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Harlem in the 1920s was a mecca for black artists and performers, their supporters, and for white and black audiences. The '''Harlem Renaissance''' was a flourishing of black art and culture in the 1920s.  Famous writers included  Alain Locke, Claude  

Harlem in the 1920s was a mecca for black artists and performers, their supporters, and for white and black audiences. The '''Harlem Renaissance''' was a flourishing of black art and culture in the 1920s.  Famous writers included  Alain Locke, Claude  

McKay,  Jean Toomerand Zora Neale Hurston.

McKay,  Jean Toomer and Zora Neale Hurston.

 

In the novels and plays of the Harlem Renaissance, [[Africa]] is represented as a lost paradise offering a solace for those to whom the American dream remains inaccessible. While black American authors wished to restore value to the black man, by showing Harlem as a place of nocturnal pleasures they perpetuated the stereotype of the black as a searcher for sensual amusement. In addition, the authors sought to recapture traits that a dehumanizing/industrial society had lost - beauty, harmony of man with nature, and spontaneity - by emphasizing primitivism and exoticism in Africa. Despite its ambiguities, the Harlem Renaissance is the first explicit rebirth among black intellectuals of the racial and cultural bonds linking black America and Africa, a reevaluation of Africa and its past, and a response to the quest for self-identity.

===Carnival===

===Carnival===

During the 1920s, African Americans experienced an unparalleled creative environment in which the actor controlled both production and artistry. This control was a vital part of all the artistic creations of the Harlem Renaissance, including art, theater, music, and writing. Although several elements of African-American culture contributed to this control, two were particularly important: the idea of carnival, with the reversal of power it creates, and the notion of speaking from behind a mask. As a result, the iconography of the Harlem Renaissance is akin to that of the masque or carnival; it involves a reversal of social position in which the normally marginalized or excluded person or group gains control and becomes the locus of power.<ref> Patti Capel Swartz,  "Masks and Masquerade: The Iconography of the Harlem Renaissance," ''Midwest Quarterly'' 1993 35(1): 49-62,</ref>

During the 1920s, African Americans experienced an unparallelled creative environment in which the actor controlled both production and artistry. This control was a vital part of all the artistic creations of the Harlem Renaissance, including art, theater, music, and writing. Although several elements of African-American culture contributed to this control, two were particularly important: the idea of carnival, with the reversal of power it creates, and the notion of speaking from behind a mask. As a result, the iconography of the Harlem Renaissance is akin to that of the masque or carnival; it involves a reversal of social position in which the normally marginalized or excluded person or group gains control and becomes the locus of power.<ref> Patti Capel Swartz,  "Masks and Masquerade: The Iconography of the Harlem Renaissance," ''Midwest Quarterly'' 1993 35(1): 49-62,</ref>

 

==Further reading==

==Further reading==

===Harlem Renaissance===

===Harlem Renaissance===