Literary Icons You NEED to Know From the Harlem Renaissance (feat. Princess Weekes) | It's Lit
Vložit
- čas přidán 25. 02. 2021
- For more It’s Lit, subscribe to Storied: bit.ly/pbsstoried_sub
One of the most influential periods in Black American History post-slavery is the Harlem Renaissance, an intellectual, social, and artistic explosion centered in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City.
Novels like Passing by Nella Larsen, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, and the poetry of Langston Hughes were all written during this period and have become important pieces of the American literary canon.
Still, when discussing this topic we tend to flatten the dynamic personalities and identities of the Black folk responsible for making this period so iconic in the literary sense.
Not only in America, but as part of the entire Black diaspora.
Hosted by Lindsay Ellis and Princess Weekes, It’s Lit! is a show about our favorite books, genres, and why we love to read. It’s Lit has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the human endeavor.
Interested in using this video as a teaching resource? Check it out on PBS LearningMedia: to.pbs.org/3CmuSmB
Hosted and Written by: Princess Weekes
Director: David Schulte
Executive Producer: Amanda Fox
Producer: Stephanie Noone
Editor: Mo Murphy
Writing Consultants: Maia Krause
Assistant Director of Programming (PBS): Gabrielle Ewing
Executives in Charge (PBS): Brandon Arolfo, Adam Dylewski
Produced by Spotzen for PBS Digital Studios.
Follow us on Twitter:
/ itslitpbs
/ thelindsayellis
/ weekesprincess
Follow us on IG:
/ itslit_pbs
Awkward moment when Storied cites the chapter you’re supposed to be reading, but watching Storied instead.
I'm so happy Arturo Schoenberg got a shout out! It's an important part of Puerto Rican history, one I learned in school growing up and even got to see some of his collections in college, at the University of Puerto Rico. Puerto Rican blackness is an important part of our identity and one that is often overlooked. I myself have West African ancestors who worked the sugarcane plantations and the tobacco fields. My great grandpa was a black tobacco field worker a few generations removed from slavery. It is an important and rich part of our history in the Caribbean and as part of the diaspora, both of Black and mixed race Puerto Ricans. Afro-Puerto Ricans have a distinct history and culture worth learning about.
As a Nuyorican, I only learned about Schomburg a few years ago, since we don't even learn African-American history, much less Puerto Rican.. other than.. "The US invaded in 1898, faced no resistance, and were greeted as liberators..."... yeah.. And that that was last time El Morro and San Cristobal were "in combat."
Ayy, fellow Boricuas in the comments! Nice! I went to Artes Plasticas in San Juan. Most of our English teachers would speak of the importance of these authors.
Follow graduate from University of Puerto Rico here!! I have a few professor friends there, and they adding courses on top of their already great programs in afro Caribbean literature and related fields there (Rio Piedras at least) I don't know if COVID affected those plans tho.
@@jso6790 hi can you explain Nuyorican?
@@sandra-jones It's a Puerto Rican from New York. We were born on the Mainland, but like most Puerto Ricans still have the heavy influence of our culture, as it is maintained in New York.. however, we often have the insecurity of not speaking Spanish as natives Puerto Ricans IN Puerto Rico do.. like a lot of members of our families.
What wouldn't I give for a "Mad Men" style series set in Harlem in the 1910s-20s.
You kinda get that with Boardwalk Empire. It's pretty problematic, but the Black cast brings it. If you need something to do in quarantine, I think seasons 3 and 4 have really strong stories about the Black gangsters in Atlantic City.
@@corngreaterthanwheat Good to know, I only watched season 1 and then kind of lost interest
Genius idea!!! I would DEFINITELY watch that
@@corngreaterthanwheatI guess but I want a story of a community not caught up in crime. I want to see regular black families and stories of the black upper class on strivers row
"Translation"
by Anne Spencer
We trekked into a far country,
My friend and I.
Our deeper content was never spoken,
But each knew all the other said.
He told me how calm his soul was laid
By the lack of anvil and strife.
“The wooing kestrel,” I said, “mutes his mating-note
To please the harmony of this sweet silence.”
And when at the day’s end
We laid tired bodies ’gainst
The loose warm sands,
And the air fleeced its particles for a coverlet;
When star after star came out
To guard their lovers in oblivion-
My soul so leapt that my evening prayer
Stole my morning song!
This is gorgeous, thank you for posting! I swear I've heard at least the first part before but it's really standing out to me now!
This is the English class I always wanted!
Schomburg's mustache is the most glorious thing I've ever seen.
It looks like Princess was reveling in the joy of doing this topic, and it came through in video. It's Princess's best It's List, perhaps the best of the entire series.
But what about making a pt 2 3 4 ... you know, it can be a series.
YES PLEASE
Hollywood needs to make a movie about the Harlem Renaissance figures instead of a million slavery movies
This! And please not with a white protagonist.
*immediately adds everything mentioned in this video to my tbr pile*
tbr?
edit: oh, to be read?
I grew up in the rural midwest and literally NONE of these writers were ever covered in my schools. It's so depressing how much basic history I've had to learn on my own as an adult simply because it's non-white.
You never learned black history or the Harlem Renaissance?
I'm really surprised that Langston Hughes was never covered.
Rural Pennsylvanian here and it was the same for me. In 11th grade we did 'American Literature' and the only thing we read from that time period was The Great Gatsby.
I moved to Detroit for a job right out of high school and thankfully had friends who could point me in the direction of these amazing writers (and more!)
Really, i guess its different from here in the south. We learn about black history constantly.
I'm from rural Utah and we learned about Langston Hughes, and Zora Neale Hurston (that I remember - there may have been more, I wasn't the best student).
Look up who owned the slave ships next, then look up who owned all the plantations, then look up how many Irish, French and Italian worked as slaves right in the plantations too. I bet it will surprise you. Then look up the (Barbary Slave Trade).
I grow to appreciate Princess's presence on It's Lit! I learn so much about black authors and their work whenever she covers a topic like this. Hopefully this becomes a series, not just a one-off thing during Black History Month.
I agree. I always make a big deal of it and sit with my Granddaughter to watch then we lookup the subjects in other places.
shoutout to princess for giving us everyone's signs, as well as pointing us in the direction of that harlem renaissance tea.
Sorry for being naive, but why are their signs so important?
@@willemvandebeek Honestly, just because it’s fun. Most of us here enjoy all kinds of fiction, suspending our disbelief is secondhand nature by now. The inherent truth of a thing doesn’t have to justify its significance to people when dealing with studies of humanities or its predecessors, even the unscientific ones. 🙂
@@willemvandebeek it's fun duh
It gives us more insight into them.
to everybody pressed in the comments about giving the authors’ star signs...these videos are obviously targeted to a younger audience who enjoys these things. it takes nothing away from the historical context and makes the history more engaging.
God, thanks for putting it that well. I wonder if maybe most of them are just new to the show and are unfamiliar with its tongue-in-cheek tone
The zodiac signs got a good natured eyeroll and chuckle out of me
It's not just younger people. It's an old stereotype of psuedo science loving soccer moms. And it may not undercut the information she is presenting, but it does rub a lot of people the wrong way and undercuts her credibility (fairly or not) due to the above association.
@@austinshoupe3003 did undercut credibility for me till I read OP. It's just for the memez
As a Leo, I take offense at you removing the opportunity to talk about myself. :-)
How does supersticious woowoo (tongue in cheek or not) make history more engaging? I don't get it! (But, admitted: I'm a boomer...)
Passing by Nella Larsen really fucked me up. God, what a book.
I loaned out my highly annotated copy and never got it back. :(
It took me too long to realize that you weren't talking about Princess failing to mention Nella Larsen and passing her by. I was getting ready to correct you and then the grammar suddenly made sense.
@@peterk7931 🤣
I also read it, by the way, and the effect was similar. I needed a moment to regain my mental balance
We just learned about this my senior year, but not in history class, but in English class, because we were learning about Zora Neale Hurston. I wish we learned more about black history in school, everything is framed from a white point of view in schools.
It's incredible how much education shapes societies and what is included in that education is so ferociously controlled. There is SO much that I'm honestly embarrassed that i only learned relatively recently. Like red summer and black wall street. Hearing of those things makes so much recent history just click into place
Claude Mckay was an absolute genius. His poem "America" says everything that needed to be said about this country.
Another superb video Princess and Storied Crew! Zora Neale Hurston was one helluva of a woman. I've been reading a lot about her in Gods of the Upper Air by Charles King about the students of the Boaz School. Glad to see mention of the overlooked female voices of the Harlem Renaissance.
Way back in 1994 I wrote my AP English paper on the Harlem Renaissance. I've been obsessed ever since. This video is everything I wish I could have articulated way back then. THANK YOU!!!!!!
ZNH was one of the reasons I studied anthropology in college.
We read some of Claude Mckay's poems in literary studies. And i remember just sitting there and reading some of the poems over and over, out loud, cause they just sound that epic.
Wright's Hurston criticism is worth examining - but not of her work alone. More the system of white patrons that "allowed" many members of the movement to flourish at this time by financially backing them. This need of capital to produce and not die starving, and the racial and class dynamics. Hurston, Langston and that corner of the movement were aware and dealt with this in different ways. They even had a nickname "N*ggerati" because they were fully aware of the dynamics and approached this issue in their own way. All artists do this today and it doesn't make them making work for a mainstream audience. I hope this made sense. I HAVE THOUGHTS.
I think Wright is just a hater because many people critiqued that writing despite a Twain writing in vernacular.
i must disagree . Richard Wright was merely a Black Communist who wanted to encourage a sense of revolutionary nationalism , and he thought that Hurston was just a sentimental bougie
I read a bunch of Harlem Rennaissance work in undergrad, but especially I LOVE Zora Neale Hurston- we read a lot of her across my Anthro classes and not only was her prose amazing but so was the actual ethnographic work she did.
Make this a series, a bit more in depth than what you had to summarize here. I’d gladly watch it and I’m sure many others would too. Appreciate the video and hope to see more soon!
The Harlem renaissance was incredible. The poetry was absolutely exceptional, it's inspired tons of my work.
Oh cool , what you worte? I think I want to check it out
@@moonbook12 Thank you so much for your interest in my work. I primarily write poetry that mixes a lot of styles. Some are like ballads (olde English) and some are more like jazz pieces. Best place to find my stuff is on Poetizer poetizer.com/poem/1345204.
The poem above is very inspired by the Harlem Renaissance
I've been told that Zora Neale Hurston has the first noted use of 'cool' as slang for good in the OED
May this video cue some book nerd to find a historical book nerd who has the complete first edition set of all anne spencer's works
Amen
Bravo Princess, always bringing us more authors to appreciate.
We’re literally going over this stuff in my US history class right now, and this was super informative, helpful, and illuminating!
spent much time in the microfilms at schomburg at school, at no point did i actually look into who he was, thank you for that especially
So so so happy for this video to exist! Especially the inspiring end that promotes self research. As a mixed race guy who was raised in a white family, I am now definitely motivated to dive back into studying the Harlem Renaissance and African American history! Thank you!
This was wonderful. I am so glad you mentioned Schomburg, too. I only learned recently of his roots, and was so proud that a Puerto Rican man left behind such an incredible legacy. Obviously, the rest of this list was wonderful. I remember being so shocked by Wright's attack on Hurston, especially given his reputation. That Hurston lived her last years as a hotel (or motel) maid in Ft. Pierce, Florida is one of the great tragedies of academic and literary history. Beyond her literature, her anthropological work and methodology were so groundbreaking!
Of course, my favorite McKay poem is "A Capitalist at Dinner"
Thank you for added care in your subtitles. I get a lot of extra nuggets of info and insight into Princess’s thoughts about the research just by virtue of needing them and it’s well worth the occasional pause. There’s nothing better than an expert talking about what they really love ❤️
Oh my god this was fascinating, thank you for such a well-researched and engaging overview! To be fair I'm not American, but still I'd never heard of most of these people and I don't think I've ever seen any mainstream media cover this period. This inspired me to learn more!
This is awesome. Thx for all these great recommendations!
I love Princess! These are the videos I adore so much! ty ty 💓 💗 💖 💛 💕 ☺
Hell yeah I needed another princess video, I always get so many good book recs and learn so much
I'm new to this channel so idk if this is a continuing thing, but the mismatch between the subtitles and the voice lines is extremely discombobulating. i have an audio processing disorder and use the subtitles to anticipate what will be said, so having it be wrong so consistently makes it extremely difficult for me to actually absorb the information being taught
This is so interesting. So much to follow up on. Thank you.
Amazing presentation! Thank you for pinyin us toward so many important authors and great works.
It's interesting that I know some of these works but not their creators, now to spend money I don't have on these books.
I love PBS ! Their documentaries and docuseries are always on point!
it's sad that the only one of these writers I heard about in school was langston hughes, and we only read one of his poems in eighth grade while talking about poetry. though it says something about his poetry style that I more or less forgot about that poem, then as an adult took a book of his poems out of the library and immediately went, "hey, this seems familiar".
I enjoyed this learned a few new things 🖤
A really insightful and interesting video, I now want to learn a lot more so I'd say this video was a booming success
Thank you for sharing this video
Thank you for the video. I just visited our Western Australia museum (Boola Bardip) and the storytelling by our First Peoples, especially of the sisters, is riveting, important, and eye opening.
This was so informative. Thanks!
This would make a great series!
Adore these books and authors! Thank you for this video🔥
Great video again! Love this series
More, more, more pls!! And I especially loved it when you mentioned their zodiac signs. 😁🥰
Why?
I learned a lot and would appreciate a complete series on the Harlem Renaissance !
a period we need to see in more films!
Hearing Hughes' poem, "My People"....that hit home. I'm white, but I'm also disabled, queer, trans, and live in the American South. Too often my people, both the disabled and the LGBTQ communities, are villified-we are portrayed as ugly, evil. But like Hughes, I revel in the beauty of the communities to which I belong.
I will never know what it's like to be black, nor to be racially oppressed. But I do know oppression. And I know beauty. Thank you, Princess, for making this video. Not only did I learn a lot, but I got to experience really deep emotional connection with a piece of work I may have never read otherwise.
I love your humor Princess and adding the astrology.
Passing is on my March TBR.
Great info!!!
I’m forever grateful for Zora Neal Hurston. Yes, I’m a tad biased, because I was born and raised in Harlem. Back to Zora. She wrote in our (Black American) Vernacular. To this day, the way we talk is looked down upon ( except for our slang which influences American pop culture ( which is also broadcast globally). I will forever hold my dialect and cultural folkways to heart. I’m grateful I had grand parents who were born in the 40’s & 30’s and were Southern. I was raised hearing the dialect. Hearing from a first hand source about life back then is priceless.
Still would love a part 2 on this covering more historical figures from the era.
Amazing video !!!
Why didn't I see this on my feed earlier? Usually I see vids of this channel like hours after upload not 2 days...
Even though I'm subscribed including a smash-battered bell, I found it only over Lindsay Ellis' message in the notification area...
Thank you !
I'm still mad at my "friends" for only wanting to ride the escalators at the black history museum that just opened when we went on a school trip.
Thank you
Was Jean Toomer part of this era? Cane is a beautiful book that blurs the line between poetry and prose!
Time to add all these books to the tbr pile
taking a class on ecotheology rn and will try to read up on anne spencer as a precursor to ecowomanism/womanism!
I wanna read all of that now!!!
Annoyed it took two days for me to find this, glad I did.
In my country we study a bit of US history in school but very little of it centers around black people, much less their literature, so it's the first time I'm hearing these names. I'm excited to read their thoughts!
Awesomeness .
Their Eyes Were Watching God is my favorite novel from my college days.
Hurston, Hughes
❤❤❤ heart swoon❤❤❤
I am well read, however not ar all versed in these works. Thank you, that was great!
I love that Princess shouts out all their zodiac signs lol I'm big into astrology too 😁♓
I enjoy stories set there
Thank you for introducing us to Harlem Shake.
Gratitude
Oh hey we read that poem last week!
I NEED A BOOK REC LIST ASAP
Hi could I get a list of those books please? I want to see if I could find them on audible to listen to while I work
So, why not a whole series on the subject? Biographies of the creators. Samples of their work. A look at visual artists who took part.
Please, no need to wait for the next Black History Month....
OMG did I read every poem youre gonna tall about last week!?
Best video so far!!! I don't advocate the end of "Black History Month", I just want it to spread through the other 11 months as well, as a major part of general Human history!
Awesome! And I just paired this with a podcast about the birth of Black Harlem!
ooh, what was the podcast?
@Brandy Kaiser thanks, I'll be sure to check it out!
I get to be a little less ignorant and learn people's astrological signs while I do it. I love this channel
Fantastic video! An Informative and important breakdown of an area of literature that goes ignored far too often. I appreciate the discussion of mixed race authors and they’re interpretation of the black identity, whether it be the black/white or Afro Latino experience. Thank you!
Let us remember Robert Bruce Nugent who along with Zora Neal Hurston and other very important writers created a very important work called Fire!. Very good presentation. Also I can not stress enough the great importance of the Schomburg Center as the repository for African\-American studies and research.
Yo where can I get that shirt!!
I accept the invitation. Is there maybe a recommended reading list?
Bless, Arturo Achomburg he was a gift to humanity.
Free Puerto Rico 🇵🇷 ✊
"Lenin" by Langston Hughes:
Lenin walks around the world.
Frontiers cannot bar him.
Neither barracks nor barricades impede.
Nor does barbed wire scar him.
Lenin walks around the world.
Black, brown and white receive him.
Language is no barrier.
The strangest tongues believe him.
Lenin walks around the world.
The sun sets like a scar.
Between the darkness and the dawn
There rises a red star.
Can we just talk about her mentioning their zodiac signs 😂🤌
Brava
Can you do the almas cryptid please
12:52 is that the free masons' logo?
Big ups!!! 🇯🇲 I also appreciate all the zodiac signs listed.
Cane by Jean Toomer is amazing and, though being released after the Harlem renaissance, Chester Himes' novels are an absolute must read, especially 'A Rage in Harlem' and 'Real Cool Killers'.
Look up Ida B. Wells sometime. She was a fascinating lady.