The Harlem Renaissance was a pivotal cultural and artistic movement in the early 20th century that had a profound impact on literature, music, art, and social consciousness. As educators it is our job to present to our students a diverse range of authors that truly represent America. As curriculums increasingly push for 21st century texts, we must not forget the classics. A deep dive into the Harlem Renaissance is the perfect way to diversify your curriculum, teach the history of art in America, and hook your students’ interests. Too often we teach a few well-worn Langston Hughes poems and move on. There is so much more to the Renaissance! This post will walk you through how I approach the era over 3-4 weeks in my classroom.
Teaching the Rhetoric of the Harlem Renaissance
I’ve worked with teachers who want to jump right into Langston Hughes’ “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain,” without doing the necessary prep work. This is a fantastic essay, but a lot of the issues that Hughes is working through may be lost on students. However a unit on teaching the Harlem Renaissance cannot be complete without looking at the movement’s intellectual arguments. Therefore, it is necessary to start at the debate between Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois. Washington predates the Renaissance, yet a lot of the intellectual thought of the Renaissance was a response to his “accommodationist” stance. His “Atlanta Compromise” speech establish a worldview that many Harlem Renaissance figures found objectionable.
Presenting a counter argument to Washington, gave Du Bois the opportunity to be come a leading intellectual in the movement. Chapter 3 of his classic book The Souls of Black Folks. Within this chapter Du Bois presents a furious argument against Washington’s stance that African Americans should pursue industrial education and jobs at the expense of the arts and leadership. Du Bois clearly elucidates all the reasons why African Americans should not settle for anything less than full participation in the arts, universities and leadership.
In my lesson on The Rhetoric of Du Bois and Washington available at Teachers Pay Teachers, I present the text of both Washington’s speech and Du Bois’s essay with dozens of embedded questions. These questions challenge your students to interrogate the rhetoric of both men. Even though Washington’s speech may present an outdated point of view, it is still chock full of all the rhetorical devices we want our students to know and understand.
Teaching the Poetry of the Harlem Renaissance
Most teachers are comfortable with poetry when teaching the Harlem Renaissance. The question remains: how do we get the most out of them? After all something like Hughes’ Harlem isn’t very long and the message seems obvious. How do we create a fulfilling lesson on poetry?
My approach is to work with three poets: Paul Laurence Dunbar, Claude McKay, and Langston Hughes. Like Washington, Dunbar predates the Harlem Renaissance. Unlike Washington, Dunbar establishes a lot of the themes that would go on to dominant the next 30 years of poetry. His poem “Sympathy,” is so immediately relevant to the Black experience in America, and any one who has ever felt trapped by their circumstances.
Both McKay and Hughes come to life when you compare their poems “America” and “I, Too.” All poetry movements are conversations among the poets. I often find that point to be somewhat obscure to students, but not with the Harlem Renaissance. By pairing poems, you can make this movement come to life for your students. From Dunbar to McKay to Hughes, students can appreciate how art and thought developed and grew to perfection over the decades.
In order to maximize learning, I present the poems to my students with figurative language questions embedded in the poems themselves. This helps maximize learning as students engage with the themes and the artistic approach of the poets. Plus we brush up on poetic devices! My lesson on Teaching the Harlem Renaissance Poetry available on Teachers Pay Teachers presents a variety of poems with embedded questions from Dunbar and McKay. This lesson is fully editable because Hughes’s poems are still under copyright. You can mix and match and add whatever you want to this great lesson! It also includes a research project asking your students to learn about other Harlem Renaissance poets, write about their life, and explicate one of their poems! This is the perfect way to get even another week out of this wonderful period of American literature.
Teaching the Short Fiction of the Harlem Renaissance
My favorite time of year is when I get to teach the short stories of Zora Neale Hurston. First I start with a video on her life published by PBS. She is such an interesting figure! By frontloading the rhetoric of Du Bois and the poetry of McKay and Hughes, students will understand why Hurston was so polarizing. Politically she couldn’t be more different than Du Bois and Hughes. Students always find it interesting to learn about the intellectual debates within the Harlem Renaissance.
Every year my students favorite short stories are Hurston’s “Spunk” and “Sweat.” These stories are full of rich characters, engaging dialect, humorous satire, Greek choruses, ironic twists and incredible humor. There is a direct line from the style of Twain in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and other works, and Hurston’s short stories. The absolute joy of regionalist literature is alive and well in her works.
FREEBIE alert: Here’s my lesson on “Spunk” complete with the full text of the story! I offer this lesson free for two reasons. One, I’d love for you to evaluate a small sample of my lessons, to see if you’d like to see more! Two, I absolutely adore this story, my students adore this story, and I think yours will too! Also there’s a video guide included for the PBS video linked above!
I also have a lesson on “Sweat” available at Teachers Pay Teachers that comes complete with the text of the story as well. Both of these lessons come with a variety of activities, essay prompts, a multiple choice assessment, and more! It can’t get any easier to hook your students than with the marital dispute between the foul-mouthed Sykes and the saintly Delia
Conclusion
The Harlem Renaissance doesn’t have to end there! If you want to expand into a novel, then there is no better choice than Nella Larsen’s Passing. This is a quick read that nevertheless presents a compelling domestic plot that dwells on important themes of identity. I’d recommend this novel for more mature students that can handle difficult subject matter. There’s also a recent movie version that is quite accurate to the text!
If you’re interested in my approach, and want everything, I’ve bundled all my lessons for a discount on Teachers Pay Teachers! Besides the text of Hughes’s poems (copyright!), this bundle includes absolutely everything you need to teach the rhetoric, poetry, and short fiction of The Harlem Renaissance. Thanks for stopping by today!