The Harlem Renaissance: Hub of African-American Culture, 1920-1930

Circles of the Twentieth Century #1

by Steven Watson

The first book in the Circles of the Twentieth Century series which focuses on writers, artists, poets, hostesses and patrons who played a role in moderism as we know it. Watson explores the lively and fascinating people who helped bring about what became known as the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, African American

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

Reviews

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

41/2stars. Excellent, intriguing and very readable treatment.

[Dankwa Brooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

I knew about the HARLEM RENAISSANCE, but I fell in love with the time period when I studied it in Humanities at MORGAN STATE UNIVERSITY. This book is an excellent further exploration of that time period. The book not only highlights the key figures, but the entire environment in which this historically cultural time took place.

Black folk didn’t have a lot of money, didn’t have a lot of anything, but what we had was SOUL. In the book you can see that ever since our presence on this continent, black folk had to do more with less and DID, even to the admiration and adoration of white folk. This book expertly details a lot of that. It also details the patrons of the Renaissance and how that wasn’t necessarily a good thing.
The book touches on all aspects of the renaissance, including the environment/community like the section on the famous “Harlem Rent Parties”, the night life, the famous clubs like THE COTTON CLUB and THE SAVOY BALLROOM and the music artists/performers like JOSEPHINE BAKER, EARL “SNAKEHIPS” TUCKER, BESSIE SMITH, BILL “BOJANGLES” ROBINSON and ETHEL WATERS. The book focused most on the intellectuals, writers and journalists of the renaissance.

Famous figures like W. E. B. DU BOIS, LANGSTON HUGHES and ZORA NEALE HURSTON are heavily featured, but also JAMES WELDON JOHNSON, ALAIN LOCKE, ARTURO SCHOMBURG, WALLACE THURMAN, CLAUDE MCKAY, JEAN TOOMER and COUNTEE CULLEN are featured prominently.
The book also highlighted the patrons of the renaissance like the “Harlem Hostess” A’LELIA WALKER, but also white patrons like CHARLOTTE MASON and CARL VAN VECHTEN.

As a passage in the book stated, “CONTROLLING THE BLACK IMAGE. One consequence of the rising white interest in African-American literature was the black intelligentsia's drive to control its own image. Renaissance writers, intellectuals, and artists were charged with articulating a racial identity that not only plumbed indigenous black experience but simultaneously assumed a positive face for white society.“ This is ALWAYS the struggle.

The book was a WEALTH of information on this time period. This was SUCH a prodigious time for black artists and being a black artist, the Harlem Renaissance has always made me PROUD.

EPILOGUE
Because I’m so in love with the time period, I took copious notes via GoodReads on the book and shared them on the site at https://www.goodreads.com/user_status...

[Cal · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book details a decade of a flourishing black culture in Harlem, the history behind it, how it unfolded and its legacy in black America. Each sentence is brimming with historical tid-bits but is somehow digestible - it feels like you’re let in on a whole new world you never knew about. The book uses pictures and drawings wisely, it works with Watson’s writing to create a vivid atmosphere. I really liked the visual aspect of the book, I don’t see it in nonfiction very often and it really broke up these dense walls of text. Solid book, read to learn more about black culture in America and look at some amazing photography.

[Socraticist · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gave me what I wanted to know about the Harlem Renaissance. It mainly looks at writers but beyond listing their works it quotes and/or prints a few of the poems and quotes from many personal letters. We get a sense of what these characters were really like. As a bonus, quite a bit of the slang vernacular of the time is included in side notes on the pages. Awesome.

There have been few books I have enjoyed reading more than this one.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting survey of the Harlem Renaissance. I've long struggled to wrap my head around exactly what it "was" and this book helped me to clarify my thinking on this all important movement.