The Harlem Renaissance is a sunrise peeking over the horizon after a dark and stormy night soon bursting into shining radiance that filled the world with enlightenment. A culmination of ingredients that came together to form that perfect meal. If you have had the pleasure of hearing the rising young poet philosophers of today you know that the meal isn’t over yet.

Like a rising wave blacks fled the south in greater and greater numbers heading for the great cities of the north. Life was shaking just beyond the turn of the century. Great philosophers like Du Bois and Locke were speaking out, organizing intellectual gatherings and producing literary outlets.

In 1919 independent black filmmaker Oscar Micheaux introduced “Within Our Gates” a film which portrayed black men and women running the gambit from great intellectuals and entrepreneurs to hustlers. Whites were presented as both great philanthropists and evil racists.

Gatherings of artists, writers, actors and political philosophers began to meet regularly in New York’s Village and in Harlem. Clubs were flourishing in Harlem and the sounds of blues and jazz penetrated the soul. Broadway begin to regularly feature all black musicals. Marcus Garvey called for moving back to Africa. WEB Du Bois declared that social justice was imperative.

Black writers were published regularly in black newspapers and publications which were mostly mainstream until Bu Bois and the NAACP started “Crisis” making Jessie Fauset its literary editor. She introduced the world to Langston Hughes with his 1921 poem “The Negro Speaks Rivers”. She discovered and mentored writers such as Hughes, Jeane Toomer and many others.

“Opportunity” a publication of the National Urban League began to run regular literary contests where participants like Zora Neale Hurston and Wallace Thurman competed for space. Dr. Alain Locke inspired by what he read put together an anthology “The New Negro” . He also sponsored a meeting between New York’s literary community and the fiery young writers.

Louis Armstrong and Jelly Roll Morton brought the raucous sounds of jazz from New Orleans to the world. Bessie Smith brought glitz to the gritty blues. Duke Ellington added a sophistication to orchestration which is still present in modern American compositions today.

While Locke pushed open the doors of white publishing houses, Du Bois was not always happy about that direction. This exemplifies that this was a free spirited awakening not a guided tour with all headed in the same direction. Langston Hughes explained it best in a 1926 interview with the Nation “We younger Negro artists who create now intend to express our individual dark skinned selves without fear or shame”.

Many say that the Renaissance was over by 1935. Quelled by the horrors of the Great Depression. I beg to differ as I see its fingers spreading across the world. Jazz wrote the symphony for World War II. Bessie Smith and her blues inspired Elvis and Mo Town alike giving birth to Soul and Rock & Roll. Literary giants such as Maya Angelou and Richard Wright wear the trappings of the Renaissance well..

May the sun never set though the day is often dark. Shall the meal continue on as the legacy of the Harlem Renaissance lives on in me with every breath I take.