Arts-In-Education Exploratory Enrichment

BOCES ARTS-IN-EDUCATION / EXPLORATORY ENRICHMENT
PROGRAM DETAILS



Program Title
WRITERS OF THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE
 
Provider Name
David Mills
 
David Mills

Astoria , NY 11105
Phone:
347-844-6688
Email:
booked65@yahoo.com
Website:
Program Description
The Harlem Renaissance was a rebirth of African-American music, dance, art, literature and theater in 1920s Harlem. David Mills (who lived as a writer-in-residence in Harlem Renaissance writer Langston Hughes’ landmark home) would conduct a high-school assembly about the writers of the Harlem Renaissance. The Renaissance produced poets who wrote formal poems, (such as Countee Cullen and Anne Spencer); and authors, (such as fiction writer Zora Neale Hurston and poet Langston Hughes), who incorporated African-American culture into their work by using black music and northern and southern working-class African-Americans as their subject matter. Hurston’s writing reflected black life in the rural south. Hughes wrote the first blues poem and jazz music influenced his poem’s topics and rhythms. Harlem Renaissance writers often wrote about Negro music, slavery’s aftermath, and financial difficulties. Mr. Mills would discuss how these writers believed their writing would “uplift” the Negro race, change and integrate society, and challenge stereotypes. Mr. Mills would point out how and why Harlem Renaissance literature (poetry, novels, autobiographies, and journalism) flourished during the Roaring 20s, from 1924 until the 1929 stock-market crash. Mr. Mills would also discuss how Harlem Renaissance writers would not have succeeded without the financial support and encouragement of white patrons, such as socialite Charlotte Mason and journalist Carl Van Vechten. Mr. Mills would discuss how the Renaissance led to the first time mainstream publishers published the works of a number of African-American writers, such as Jean Toomer, Jessie Fauset, Claude McKay, and James Weldon Johnson. Mr. Mills would also discuss why, (although there were several women Renaissance writers, such as Nella Larsen, Jessie Fauset, and Alice Nelson), these talented women were not as celebrated as the male writers. Throughout his dynamic presentation, Mr. Mills would use audio and visuals to give students a greater sense of 1920s Harlem and the African-American writers who flourished there. Mr. Mills would combine facts with intriguing ways of thinking about these individuals. The talk will get students to consider where African-American culture and creativity meet. Topics such as African-American poetry, 20th-century history, gender equality and New York City in the 1920s are touched upon.
 
Categories
Literature, Authors (TH) ,
 


Additional Resources 
There are no evaluations available for this program.

Program Recommendations
Grades
9,10,11,12,Professional Development



See Video  
Arts Standards
3,4


Other Standards 



Curriculum Connections 
English Language Arts , Diversity, Equity and Inclusivity , ,



Culturally Responsive 
1,2,3



Cost 
Cost Single: $900
Cost Multiple: $750


Duration
60 minutes