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"Mine is a quiet explorations quest for new meanings in color, texture and design. Even though I sometimes portray scenes of poor and struggling people, it is a great joy to paint."

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"Then let's sing it, dance it, write it, paint it. Let's do the impossible. Let's create something transcendentally material, mystically objective. Earthy. Spiritually earthy. Dynamic."

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Countless artists, of all forms, contributed to this era of art. Art was expressed through poems, short stories, novels, plays, music, paintings, and so much more. This was truly a time of expression for African Americans - and they expressed themselves so passionately.

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“Langston Hughes was a popular poet from the Harlem Renaissance... like other poets of the time, was concerned with portraying the lives of members of the black community. He wanted to highlight their concerns and the challenges they faced in America at that time, including racism. And Hughes also wanted to highlight the unique ways that the African American experience was different from the experience of white Americans. At the time, jazz music was very popular, especially within the African American community. Like his contemporaries, Hughes loved jazz music. His poetry was influenced by some elements of jazz, including its rhythms and the way that jazz music freed itself from traditional musical forms.”

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Democracy is a heartfelt cry by Hughes on behalf of all African Americans from this time period. It is about making a change immediately, not waiting for issues to "blow over" or "work themselves out" but to create change yourself.

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During the 1950’s Billie Holiday rose as a social phenomenon.. She was one of the first black women to work with a white orchestra. She pionerrerd a new way of manipulating phrasing and tempo. She cowrote  a few songs that became jazz standards.

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Democracy will not come
Today, this year
Nor ever
Through compromise and fear.

I have as much right
As the other fellow has
To stand
On my two feet
And own the land.

I tire so of hearing people say,
Let things take their course.
Tomorrow is another day.
I do not need my freedom when I'm dead.
I cannot live on tomorrow's bread.

Freedom
Is a strong seed
Planted
In a great need.

I live here, too.
I want freedom
Just as you.

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American trumpeter, composer, singer and occasional actor who was one of the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades, from the 1920s to the 1960s.

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writing was certainly a big deal and a great way for people to express themselves, but this period was also referred to as the Jazz Age due to the outburst of music created.

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I think most of the art was fairly abstract because that is how African Americans were seen in this time period. Many did not feel as if they were really seen, they definitely were not seen as the same, and because they felt outcast, they expressed their art forms in similar ways.

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The Harlem Renaissance was the name given to the cultural, social, and artistic explosion that took place in Harlem between the end of World War I and the middle of the 1930s. During this period Harlem was a cultural center, drawing black writers, artists, musicians, photographers, poets, and scholars.

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An aspiring writer, Zora, befriended Mr. Hughes. She later wrote many short stories within this time period of the Harlem Renaissance, which included distinct dialect in order to maintain African American culture.