Lecture 10. The New Negroes (continued)

American History: From Emancipation to the Present (AFAM 162)

The Harlem Renaissance brought together legions of black writers, artists, musicians, and intellectuals who celebrated black culture and romanticized its connections to an African past. In this lecture, Professor Holloway documents some of the expressions of the Harlem Renaissance (also known as the New Negro Renaissance), the political and cultural movement that claimed Harlem as its figurative capital. In fact, thousands of African Americans flocked to Harlem, and it became the center of a rich cultural and political environment--one always fraught with complications, but still understood to represent the best that black America had to offer. As Professor Holloway shows, white enthusiasts of these newly-admired cultural forms visited Harlem to get a taste of black life. Indeed, without the financial support of the white community, whatever cultural efflorescence that did exist in Harlem would have been significantly less grand. Yet the tensions between white patrons and black artists, as well as between black intellectuals and black artists, made the Harlem Renaissance a complex movement.

Warning: This lecture contains graphic content and/or adult language that some users may find disturbing.

00:00 - Chapter 1. Countee Cullen Poem: "Heritage"
11:14 - Chapter 2. Gwendolyn Bennett Poem: "Heritage"
13:55 - Chapter 3. The New Negro Renaissance
22:19 - Chapter 4. The White Patrons' Fascination with Black Cultural Performance and Ability

Complete course materials are available at the Yale Online website: online.yale.edu


This course was recorded in Spring 2010.