The Bridge
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
(1880 - 1938)

He was the founder of the The Bridge. They laid the foundation of Expressionism.

Kirchner volunteered in World War I, had a breakdown, and was discharged. The Nazis banned his work, and over 600 paintings were destroyed.

He committed suicide in 1938.

Henri Matisse (1869 – 1954) was a French artist, draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor. Matisse is regarded, along with Picasso and Marcel Duchamp, as one of the most original and influential artists of the 20th century.

The Chapel of the Rosary was built and decorated by Henri Matisse for the Dominican sisters  - in the town of Vence on the French Riviera. It was regarded by Matisse as his masterpiece. Although it is controversial, many regard it as one of the great religious structures of the 20th century.  View Video

Abstract Expressionism and Surrealism

PLURALISM

Cultural pluralism is the coexisting of diverse cultures in a community. Contemporary art is an example of cultural pluralism because diverse styles exist side-by-side, and the art of diverse cultures are accepted as legitimate.

 Patrons
 Writters
Intellectual

A R T

Jacob Lawrence (1917  – 2000) is one the best-known African American painters. His Migration Series depicts the migration of African Americans from the rural South to the urban North.

LITERATURE

Du Bois was a civil rights activist, sociologist, historian, economist, author, and editor. He was the first African American to graduated from Harvard where he earned a PhD in History. He was a professor of history and economics at Atlanta University.

Du Bois was the head of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), and the editor of the NAACP's journal The Crisis. He rose to national attention with his book The Souls of Black Folk where he argued against Booker T. Washington, and the Atlanta compromise. Washington argued that confrontation would lead to disaster; that cooperation with whites was the only way out of racism while Du Bois advocated activism to achieve civil rights.

The Jim Crow laws, from the 1870s to 1965, mandated segregation in Southern restrooms, restaurants, drinking fountains, the military, and federal workplaces.

In 1895 Booker T. Washington struck a deal called the Atlanta compromise. Southern blacks would submit to segregation; in return whites would fund black vocational schools. This funding supported the Tuskegee Institute where African Americans were educated to teach trades and agriculture. Booker T. Washington was the head of the school while George Washington Carver was its leading scientist.

This meant that African Americans would be locked out of white universities - something that Washington accepted, but Du Boise argued against. Du Bois wanted African Americans to have the same liberal arts education, voting, and legal rights as whites. Washington believed in a slow approach with a practical education.
 

Booker T. Washington, 1905

Read Up from Slavery: An Autobiography by Booker T. Washington.

George Washington Carver (c. 1860–1943)

Carver was an American botanist and inventor. The exact day and year of his birth are unknown; he was born into slavery. He developed hundreds of products made from peanuts and other foods: including cosmetics, dyes, paints, plastics, gasoline, nitroglycerin, adhesives, axle grease, bleach, buttermilk, chili sauce, fuel briquettes (a biofuel), ink, instant coffee, linoleum, mayonnaise, meat tenderizer, metal polish, paper, plastic, shaving cream, shoe polish, synthetic rubber, talcum powder and wood stain. In 1941, Time magazine dubbed Carver a "Black Leonardo".

Langston Hughes

James Mercer Langston Hughes (1902 – 1967) was an African American poet, novelist, playwright, short story writer, and columnist during the Harlem Renaissance.

Poetry of Langston Hughes

Claude McKay
Claude McKay (1889 – 1948) was a Jamaican writer and poet. During the Harlem Renaissance McKay wrote: Home to Harlem (1928), a best-seller, Banjo (1929), and Banana Bottom (1933). McKay also authored a collection of short stories, Gingertown (1932), and two autobiographical books, A Long Way from Home (1937) and Harlem: Negro Metropolis (1940). His book of poetry, Harlem Shadows (1922) was among the first books published during the Harlem Renaissance. His book of collected poems, Selected Poems (1953), was published posthumously.

If We Must Die

John F. Kennedy misquoting Dante when he said, "The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of great moral crisis maintain their neutrality", (24 June 1963).
 

Zora Neale Hurston

Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960) was an author, folklorist, anthropologist, and folklorist. She won the Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New Musical Mule Bone. She wrote four novels, and over 50 short stories, plays, and essays. Hurston is best known for her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God.

She received an education from Columbia University, Barnard College, Howard University, and Morgan State University.
 

MUSIC

Swing Dancing Today

Harlem's Savoy Ballroom

Jelly Roll Morton

Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe (1890 – 1941) was an American ragtime and early jazz pianist. Morton's career started in New Orleans, Louisiana. He claimed to have invented jazz in 1902, and although "Jelly Roll Blues" was the first published jazz composition, in 1915, this claim is in dispute.

Finger Breaker



Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday (born Elinore Harris; 1915–1959) was an African American jazz singer and songwriter during the Harlem Renaissance. Critic John Bush wrote that she "changed the art of American pop vocals forever."

Several of her songs are jazz standards: God Bless the Child, Fine and Mellow, Strange Fruit.

Duke Kennedy

Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (1899 – 1974) was an African American composer, pianist, and big band leader  during the Harlem Renaissance. His received the Pulitzer Prize in 1999.

Duke Ellington and John Coltrane - In a Sentimental Mood
It Don't Mean a Thing

Louis Armstrong

Louis Daniel Armstrong (1901 – 1971) was an African American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans.

What a Wonderful World
 

Fletcher Henderson

Fletcher Hamilton Henderson, Jr. (1897 – 1952) was a prolific  African American pianist and composer during the Harlem Renaissance.

Stealin' Apples

Ethel Waters

Ethel Waters (1896 – 1977) was an African American blues and jazz singer and actress during the Harlem Renaissance. She was nominated for an Academy Award.

Stormy Weather

In 1929 the stock market crash. It was the beginning of the Great Depression, and the beginning of the end of the Harlem Renaissance.