The Harlem Renaissance & Music

A few days ago I went sightseeing in Valparaíso  and I found a very interesting mural which remind me not only African American people and their music, but also the poet Langston Hughes.  Langston Hughes was a poet, novelist and essayist and was known for participating in a relevant movement, the Harlem Renaissance.

In the moment I saw the mural I remembered what we have talked in class, the poem  “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” by Langston Hughes in which we can see the meaning and intention of the author through his poems. Many of his poems are related to the problems of his life, discrimination, prejudices for being African American and others, and as a result of these issues he left university and his program of engineering. In summary, what Hughes wanted to show on his creations was the trial of changing society´s perspective of African American people, a difficult task if we take into account the period of time in which he lived.

There are several African American singers whose music shows their beliefs and thinking about discrimination, equality, racism and other topics and many times we just go through that without paying enough attention, thus, being careful when we listen a song will allows us to enter to the world the singer wants us to be. That way we can realized the true intention of the composer, the meaning of the song and the change of perspective the song will provoke in our minds.

Valparaíso is a place full of culture and art that you can interprete as you wish

During the Harlem Renaissance, two influential people were part of the revival of this movement, Carl Dunbar and the already mentioned Langston Hughes. Both of them were very involved in the extension of the racial pride and the conservation of the African American traditions. In this process a new concept came up, called “Jazz poetry”, which involves as the name itself, poetry and rhymes in the music genre of Jazz. This style of music and others (blues, soul, etc.) were very famous in the early 20^th century; therefore, that is why they used this genre, because it was the most suitable match between poetry and melody.

Aretha Franklin is an African American singer, known for being one of the best female vocal artists of all times. If we take a look into her songs, we can find different topics shown through her hits, such as, racial rights in the US, equality, among others. She has been considered as prominent in the women´s liberation. The song “Do Right Woman – Do Right Man” for instance, is a claim for equality between men and woman in every sense, as well as the global hit “Respect”.

Taking a look at the past, we see so many problems in the US and the way artists that have been exposed to those situations convey their thinking into the way of expression (activity) that perform.