Introduction
During the period of 1920 to approximately 1935, there was an era in black history in which researchers cultivated the artistic expressiveness of African American people. Also known as the "New Negro Movement," the Harlem Renaissance marked the rebirth and redefinition of the black community through the works of art, music, dance, and most importantly, intellectual literature including poetry, short stories, and essays. The works developed during the renaissance grew attention from all around the United States as well as the world. It was at this time that African American literature was viewed and taken very seriously.
Prior to the 1920s was the "Great Migration." Blacks were migrating to northern cities and states in search of a better life as oppose to the constant oppression faced in the South. The north underwent the industrial boom of the First World War that provided a significantly large amount of employment opportunities while the south produced a depression in the agricultural economy. Harlem, NY was becoming known as the capital of Black America. The strong presence of the political and cultural environment Harlem came to be well known as a result of the large number of blacks that settled there who were educated and socially conscious.
Many of the most prolific African Americans emerged from the Harlem Renaissance. They include poet Langston Hughes, musician Duke Ellington, writers Zora Neal Hurston and James Weldon Johnson, and philosopher Marcus Garvey.
As I look, the Harlem of today is nowhere near a mirror reflection of that of 80 years ago. The problem at hand is that the new generation that populates this very area is unfamiliar with its significance and has neglected to recognize the greatness of a community that contains such a rich history. To add insult to misery, in my opinion, due to this lack of knowledge, the community has allowed themselves to be gradually driven out. There is a process called gentrification, which is defined as a renewal accompanying the influx of middle-class people into deteriorating areas usually of poor residents. Harlem is currently receiving that influx of middle-class Caucasian people who are purchasing property all over Harlem in efforts to rebuild and make it more marketable to white population while blacks are unconsciously pushed out. It is important for African American people to be knowledgeable about the history they represent in order to make correlations that will further raise their consciousness to understand the present.
Scope
This pathfinder will serve as a research guide for students and professors of the University at Albany, who may actually live in Harlem, to learn more about the Renaissance which is over shadowed in black history by the civil rights movement of the 60s or the era of slavery. The sources will mainly consist of materials found at the University at Albany libraries and may include of materials found via the Internet. The types of sources that will be found in this pathfinder will include, but not limited to, bibliographical, indexes, abstracts, multimedia, and reference books.
Subject Headings
These subject headings were selected to be used when searching for books and other materials related to the Harlem Renaissance. They are most useful for searching online catalogs, but they can also be used in searching indexes and abstracts as well as the World Wide Web.
Key to Location
UALB ULIB - University at Albany University Library Main Stacks
OVER - Oversized Collection
RBR - Reserves on Collection
REF - Reference Collection
Browsing Areas
The following call numbers are the areas in which you can browse for materials relevant to the Harlem Renaissance:
PS 153 N5 B - PS 153 N5 W
NX 511 N4 - NX 512.3 N5
Bibliographicals
Bibliographies are usually used to answer a wide range of questions and further research through the identification of sources on a various topics. The following bibliographies found will assist you in you initial search process:
Perry, M. 1982. The Harlem Renaissance: An Annotated Bibliography and Commentary. New York, NY: Garland Publishing.
Location: UALB ULIB NX 511 N4 Z991
Rodgers, M. 1998. The Harlem Renaissance: An annotated Reference Guide for Student Research. Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited, Inc.
Location: UALB ULIB NX 512.3 A35 Z991 1998
"A useful listing of over 200 resources about the flowering of African-American culture in New York City during the 1920s. In short chapters, Rodgers explains various social and historical aspects of this era and then presents an annotated list of print and nonprint sources. Topics include literature, photography, music, and dance along with biographical information on many figures such as Marian Anderson, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Marcus Garvey, and Josephine Baker. Interesting black-and-white photos and reproductions appear throughout. An excellent and thorough tool" (School Library Journal).
Biographicals
Biographical sources provide factual information about a particular person. They are also known as direct source because biographies provide the information you need rather than referring you to where you can retrieve. These selected biographies are among the many notable people of the Harlem Renaissance Era.
Boyd, V. 2003. Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neal Hurston. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Location: UALB ULIB RBR PS 3515 U789 Z63 2003 ON RESERVE
"{Boyd} opens wider the door to {Hurston's} life through a masterly use of her letters, fiction, and nonfiction, along with stories and letters from her peers. The result is a 20th-century adventure filled with some of the period's literary and cultural firmament. . . . Throughout, Boyd lets Hurston speak, putting her wise, witty, and often irreverent spin on race, gender, and regional culture in America. . . . Though her life now stands as a testament to the power and beauty of black culture and women's achievement, Boyd's biography is a salute to the triumph of an individual woman, a girl who chose to jump at the sun." (The Christian Science Monitor, (Eastern edition) v. 95 no. 50, February 6 2003, p. 15-16).
Cooper, W. F. 1987. Claude McKay: Rebel Sojourner in the Harlem Renaissance. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.
Location: UALB ULIB PS 3525 A24785 Z63 1987
"Cooper is particularly good at examining McKay's relationship with the writers and intellectuals of the Harlem Renaissance and in evaluating his influence on the Negritude movement, which included such writers as Aime Cesaire and Leopold Sedar Senghor. Recommended for academic and larger public libraries, especially those with strong collections in Afro-American studies" (Library Journal, v. 112, January 1987, p. 89).
Favor, J. M. 1999. Authentic Blackness: The Folk in the New Negro Renaissance. Durham: Duke University Press.
Location: UALB ULIB PS 153 N5 F38 1999
"In his analysis of each text, Favor shows the various ways in which these authors undermine the prevailing discourse of African American identity and, in the process, prompts the reader to reconsider the way we read these Harlem Renaissance writers. Favor's analysis suggests that reading the search for racial identity in these texts as a literary device--a trope-rather than a definition of racial identity itself makes it possible to push beyond the established discourses blackness and whiteness and to "contest the discourses of culture built on problematic ideas 'race'" (138). As such, this book makes an important contribution not only to African American literary studies, but signals the forging of new paths in American Cultural Studies" (American Studies International, v. 39 no. 3, October 2001, p. 84-5).
Harris, L. 1998. The Philosophy of Alain Locke: Harlem Renaissance and Beyond. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Location: UALB ULIB E 185.97 L79 P48 1989
This source covers the remarkable views and ideas of Harlem Renaissance philosopher, Alain Locke. "This is an important collection of essays…Harris has written a helpful introduction and concluding chapter and an extensive bibliography. He is to be commended for editing this fine and needed work" (Transactions of the Charles S. Pierce Society, v. 26 Issue 3,Summer1990, p384).
Rampersad, A. 2002. The Life of Langston Hughes. London: Oxford University Press.
Location: UALB ULIB PS 3515 U274 Z698 1986 V.2
"With this final volume of his superb biography…Rampersad effectively conveys not only the complex, frustrating difficulties of Hughes's work in poetry, opera, musical theater, children's books, and popular history…this balanced, honest biography offers deep insights into a major artist's personality and work as well as a sweeping view of American culture in his lifetime" (Library Journal, v. 113, September 15 1988, p. 85).
Roses, L. E,. Harlem: Renaissance and Beyond: Literary Biographies of 100 Black Women Writers, 1900-1950. Boston: G.K. Hall, 1990.
Location: UALB ULIB REF PS 153 N5 R65 1989
"Roses and Randolph's meticulous research has produced an exceptional bio-bibliography. Each essay provides insightful biographical information that helps to place the author's writings within the context of the heightened political, economic, and social awareness of the time. An important plus for future researchers is that, whenever possible, each article identifies the location of the bulk of the author's official papers. . . . A must for undergraduate and graduate libraries alike and for all collections supporting women studies" (Choice, v. 27, May 1990, p. 1484).
Stein, J. The World Of Marcus Garvey: Race and Class of Modern Society. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1986.
Location: UALB ULIB E 185.97 G3 S8 1986
"…is an interesting and intelligent attempt to break away from clichés and acrimony. . . . on the mark when she argues that Garveyism should be understood in the context of the international black politics and economics of World War I and its aftermath…a fascinating array of materials about Garveyism in an international context. Stein's knowledge of Garvey's papers and of Federal documents is most impressive. . . Yet despite my reservations about Miss Stein's use of class analysis, this is a book that should be read" (The New York Times Book Review, April 13 1986, p. 19).
Books
The following books selected provide a useful introductory background the era of the Harlem Renaissance. Due to the reason that there are many realms of the era such as art, music, and literature that can be studied, these sources should provide a broader overview of each realm.
Balshaw, M. Looking for Harlem: Urban Aesthetics in African American Literature. London: Pluto Press, 2000.
Location: UALB ULIB PS 153 N5 B285 2000
"Balshaw's study teases out a development of urban subjectivities in canonical African American text from the 1920's to the present day…asserts that the fascination with issues surrounding urban space and urban writing in general…One of the key facets of Balshaw's argument is precisely her focus on contingency and open-endedness, which makes this a key text for scholars of African American urban writing" (Ethnic and Racial Studies, v. 25 no. 6, November 2002, p. 1113-4).
Bontemps, A. The Harlem Renaissance Remembered. Northbook: W. Clement Stone, 1972.
Location: UALB ULIB PS 153 N5 B63
Campbell, M. Harlem Renaissance: Art of Black America. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1987.
Location: UALB ULIB OVER (*) N 6538 N5 H286 1987
"An eye-catching and eye-opening introduction to the black intelligentsia who created the Harlem Renaissance of 1919-1930. . . . Black-and-white figures and color plates are plentiful and of fine quality; yet, not all works are illustrated. The selected bibliography neglects two important books and one related film that all serious collections of Afro-American art should include: The Image of the Black in Western Art by Jean Vercoutter et al. and Forever Free: Art by African-American Women, 1862-1980 by J. Fenville-Bontemps and David Driskell (1981), and the film From These Roots (William Greaves Productions, 1974). Highly recommended for college, university, and public libraries" (Choice, v. 25, December 1987, p. 608).
Fabre, G. & Feith, M. Temples of Tomorrow: Looking back at the Harlem Renaissance. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001.
Location: UALB ULIB PS 153 N5 T45 2001
"…the essays in this book is that they all, essentially, are positive about the Harlem Renaissance. That reflects a change in the movement's scholarly reputation… On the other hand, there are occasional errors, mostly of chronology… those flaws are minor and do not detract seriously from the importance of the book, which no one interested in the Harlem Renaissance or the history of race in twentieth-century American culture should ignore." (Journal of American History, March 2003, v. 89, n. 4, p1575)
Huggins, N. I. Harlem Renaissance. New York: Oxford University Press, 1971.
Location: UALB ULIB NX 512.3 N5 H8
This book provides the more radical opposition to the tradition ideas of the Harlem Renaissance. "…Huggins gives an objective and restrained picture of the era…believes that black intellectuals of the period were unable to reconcile a basic cultural dichotomy…desire to emulate the European-oriented white Americans and he dream of self-definition through African culture…a uniquely interesting study marked by excellent scholarship" (Journal of American History, v. 56, June 1992, p.700)
Hutchinson, G. The Harlem Renaissance in Black and White. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1995.
Location: UALB ULIB PS 153 N5 H86 1995
"George Hutchinson's The Harlem Renaissance in Black and White is one of those historical works that utterly and meticulously overturns most previous understanding of its subject matter. Hutchinson places the Harlem Renaissance in a wider context than previous commentators have done . . . Hutchinson's enthusiasm for the pragmatist outlook gives the book an energy and urgency that takes it far beyond the bounds of its historical subject matter. It deserves to be read by all those interested not just in a crucial episode of American cultural history, but in the ideal and reality of multiculturalism." (The Times Literary Supplement, no. 4893, January 10 1997, p. 18)
Kramer, V. & Russ. R. A,. The Harlem Renaissance Re-examined. Troy, NY: Whitston Publishing, 1997.
Location: UALB ULIB PS 153 N5 H25 1997
"An important addition to existing scholarship on the Harlem Renaissance, this collection of new and previously published essays offers new insights into the lives and works of the era's more popular figures. . . . Recommended particularly for advanced undergraduates, the volume is appropriate for all academic collections." (Choice, v. 36 no. 1, September 1998, p. 128)
Wall, C. A. Women of the Harlem Renaissance. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001.
Location: UALB ULIB PS 153 N5 W33 1995
"Wall deftly defines the place in women in American literature by connecting the women {of the Harlem Renaissance} to one another, to the cultural movement in which they worked, and to other early 20th-century women writers. Her biographical and literary analysis surpasses others by following up on diverse careers that often ended far past the end of the movement. Highly recommended for collections on African Americans, women, and 20th-century America." (Library Journal, v. 120, October 15 1995, p. 63)
Washington, R. The Ideologies of African American Literature: From the Harlem Renaissance to the Black Nationalist Revolt: A Sociology of Literature Perspective. Langham, Rowman & Littlefield Littlefield, 2001.
Location: UALB ULIB PS 153 N5 W35 2001
"One of the book's strengths is that it opens up a field of possibility for future work…quite adept at making claims about the varying ideologies of twentieth century African American Literature…in short, this thoroughly informative book not only expands our understanding of African American Literature, but also challenges scholarship."(Ethnic and Racial Studies, v. 26 no. 3, May 2003, p.561-2)
Wintz, C. D. Black Culture and The Harlem Renaissance. Houston: Rice University Press, 1988.
Location: UALB ULIB PS 153 N5 W57 1988
"Wintz treats the Renaissance as a social and literary movement. . . . his work compares favorably with Nathan Huggins's Harlem Renaissance {BRD 1972} and David L. Lewis's When Harlem Was in Vogue {BRD 1981, 1982}. Students of American studies, as well as black history and literature, will want to read this well-written and well-researched work" (Choice, v. 26, June 1989, p. 1744).
Wintz, C. D. The Harlem Renaissance, 1920 - 1940. New York: Garland Publising, 1996.
Location: UALB ULIB PS 153 N5 H24 1996
"Performs an important service by reprinting a full range of materials on a crucial period in African American culture, many of which were available only in research libraries…in addition, in volume two Wintz publishes for the first time letters and speeches by Claude McKay, Langston Hughes, and others from the Beinecke and the Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas. All seven volumes of this indispensable collection should be available in all academic libraries" (African American Review, Spring 2000, Vol. 34 Issue 1, p184).
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias are reference material that serves as quick fact sources. Dictionaries define words, terms, or simply verify the spelling or a word. Encyclopedias provide summarized information on particular topics and subjects. The following were best suitable on finding information on the Harlem Renaissance:
Aberjhani, et al. 2003. Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance. New York: Facts on File.
"Between this A to Z, the writer known as Aberjhani (I Made My Boy Out of Poetry) and coauthor West outline and plumb that black artistic and popular outpouring of the 1920s and 1930s...called the Harlem Renaissance. Their frequently stretched but serviceable entries capture something of the social and political activism and artistic creativity that gave hopeful voice to…"the New Negro." This promises to be a frequently thumbed resource. The appended maps, museums listing, and glossary of the era's slang contribute to a literature already thick but lacking a basic reference work such as this. Recommended for collections and libraries touching American or African American history and culture" (Library Journal, v. 128 Issue 20, December 15, 2003, p94).
Kellner, B. 1984. The Harlem Renaissance: A Historical Dictionary of the Era. Westport: Greenwood Press.
Location: UALB ULIB REF NX 511 N4 H37 1984
"Kellner's dictionary is by far the most comprehensive single reference source covering the many facets of one of the richest periods in recent American literary and artistic history. The author's informative introduction gives perspective to the period covered and the concluding 16-page bibliography is indispensable for collection managers. Highly recommended for all academic and large public libraries" (Choice).
Guides
Guides are used to provide detail referencing of where to research information on a subject. The following guide will help you in your research on the Harlem Renaissance.
Witalec, J. 2003. The Harlem Renaissance: A Gale Critical Companion. Farmington Mills: Gale Group.
"Although much of the content is available elsewhere, including other publications from Gale (according to the preface there is 15 percent or less overlap with Gale's Literary Criticism series), it is useful to have so much material brought together and presented in this particular context. The breadth and depth of Harlem Renaissance make it a valuable and unique reference source for academic, public, and high-school libraries" (Booklist, v. 99 Issue 16, April 15, 2003, p1499).
Indexes, Databases and Catalogs
The following resources are helpful tools and are excellent ways to go searching for materials on the Harlem Renaissance. The University Library owns all of these databases and can be accessed through the library website.
African American Studies
A full-text database which contain many different aspects such as scholarly articles, manuscripts, reference sources, and primary sources (legislation, public speeches, photographs and autobiographies, NAACP documents and more). These sources focus on key issues, individuals and organizations from the colonial era through the late twentieth century. Coverage extends from the 1700s to present and the database is updated quarterly.
America: History and Life. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO
Covers the history and culture of the United States and Canada from as far the prehistoric times to today. Includes citations to dissertations, book reviews, and media reviews. The database is updated three times a year.
Black Studies on Disc [CD-ROM]. Farmington, MI. Gale Group.
Contains citations from the cumulative catalog of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black culture. Features accumulations of the Index to Black Periodicals (1988-present), and is supplemented with article abstracts for recent years and includes African Diasporan studies. The collection covers diverse subjects in art, biography, folklore, history, literature, religion, sports and more.
EBSCO Academic Search Elite. EBSCO Publishing.
Scholarly, multidisciplinary, full text database that cover more than 4,400 social science, humanities, science and technology titles. Of these titles, 2,500 are peer reviewed. This is the world largest database and is updated daily.
Ethnic NewsWatch. Ann Arbor, MI. ProQuest Inc.
This is a full-text directory that contains more than 675,000 articles, editorials, interviews, and reviewed published in close to 250 ethnic and minority newspaper, journals, and magazines published in the US. The database is updated monthly.
Historical Abstracts. Santa Barbara, CA. ABC-CLIO
Provides citations with abstracts to literature all over the world that are found in mores than 2000 journals, books, and dissertations written on political, economic, social and cultural history of the world since 1450. Updated three times a year.
International Index to Black Periodicals. Ann Arbor, MI. ProQuest Inc.
Provides citations and abstracts from 150 scholarly and popular periodicals in the field of black studies. This index includes full text articles to those citations and is updated monthly.
Internet Resources
Many of these sites selected provided either excellent information on the Harlem Renaissance or provide a great list of sources to start with.
Flynn, P. The Harlem Renaissance: Black American Traditions. (2004). Retrieved March 2nd, 2004.
http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1988/2/88.02.02.x.html
This site, though geared for an art class at the high school, its resources on the art of the Renaissance main useful to undergraduate students. "My unit emphasizes the Black artistic tradition that grew during the period knows as the Harlem Renaissance during the 1920s in New York City. My unit examines the visual arts and artists such as painters Aaron Douglas, Palmer Hayden and William Johnson, sculptor Metta Warrick Fuller, and printmaker James Lesesne Wells" (Flynn).
Institute of International Visual Arts and the Hayward Gallery. (1997). Rhapsodies in Black: Art of the Harlem Renaissance. Retrieved March 15th, 2004.
http://www.iniva.org/harlem/index2.html
"This Web site provides an introduction to the exhibition Rhapsodies in Black: Art of the Harlem Renaissance, created by David A. Bailey and Richard J. Powell and organized by the Hayward Gallery, London in collaboration with the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., and the Institute of International Visual Arts (inIVA). The Web site combines images and text to elaborate on some of the key themes in the exhibition: The Harlem Renaissance, Representing the New Negro, Modernism and Modernity, A Blues Aesthetic, Imagining Africa, Haiti and Images of Black Nationhood."
Johnson, A. & Lamb, A. (2001). The Topic: Harlem Renaissance Retrieved March 15th, 2004.
http://www.42explore.com/harlem.htm
This site was form to serve as an online resource to an enormous amount of web sites on the topic of the Harlem Renaissance. Though the site is three years old, many of the links provided are still very accessible. The scope of the site is to put together reliable links in which all contain references and bibliographies to the information displayed this history period.
Lindo, Nashormeh N. R. Harlem 1900-1940. (2001). Retrieved March 21st, 2004.
http://www.si.umich.edu/CHICO/Harlem/
This site is based on the 1991 publication by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. The Schomburg center, located in harlem, is home to many of the rarest sources on black culture. The provides exhibition to subjects of the arts, activism, business, community, sports and writers during the Renaissance.
Reuben, P. P,. PAL Chapter 9: Perspectives in American Literature: A Research and Reference Guide - An Ongoing Project (2003). Retrieved March 7th, 2004.
http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap9/CHAP9.HTML?Submit=9.+The+Harlem+Renaissance
This site high many of the important and notable people of the Harlem Renaissance from writers and philosophers to entertainers and activist. The people listed on the site have made remarkable contributions during this period. Available on the site are biographical resources as well the works of those listed plus many more.
___________. Harlem Renaissance: Life, Movement, Creativity, Revolution. (1998). Retrieved March 12th, 2004.
http://www.nku.edu/~diesmanj/harlem.html
This site is frequently mentioned when search for sites on the Harlem renaissance. The noticeably a bit outdated but has its scope on the poetic sector of the renaissance. It highlights the great poets of the time and also provides an index.
Questia: Harlem Renaissance. (2003).
http://www.questia.com/Index.jsp?CRID=harlem_renaissance&OFFID=se2
Questia is one the world's largest online library of over 48,000 books and 390,000 journal, magazine and newspaper articles. This sites coverage on sources related to the Harlem Renaissance is unique aside from the other 5000+ topics. The easy is to navigate. Along with what you may be searching for, it provides with an extensive list of related resource to the topic.