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• 1 media/Harlem Renaissance.jpeg 2018-04-12T04:17:39-07:00 Harlem Renaissance 8 African American culture in the mainstream image_header 2018-05-31T21:44:15-07:00 The Harlem Renaissance was an avenue for African Americans to express themselves. Denied a political voice, they celebrated their cultural uniqueness via art, literature, and music. In art, painters such as Aaron Douglas produced murals and illustrations depicting African American life.In literature, writers like Langston Hughes kept the faith with poetry such as “I, Too”

  I, too, sing America.
   
  I am the darker brother.
  They send me to eat in the kitchen
  When company comes,
  But I laugh,
  And eat well,
  And grow strong.
   
  Tomorrow,
  I’ll be at the table
  When company comes.
  Nobody’ll dare
  Say to me,
  “Eat in the kitchen,”
  Then.
   
  Besides,
  They’ll see how beautiful I am
  And be ashamed—
   
  I, too, am America.
   

  Jazz was the most renowned black voice. African American music had disseminated to Harlem during the Great Migration, and soldiers spread it to Europe during the war. In New York, the Cotton Club, though segregated, was packed with white patrons hoping hear musicians like Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Ella Fitzgerald. Booker T. Washington had believed that the racial divide would close when blacks and whites became more familiar with one another. The Harlem Renaissance began the process through the beauty of music, words and other forms of expression.