Courtney Moore - Sexuality as Empowerment During the Harlem Renaissance lyrics

The Harlem Renaissance liberated black writers and allowed them to explore s**uality as a form of empowerment post slavery. Literature moved away from religious themes and slave narratives to focus on political and domestic issues, including liberally s**ual themes. Previously, s**uality existed as a mildly taboo subject which appeared in slave narratives to describe particular horrors suffered by African American women. The Harlem Renaissance saw African American artists reclaim and redefine s**uality. The depictions of African American s**uality and eroticism parallel their relatively new found liberation from slavery. May 22, 1921- The first musical revue written and performed by African-Americans opens at the David Belasco Theater on Broadway, launching careers of Josephine Baker and Florence Mills. Claude McKay "The Harlem Dancer" , 1917. "Applauding youths laughed with young prostitutes And watched her perfect, half clothed body sway;" 1922- The Harmon Foundation is established to promote black fine artists. Langston Hughes "Harlem Sweeties", Between 1921-1926. "Coffee and cream, Chocolate darling Out of a dream. Walnut tinted Or cocoa brown, Pomegranate-lipped Pride of the town." 1923- The Cotton Club, Harlem's largest and most famous cabaret opens. Langston Hughes, "Jazzonia" 1923 "In a Harlem cabaret Six long-headed jazzers play. A dancing girl whose eyes are bold Lifts high a dress of silken gold." 1924- Josephine Baker appears on Broadway in Chocolate Dandies. Langston Hughes "Danse Africaine", 1922,1926 "Dance! A night-veiled girl Whirls softly into a Circle of light. Whirls softly...slowly, Like a wisp of smoke around the fire- and the tom-toms beat," 1925- Zora Neale Hurston goes to Barnard College on a scholarship to study anthropology. Zora Neale Hurston. "Characteristics of Negro Expression", 1934. "Her whole body panging and posing. A slight shoulder movement that calls attention to her bust, that is all of a dare. A hippy undulation below the waist that is a sheaf of promises tied with conscious power. She is acting out. "I'm a darned sweet woman and you know it."" 1925- Opportunity holds first literary awards dinner, honoring: Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen and Zora Neale Hurston. Countee Cullen, Threnody for a Brown Girl, 1925. "Body that was quick and sentient, Dear as thought or speech, d**h could not, with one trenchant Blow, snatch out of reach!" 1926- The short-lived literary and art magazine, Fire!!, is launched by Langston Hughes, Wallace Thurman and Zora Neale Hurston. Wallace Thurman "Forward to Fire!!" "weaving vivid, hot designs upon an ebon Bordered loom and satisfying pagan Thirst for beauty unadorned... and Flesh is sweet and real...the soul An inward flush - on fire in the furnace of life blazing..." 1930- Richmond Barthé established his studio in Harlem in after winning the Julius Rosenwald Fund fellowship at his first solo exhibition at the Women's City Club in Chicago. Countee Cullen "Heritage", 1925 "What is Africa to me: Copper sun or scarlet sea, Jungle star or jungle track, Strong bronzed men, or regal black Women from whose loins I sprang When the birds of Eden sang?"