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The New Negro
From the man known as the father of the Harlem Renaissance comes a powerful, provocative, and affecting anthology of writers who shaped the Harlem Renaissance movement and who help us to consider the evolution of the African American in society.
With stunning works by seminal black voices such as Zora Neale Hurston, Countee Cullen, and W.E.B. DuBois, Locke has constructed a vivid look at the new negro, the changing African American finding his place in the ever shifting sociocultural landscape that was 1920s America. With poetry, prose, and nonfiction essays, this collection is widely praised for its literary strength as well as its historical coverage of a monumental and fascinating time in the history of America.
With stunning works by seminal black voices such as Zora Neale Hurston, Countee Cullen, and W.E.B. DuBois, Locke has constructed a vivid look at the new negro, the changing African American finding his place in the ever shifting sociocultural landscape that was 1920s America. With poetry, prose, and nonfiction essays, this collection is widely praised for its literary strength as well as its historical coverage of a monumental and fascinating time in the history of America.
452 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1925
About the author
Alain LeRoy Locke
28 books56 followersAmerican educator and writer Alain LeRoy Locke, whose include
Four Negro Poets
(1927) and
Negro Art: Past and Present
(1936), championed the Harlem renaissance.
People best remember this philosopher as the chief interpreter. Harvard University in 1907 graduated Locke, a Phi Beta Kappa and the first black Rhodes scholar. He studied at Oxford and the University of Berlin and then received a Philosophiae Doctor in philosophy from Harvard in 1918. Aesthetics strongly concerned this humanist. His philosophy, cultural pluralism, emphasized the determining of values, most especially the respect for the uniqueness of each personality, to guide human conduct and interrelationships.
Locke taught at Howard University in District of Columbia for nearly forty years.
People best remember this philosopher as the chief interpreter. Harvard University in 1907 graduated Locke, a Phi Beta Kappa and the first black Rhodes scholar. He studied at Oxford and the University of Berlin and then received a Philosophiae Doctor in philosophy from Harvard in 1918. Aesthetics strongly concerned this humanist. His philosophy, cultural pluralism, emphasized the determining of values, most especially the respect for the uniqueness of each personality, to guide human conduct and interrelationships.
Locke taught at Howard University in District of Columbia for nearly forty years.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
May 18, 2011
This is the Bible of the Harlem Renaissance. It is another classic,must have book. Edited by the first black Rhodes Scholar, Dr. Alain Locke, this anthology includes the work of many of the Harlem Renaissance writers: Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Jean Toomer, Claude McKay, and others. Every time I read it, it brings back memories of graduate school days at Atlanta University where I bought and read my first copy thanks to Dr. Richard Long.
February 3, 2021
African-American anthology during the Harlem Renaissance (1920s and 1930s). Magnificent! Monumental! Historical!
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The book compiles the writings of some of the most important writers in history. The topics covered are vast from literature to history. The writings are purposive and clear with each sentence meant to carry impact. The poetry section, for me, is the most moving. Wah, definitely a must read!
.
It is interesting to read that the early 20th century saw the African-American communities divided into two main classes - the elite and the working class. Opportunities and social mobility were lacking. Hence, one tool that was so vital was education. Literacy and awareness could change many lives for the better.
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I am glad to be introduced to Langston Hughes the poet, Alain Locke the editor and essayist, Jean Toomer the novelist, Zora Neale Hurston the storyteller, W. E. B DuBois the historian and so many more. The timeline of the writings are to be noted - the intellectualism of the African-American circles soared high during this time for they sought to build communities of their own, a world in which they can belong. Slavery was behind them but not the severe repercussions resulted by it. Hence, to read the book is to feel your spirit lifted. And to recognise our world is still filled with racial oppression.
.
5/5 because the topics covered are so so soooo relevant today. Racism is a demon we never seem to be able to abandon. Perhaps, we should start with recognising the internalised prejudice within us and acknowledging its existence in the system we succumb to. Hopefully, one day, it can be dismantled. Maybe.
.
The book compiles the writings of some of the most important writers in history. The topics covered are vast from literature to history. The writings are purposive and clear with each sentence meant to carry impact. The poetry section, for me, is the most moving. Wah, definitely a must read!
.
It is interesting to read that the early 20th century saw the African-American communities divided into two main classes - the elite and the working class. Opportunities and social mobility were lacking. Hence, one tool that was so vital was education. Literacy and awareness could change many lives for the better.
.
I am glad to be introduced to Langston Hughes the poet, Alain Locke the editor and essayist, Jean Toomer the novelist, Zora Neale Hurston the storyteller, W. E. B DuBois the historian and so many more. The timeline of the writings are to be noted - the intellectualism of the African-American circles soared high during this time for they sought to build communities of their own, a world in which they can belong. Slavery was behind them but not the severe repercussions resulted by it. Hence, to read the book is to feel your spirit lifted. And to recognise our world is still filled with racial oppression.
.
5/5 because the topics covered are so so soooo relevant today. Racism is a demon we never seem to be able to abandon. Perhaps, we should start with recognising the internalised prejudice within us and acknowledging its existence in the system we succumb to. Hopefully, one day, it can be dismantled. Maybe.
June 16, 2016
This was a comprehensive collection of writing from early 20th century authors of African descent that created work that wealthy white American patrons were willing to economically support (i.e. Albert C. Barnes, Charlotte Osgood Mason etc.). During this time in the U.S., Africana culture was in vogue and became both a commodity and a source of public acknowledgement that people of African descent were active producers of culture, literature and visual art.
Both the writing and visual images presented in this anthology were carefully chosen by Philadelphian native Dr. Alain Locke. Included are the early works of Langston Hughes, Claude Mckay, Zora Neale Hurston, and Aaron Douglass. Of particular interest in this collection are themes of cultural identity, the impact of structural racism, the burgeoning art form of jazz, and the meaningful ancestral connection to Africa.
I highly recommend this anthology for readers wanting to understand 1920's America from a less romanticized point of view.
Both the writing and visual images presented in this anthology were carefully chosen by Philadelphian native Dr. Alain Locke. Included are the early works of Langston Hughes, Claude Mckay, Zora Neale Hurston, and Aaron Douglass. Of particular interest in this collection are themes of cultural identity, the impact of structural racism, the burgeoning art form of jazz, and the meaningful ancestral connection to Africa.
I highly recommend this anthology for readers wanting to understand 1920's America from a less romanticized point of view.
June 30, 2008
This is not the best collection of writings from the Harlem Renaissance, but I love it as a historical document. It is the collection that was published at the time, and as such it is extremely interesting and engaging.
January 2, 2015
A phenomenal collection, including a balls-up selection of poetry from all the important voices of the Harlem Renaissance and some terrific essays. Well chosen and well commented on, this is the work that defined the Harlem Renaissance and it's indispensable. Not a false note in it.
April 23, 2022
This was a kind of omnibus review of the Harlem Renaissance, and of the state of the Afro-American culture generally from the viewpoint of the the 1920s. There are several scholarly pieces discussions of black literature, music, and theatre by Alain Locke, Arthur Huff Fauset, and others, including an essay by William Stanley Brathwaite, "The Negro in American Literature", that I especially enjoyed. The collection includes 100 pages plus of examples of the best negro literature of the time, featuring works by Hurston, Cullen, Hughes, McKay, and others. There were a few excerpts from Cane by Jean Toomer which I thoroughly enjoyed I wonder why we didn't read this in class? There was a section on black music of the time, spirituals and jazz. The blues is omitted (was it recognized much at the time?) and the importance and influence of jazz is inaccurately predicted, but this was written before Louis Armstrong really took off. There is a good section discussing black folk literature and storytelling, and lastly there are several pieces on the position of black folks from a historical and sociological point of view. All in all it was a useful read because it presents the vision of black thinkers and writers and a few of their liberal white counterparts during the Harlem Renaissance itself (it grew out of Survey magazine, a leading black cultural journal of the time).
March 7, 2015
This is an extremely valuable anthology that brings together some of the most important figures of the Harlem Renaissance. There are, inevitably, some important omissions - in common with most anthologies. Someone, the editor, has to take decisions about what to put in and, perhaps more controversially, what or who to leave out. A discussion of the writings of Harlem during this period, by someone who apparently never lived there, that excludes the mass movement of working class blacks led by Marcus Garvey is very odd. It perhaps has more to do with the conflict that raged between Dubois and Garvey and the, rightly, pivotal place that the former occupies within this anthology. Nevertheless it's a sad and important omission.
Perhaps this anthology serves to underline the gulf that clearly existed at the time between the lives of the Harlem literati and that of everyday 'black folks'. A celebration of a period of art and literature consumed most significantly at the time by Whites but largely inaccessible to those it strove to portray while the 'portrayed' merely survived the best they could. A none the less important piece of work for all that.
Perhaps this anthology serves to underline the gulf that clearly existed at the time between the lives of the Harlem literati and that of everyday 'black folks'. A celebration of a period of art and literature consumed most significantly at the time by Whites but largely inaccessible to those it strove to portray while the 'portrayed' merely survived the best they could. A none the less important piece of work for all that.
June 23, 2016
Major Field Prep: 33/133
From Houston A. Baker, Jr.’s Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance: “If we turn to the Harlem Renaissance of the twenties, it is difficult in the presence of a seminal discursive act like Alain Locke’s New Negro, to conceive of that modern, Afro-American, expressive moment as other than an intensely successful act of national self-definition working itself out in a field of possibilities constructed by turn-of-the-century spokespersons” (Baker 72). The call to the younger generation, combined with the distinction between the Old and the New Negro, reinforce the conscientious building of not only an artistic and aesthetic movement but of the field and discipline of African American letters and discourse. Locke's anthology exemplifies the age of the anthology, a time of mass production of anthologies as well as serial magazines and other boosts in publications. The integration of essay, poetry, fiction, photograph, folk art, folk tale, musical scores, paintings, and drama expand the scope of what is or could be part of the shifting terrain of Negro art and literature. It is a declaration of autonomy and authority.
From Houston A. Baker, Jr.’s Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance: “If we turn to the Harlem Renaissance of the twenties, it is difficult in the presence of a seminal discursive act like Alain Locke’s New Negro, to conceive of that modern, Afro-American, expressive moment as other than an intensely successful act of national self-definition working itself out in a field of possibilities constructed by turn-of-the-century spokespersons” (Baker 72). The call to the younger generation, combined with the distinction between the Old and the New Negro, reinforce the conscientious building of not only an artistic and aesthetic movement but of the field and discipline of African American letters and discourse. Locke's anthology exemplifies the age of the anthology, a time of mass production of anthologies as well as serial magazines and other boosts in publications. The integration of essay, poetry, fiction, photograph, folk art, folk tale, musical scores, paintings, and drama expand the scope of what is or could be part of the shifting terrain of Negro art and literature. It is a declaration of autonomy and authority.
September 28, 2013
This anthology, including Zora Neale Hurston's "Spunk" and many poems by Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Jean Toomer, and Claude McKay, is such a brilliant, important collection in the context of American literary history. Collected by a man who did not live in Harlem nor was a creative writer himself, this work still acts as the all-important "Bible" of the Harlem Renaissance.
July 20, 2011
Picked up this volume used because I want to use the title essay for my AP Lit class when we read about the Harlem Renaissance and Zora Neale Hurston. There are many great essays in here about the promise and deliverance of African American artists and intellectuals.
February 8, 2017
Wonderful survey of brilliant writers of the early Harlem Renaissance. Great way to learn of the consciousness of the black thinkers who came before us and who lived during a time closer to the Emancipation but during the era of the Black Codes and Great Migration northward.
July 4, 2023
a really wonderful, foundational anthology of the harlem renaissance! i thoroughly enjoyed almost all of the contributions to this volume, despite a couple of essays which featured some unsettling anti-semitism and one that veered off its argument to display some misogyny.
my favorite essays were the ones about the contributions to literature and art by black americans, and of course, the concluding essay by the genius w.e.b. dubois. i also very much liked the essays about harlem and howard university, which read almost like love letters in their passion. of the fiction and drama, my favorite pieces were “the city of refuge” by rudolph fisher, “spunk” by zora neale hurston, and “compromise” by willis richardson.
a classic worth reading!
my favorite essays were the ones about the contributions to literature and art by black americans, and of course, the concluding essay by the genius w.e.b. dubois. i also very much liked the essays about harlem and howard university, which read almost like love letters in their passion. of the fiction and drama, my favorite pieces were “the city of refuge” by rudolph fisher, “spunk” by zora neale hurston, and “compromise” by willis richardson.
a classic worth reading!
Read
March 28, 2024How does one rate a collection of work from a magical time period? Magical in the sense that throughout African American history, we hear and read of racism & discrimination. However, here, in Harlem in the 1920s, it is different. The Jim Crow laws are alive and well, but when African Americans move from the South to the North, and in particular, Harlem, they experience this special (magical) time period which produced beautiful art, music, writings—soul and identity searching material that in some ways is timeless.
October 1, 2023
Favorite Quote: “Of wounds to the spirit which are a thousand times more deadly and cruel it is impossible to tell in entirety.” ~”The Paradox of Color” by Walter White
An anthology series focused on the life, culture and art of Black people in the 1920’s what more can you ask for to glimpse into a bit of history and read the words from the people who loved it.
An anthology series focused on the life, culture and art of Black people in the 1920’s what more can you ask for to glimpse into a bit of history and read the words from the people who loved it.
January 1, 2008
Alain Locke's The New Negro provides a valuable look at the Harlem Renaissance, both as an artistic movement that has much in common with the broader modernist movement and as a sociopolitical movement that sees art and self-expression as a way to combat prejudice. The two movements, artistic and social, come together in the New Negro movement or Harlem Renaissance because of their common emphasis on the art itself rather than on the creator or its political ramifications. As Locke writes in "Negro Youth Speaks," "The newer motive, then, in being racial is to be so purely for the sake of art."
Locke argues in the title essay that this generation of artists carries great promise for the healing of American race relationships as the artist "becomes a conscious contributor and lays aside the status of a beneficiary and ward for that of a collaborator and participant in American civilization. The great social gain in this is the releasing of our talented group from the arid fields of controversy and debate to the productive fields of creative expression." Locke argues for a movement away from artistic expression as merely a way to engage with the "Negro problem" or to try to represent the race as a whole; instead, he argues for an approach to art that focuses on individual self-expression. He writes, "for generations in the mind of America, the Negro has been more of a formula than a human being--a something to be argued about, condemned or defended, to be 'kept down,' or 'in his place,' or 'helped up,' to be worried with or worried over, harassed or patronized, a social bogey or a social burden." Writing about the race problem or the race as a whole only perpetuates this problem and "[b]y shedding the old chrysalis of the Negro problem we are achieving something like a spiritual emancipation." More to the point, in a later essay, he writes, "Our poets have now stopped speaking for the Negro--they speak as Negroes."
This carries great promise as an artistic movement and as part of a socio-political movement to emancipate African Americans from the limitations still placed upon them in 1920s America. But it does not solve the problems of American culture for African Americans. And thus I find myself torn regarding this movement. No artist should have to create inferior art in order to address a political issue (which isn't to say that political art is inferior, but that politics forced upon art can diminish its power), but the artists of the movement that Locke documents give too much power to art alone and give short shrift to the very real problems that still face African Americans in the rest of the country. The reality is that these artists are privileged. They live in Harlem and many of them are middle class (either by birth or by virtue of hard work and lucky breaks). In the 1920s, African Americans in the South and in other large cities are not so lucky as these few. Given this reality, the reality in which most African Americans live below the poverty line, suffer the consequences of Jim Crow laws, and live in fear of the Ku Klux Klan or lynchings by their white neighbors should they even be suspected of doing something wrong, the few African Americans who have more power and the means with which to help others really should be helping others. I am not convinced that writing poetry that explores the possibilities of African American self-expression and moves away from race consciousness or stereotypes (though that may be valuable) is the help that is really needed in a time like the one in which the Harlem Renaissance flourished.
I would argue that this artistic movement can play an important role in a larger movement regarding the issue of race, but that this is not enough. It is important to create art that reveals minorities as human and individual and not merely part of a faceless mass, but to create political change the mass has to be acknowledged and mobilized as well.
Locke argues in the title essay that this generation of artists carries great promise for the healing of American race relationships as the artist "becomes a conscious contributor and lays aside the status of a beneficiary and ward for that of a collaborator and participant in American civilization. The great social gain in this is the releasing of our talented group from the arid fields of controversy and debate to the productive fields of creative expression." Locke argues for a movement away from artistic expression as merely a way to engage with the "Negro problem" or to try to represent the race as a whole; instead, he argues for an approach to art that focuses on individual self-expression. He writes, "for generations in the mind of America, the Negro has been more of a formula than a human being--a something to be argued about, condemned or defended, to be 'kept down,' or 'in his place,' or 'helped up,' to be worried with or worried over, harassed or patronized, a social bogey or a social burden." Writing about the race problem or the race as a whole only perpetuates this problem and "[b]y shedding the old chrysalis of the Negro problem we are achieving something like a spiritual emancipation." More to the point, in a later essay, he writes, "Our poets have now stopped speaking for the Negro--they speak as Negroes."
This carries great promise as an artistic movement and as part of a socio-political movement to emancipate African Americans from the limitations still placed upon them in 1920s America. But it does not solve the problems of American culture for African Americans. And thus I find myself torn regarding this movement. No artist should have to create inferior art in order to address a political issue (which isn't to say that political art is inferior, but that politics forced upon art can diminish its power), but the artists of the movement that Locke documents give too much power to art alone and give short shrift to the very real problems that still face African Americans in the rest of the country. The reality is that these artists are privileged. They live in Harlem and many of them are middle class (either by birth or by virtue of hard work and lucky breaks). In the 1920s, African Americans in the South and in other large cities are not so lucky as these few. Given this reality, the reality in which most African Americans live below the poverty line, suffer the consequences of Jim Crow laws, and live in fear of the Ku Klux Klan or lynchings by their white neighbors should they even be suspected of doing something wrong, the few African Americans who have more power and the means with which to help others really should be helping others. I am not convinced that writing poetry that explores the possibilities of African American self-expression and moves away from race consciousness or stereotypes (though that may be valuable) is the help that is really needed in a time like the one in which the Harlem Renaissance flourished.
I would argue that this artistic movement can play an important role in a larger movement regarding the issue of race, but that this is not enough. It is important to create art that reveals minorities as human and individual and not merely part of a faceless mass, but to create political change the mass has to be acknowledged and mobilized as well.
April 7, 2022
The New Negro by Alain L Locke was the first anthology I ever read back in the early 70s when I asked one of my teachers in high school for some suggestions. He gave me two anthologies but told me to read this one first and discuss it with him before moving on to the second (Barksdale's Black Writers of America). While this was all done outside the classroom, it was one of the best educational experiences of my life.
This is justifiably a classic that even (especially?) today generates positive and negative commentary. Not so much the selections, they represent a good, though incomplete, selection of writing up to that point (1925). Locke's title essay coupled with what he chose to include and exclude is where the discussions can be most enlightening. Whenever someone makes a broad and sweeping statement about a group of people there is going to be disagreement and issues about potential misuse of the statement by those opposed to those people. Much of the debate has been about whether he contributed to stereotypes, yet even most of that debate is about modifying Locke's statements rather than discarding them. For the time, this was a very good and, for the writers included, very helpful anthology.
As an anthology I find the selections speak to me in 2022 in a very different manner than they did in 1975, and no doubt in a different manner than they would have in 1925. One of the passages that hit me when I first read it, generated some great discussion with my teacher (thank you Mr Wattree!), and is still relevant today is from Rudolph Fisher's The City of Refuge. It is the scene early in the story when King Solomon Gillis, fleeing the Jim Crow south, first sets foot in Harlem and sees the community living there. The scene is written with a bit of humor but is a combination of joyous and heartbreaking.
I would recommend this new reprint for both Locke's essay and introductions as well as the works anthologized here. It serves as a snapshot of the Harlem Renaissance as well as a collection of wonderful literature.
Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via LibraryThing Early Reviewers.
This is justifiably a classic that even (especially?) today generates positive and negative commentary. Not so much the selections, they represent a good, though incomplete, selection of writing up to that point (1925). Locke's title essay coupled with what he chose to include and exclude is where the discussions can be most enlightening. Whenever someone makes a broad and sweeping statement about a group of people there is going to be disagreement and issues about potential misuse of the statement by those opposed to those people. Much of the debate has been about whether he contributed to stereotypes, yet even most of that debate is about modifying Locke's statements rather than discarding them. For the time, this was a very good and, for the writers included, very helpful anthology.
As an anthology I find the selections speak to me in 2022 in a very different manner than they did in 1975, and no doubt in a different manner than they would have in 1925. One of the passages that hit me when I first read it, generated some great discussion with my teacher (thank you Mr Wattree!), and is still relevant today is from Rudolph Fisher's The City of Refuge. It is the scene early in the story when King Solomon Gillis, fleeing the Jim Crow south, first sets foot in Harlem and sees the community living there. The scene is written with a bit of humor but is a combination of joyous and heartbreaking.
I would recommend this new reprint for both Locke's essay and introductions as well as the works anthologized here. It serves as a snapshot of the Harlem Renaissance as well as a collection of wonderful literature.
Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via LibraryThing Early Reviewers.
February 6, 2013
Read:
The New Negro by Alain Locke
The Negro in American Literature by William Stanley Braithwaite
The City of Refuge by Rudolph Fisher (*****)
Vestiges by Rudolph Fisher
Spunk by Zora Neale Hurston
Sahdji by Bruce Nugent
All of the poetry (*****)
The 'music' section
Compromise by Willis Richardson (*****)
The Paradox of Color by Walter White
Read for English 3370: American Modernism through Contemporary Literature in Spring 2013
The New Negro by Alain Locke
The Negro in American Literature by William Stanley Braithwaite
The City of Refuge by Rudolph Fisher (*****)
Vestiges by Rudolph Fisher
Spunk by Zora Neale Hurston
Sahdji by Bruce Nugent
All of the poetry (*****)
The 'music' section
Compromise by Willis Richardson (*****)
The Paradox of Color by Walter White
Read for English 3370: American Modernism through Contemporary Literature in Spring 2013
February 14, 2019
2.5 stars. I enjoyed a number of sections of this book. What I didn’t care for was the insane amount of minutia and the writing style of the early 1900’s. This being Black History Month, I’ve been reading and plan to read more from Black authors, many of their stories I have loved. Here I have enjoyed Black poetry very much, particularly Countee Cullen and Langston Hughes. Also enjoyed the play by Willis Richardson called Compromise.
February 11, 2011
A huge assortment of fiction, poetry, and drama, but primarily essays all about the nascence of Negro art, the place of the Negro in American culture, jazz and Black music, etc. Very heterogeneous in terms of both content and quality.
April 28, 2013
Harlem Renaissance unfolded.
November 22, 2014
Fairly useful anthology, very interesting historical artifact
May 20, 2022
It’s not hard to see why this anthology took so many by storm in 1925.
While some of the writing and language are certainly dated, these stories, poems, and essays are still fresh and exciting.
As a modern reader, I’m struck by one particular trait: many of the pieces on social and political issues based around race are still incredibly relevant. On one hand, this denotes an extreme awareness and timelessness. On the other hand, it’s a little disturbing to read a book from 1925 and recognize problems that still plague our world, our social interactions, our industries, and so many other parts of our lives that find us communicating over DuBois’ “color line.”
This is a book of pride. It’s a beautiful library of celebration, criticism, and a sort of optimistic realism. Even as a white reader with no material connection to black America in 1925, I found myself touched by the words in this anthology.
Give this a read. You won’t regret it.
While some of the writing and language are certainly dated, these stories, poems, and essays are still fresh and exciting.
As a modern reader, I’m struck by one particular trait: many of the pieces on social and political issues based around race are still incredibly relevant. On one hand, this denotes an extreme awareness and timelessness. On the other hand, it’s a little disturbing to read a book from 1925 and recognize problems that still plague our world, our social interactions, our industries, and so many other parts of our lives that find us communicating over DuBois’ “color line.”
This is a book of pride. It’s a beautiful library of celebration, criticism, and a sort of optimistic realism. Even as a white reader with no material connection to black America in 1925, I found myself touched by the words in this anthology.
Give this a read. You won’t regret it.
June 24, 2021
This is a great collection of short stories, poems, and essays by African American writers during the Harlem renaissance. After almost 100 years these stories remain beautiful, relevant, and inspiring, while giving us insight into the world in the 1920s from the African American perspective. There were a lot of different writing styles, themes, and writers in this book, so there is most likely something in here that you will enjoy.
Personally, I found "The Task of the Negro Womanhood" was the most interesting essay since it showcased some strong woman that persevered through not only racism but also sexism. The tone of this story was also optimistic while rooting itself in some harsh reality, which made the essay really inspirational.
I also really like some of Langston Hughes' poems in this book. His poems had some beautiful prose and imagery.
Personally, I found "The Task of the Negro Womanhood" was the most interesting essay since it showcased some strong woman that persevered through not only racism but also sexism. The tone of this story was also optimistic while rooting itself in some harsh reality, which made the essay really inspirational.
I also really like some of Langston Hughes' poems in this book. His poems had some beautiful prose and imagery.
June 25, 2022
This is a difficult book to review in that it contains multiple genres. The fiction and poetry hold up well, coming from the likes of Toomer, Hughes, Cullen, and Hurston. The non-fiction is more of a mixed bag. It is hard (for me at least) to read them without anachronism. Not only is some of the language dated (including the title, of course), but it is hard to fail to see where a certain optimism was misplaced, or a way of looking at things firmly of its era. On the other hand, it is interesting to see the ways black writers were thinking about black life in an era before Martin Luther King and the civil rights era.
February 29, 2024
4/5 Stars (%73/100)
This was considered to be the Bible during the Harlem Renaissance and even today, it has an important place in African-American literature and American literature in general. This is essentially an anthology compiled by Alain Locke who was a very influential figure. There are lots of literary works in the book from different genres by a variety of black artists such as Langston Hughes, Cullen McKay and Zora Neale Hurston. Anyone who is interested in American history and literature (especially black people) should read this book. I've read some excerpts from the book many years ago but I had a chance to finish the entire book now.
This was considered to be the Bible during the Harlem Renaissance and even today, it has an important place in African-American literature and American literature in general. This is essentially an anthology compiled by Alain Locke who was a very influential figure. There are lots of literary works in the book from different genres by a variety of black artists such as Langston Hughes, Cullen McKay and Zora Neale Hurston. Anyone who is interested in American history and literature (especially black people) should read this book. I've read some excerpts from the book many years ago but I had a chance to finish the entire book now.
February 14, 2024
Produced during the Harlem Renaissance by one of its most important writers, this collection of essays, drama, fiction, and poetry was edited by Alain Locke. This volume includes voices of African Americans speaking for themselves and about themselves and their place in America and the world. It's written just before the Depression when forced labor remained a major part of the economy of the South and Jim Crow laws were in full force. This collection is beautiful, joyous, and painful--an education in itself.
December 31, 2019
This book in a compilation of articles and writings of Harlem Renaissance and the transformation of black folks as a results of migration from farm and plantation to the big city. It was a hard read, bombastic and wordy. I didn't finish, just gave up.
July 19, 2021
A foundational text of the Harlem Renaissance--though not every entry radiates with polish in the modern age, modern readers interested in the movement or African American literary history in general will find Alain Locke's anthology an essential read.
March 9, 2024
Admittedly, I only read selected chapters that interested me both. Great to learn the book, however, for its historical significance. Phenomenal bibliographic resources. Rampersad's introduction adds great long-term perspective.
Want to read
December 27, 2019As heard on Code Switch: https://www.npr.org/2019/12/20/790381....
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