Though many of the landmarks and buildings have since been remodeled or torn down, one can still follow in the footsteps of the artists who once lived in Harlem and imagine the exuberance of the era.ģ55 West l45th Street, Corner of St. I now judge that we ought to be thankful for the half-dozen younger writers who did emerge and make a place for themselves.'

James Weldon Johnson recalled the excitement of the 1920s in Harlem, ' hailed with loud huzzas the dawn of the Negro literary millennium. It was the beginning of the Harlem Renaissance.ĭuring the summer of 1926, Hughes, along with several other writers and artists, including Zora Neale Hurston, began to publish the short-lived but groundbreaking journal Fire!! In his autobiography, The Big Sea, Hughes described the venture: 'The idea being that it would burn a lot of the old, dead conventional Negro-white ideas of the past, épater le bourgeois into a realization of the existence of the younger Negro writers and artists, and provide us with an outlet for publication not available in the limited pages of the small Negro magazines then existing.' Musicians, writers, and artists converged on Harlem, living and working together, and developing a thriving artistic scene of literary magazines, cafes, jazz clubs. The end of World War I brought a large migration of African Americans to New York City seeking new economic and artistic opportunities. The 1920s were an exciting time in Harlem. Or perhaps the magnet was New York, but once in New York, he had to live in Harlem. Harlem was like a great magnet for the Negro intellectual, pulling him from everywhere.

The Big Sea by Langston Hughes