A group of local students will present poetry from the Harlem Renaissance during a program in observance of Black History Month on Thursday evening, February 25, at the Eddie Mae Herron Center. The event, which begins with desserts and coffee at 6:30, is co-sponsored by the EMH Center and BRTC’s Office of Corporate and Community Education.
As African Americans flocked to Northern cities in the 1920s, they created a new social and cultural landscape. The Harlem Renaissance refers to the period between the end of World War I and the early years of the Great Depression. During this period, Harlem because a mecca for black artists, musicians, and writers, and others. The Harlem Renaissance is described as a literary, artistic, and intellectual movement that kindled a new black cultural identity. Its essence was summed up by critic and teacher Alain Locke in 1926 when he declared that through art, “Negro life is seizing its first chances for group expression and self determination.” Harlem became the center of a “spiritual coming of age” in which Locke’s “New Negro” transformed “social disillusionment to race pride.”
The program will focus on literary achievements of such writers as Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Jean Toomer, Countee Cullen, and Claude McKay.
Presenting the poetry and writings of these major African American writers will be a group of Pocahontas High School students: Ashlie Brigance, Trent Smith, Elizabeth Grider and Emily Kester. Junior High students Alexsander Mejia Lopez and Michel Mejia Lopez will also participate, along with M.D. Williams student K’tya Wray. The program will also include video clips and a brief introduction of the Harlem Renaissance by Dr. Jan Ziegler.