Arts and Feminist movements of the 1960s and 1970s, she has been commonly acclaimed…
Larsen, Nella (1891–1964)
Nella Larsen was an American novelist active in the 1920s and one of the central figures of ‘Manhattan modernism.’ She is best known for two…
Grimké, Angelina Weld (1880–1958)
African American poet, fiction writer, and playwright Angelina Weld Grimké was born in Boston in 1880, the daughter of Sarah Stanley, who was White, and…
The Great Depression
Beginning on New York’s Wall Street on October 29, 1929, which would come to be known as ‘Black Tuesday’, the Great Depression was the most…
Federal Theatre Project (1935–9)
The Federal Theatre Project was a government-subsidized program established in 1935 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to provide jobs for theater artists during the Great…
Rasim, Mihri (1885–1954)
Mihri Rasim was an Ottoman-Turkish portrait painter and educator. Born in 1885 in Istanbul under the Ottoman Empire, she came from the Ottoman imperial elite.…
Beatty, Talley (1919–1995)
Talley Beatty, whose career began in the mid-1930s and extended six decades, was a leading modern dance artist. He was a prolific choreographer, exquisite dancer,…
Van Vechten, Carl (1880–1964)
Carl Van Vechten (b. 17 June 1880, Cedar Rapids, Iowa; d. 21 December 1964, New York City) was an American writer who wrote about music,…
Tolson, Melvin B. (1898–1966)
Melvin Beaunorus Tolson was a poet, journalist, and teacher whose literary work examines the conditions for black life and art from the African diaspora through…