Author Description

The Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s symbolized black liberation and sophistication - the final shaking off of slavery from the minds, spirits, and characters of African Americans. It was a period when the African American came of age - when the "New Negro" was born - with the clearest expression of this transformation visible in its remarkable outpouring of literature, art, and music. In Voices from the Harlem Renaissance, Nathan Irvin Huggins provides more than 120 selections from the political writings, literature, and art of this watershed period. Bringing together the most trenchant works from such writers as Langston Hughes, Nancy Cunard, Alain Locke, and Zora Neale Hurston, this fascinating collection depicts the impact of Harlem and New York City on those who lived there. While focusing on the youthfulness and exuberance of the period, Huggins attends to the voices of alienation, anger, and rage - whether softly intoned or stridently voiced - so widely reflected in the writing of poets such as George S. Schuyler and Gwendolyn Bennett. Also included are over twenty paintings and sculptures of the Renaissance period by such artists as Aaron Douglas, Sargent Johnson, and Hale Woodruff. The vitality of the Harlem Renaissance served as a generative force for all New York - and the nation. Offering all those interested in the evolution of African-American consciousness and art a link to this glorious time, Voices of the Harlem Renaissance illuminates the African-American struggle for self-realization.