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Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south.
May 17, 2024 · Harlem, district of New York City, occupying a large part of northern Manhattan. In 1658 it was established as the settlement Nieuw Haarlem, named after Haarlem in the Netherlands. In the 20th century it was the center of the creative literary development called the Harlem Renaissance. Learn more about Harlem.
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Aug 20, 2020 · By Michael Kimmelman. Aug. 20, 2020. It’s a refuge and magnet, storied crucible and cradle, a cultural capital, shaped by waves of migration, a recent tsunami of gentrification and the ongoing...
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The Harlem Renaissance was an African American cultural movement that flourished in the 1920s and had Harlem in New York City as its symbolic capital. It was a time of great creativity in musical, theatrical, and visual arts but was perhaps most associated with literature; it is considered the most influential period in African American literary history. The Harlem Renaissance was an artistic flowering of the “New Negro” movement as its participants celebrated their African heritage and embraced self-expression, rejecting long-standing—and often degrading—stereotypes.
Read more below: Black heritage and American culture
Harlem
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African American literature
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The Harlem Renaissance was a phase of a larger New Negro movement that had emerged in the early 20th century and in some ways ushered in the civil rights movement of the late 1940s and early 1950s. The social foundations of this movement included the Great Migration of African Americans from rural to urban spaces and from South to North; dramatically rising levels of literacy; the creation of national organizations dedicated to pressing African American civil rights, “uplifting” the race, and opening socioeconomic opportunities; and developing race pride, including pan-African sensibilities and programs. Black exiles and expatriates from the Caribbean and Africa crossed paths in metropoles such as New York City and Paris after World War I and had an invigorating influence on each other that gave the broader “Negro renaissance” (as it was then known) a profoundly important international cast.
(Read Henry Louis Gates, Jr.’s Britannica essay on "Monuments of Hope.")
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Art of the Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance is unusual among literary and artistic movements for its close relationship to civil rights and reform organizations. Crucial to the movement were magazines such as The Crisis, published by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP); Opportunity, published by the National Urban League; and The Messenger, a socialist journal eventually connected with the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, a Black labour union. Negro World, the newspaper of Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association, also played a role, but few of the major authors or artists identified with Garvey’s “Back to Africa” movement, even if they contributed to the paper.
The renaissance had many sources in Black culture, primarily of the United States and the Caribbean, and manifested itself well beyond Harlem. As its symbolic capital, Harlem was a catalyst for artistic experimentation and a highly popular nightlife destination. Its location in the communications capital of North America helped give the “New Negroes” visibility and opportunities for publication not evident elsewhere. Located just north of Central Park, Harlem was a formerly white residential district that by the early 1920s was becoming virtually a Black city within the borough of Manhattan. Other boroughs of New York City were also home to people now identified with the renaissance, but they often crossed paths in Harlem or went to special events at the 135th Street Branch of the New York Public Library. Black intellectuals from Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and other cities (where they had their own intellectual circles, theatres, and reading groups) also met in Harlem or settled there. New York City had an extraordinarily diverse and decentred Black social world in which no one group could monopolize cultural authority. As a result, it was a particularly fertile place for cultural experimentation.
Nov 23, 2023 · 23. November 2023. 208 ratings. Harlem is a cultural icon in the US. It’s the home of the cultural movement that swept the whole city in the 1920s called the Harlem Renaissance. In the jazz era, many accepted Duke Ellington’s world-renowned invitation to “Take the A-Train” heading uptown to New York’s most acclaimed nightclubs and bars in Harlem.
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2 days ago · Discover the rich history and culture of Harlem, a prominent neighborhood in New York City. Explore historical sites, cultural venues, and landmarks that reflect the diverse and influential heritage of Harlem.
May 12, 2019 · Discover the rich history and culture of Harlem, from the Apollo Theater to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Find out where to eat soul food, enjoy Central Park, and explore the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
