Harlem+Renaissance+Writers

Group A. Find a Harlem Renaissance writer and post a short biography (around 75-100 words) both to this VISTA assignment and to the related WIKI page.

Group A: Chris Taggart __Jessie Redmon Fauset__ was born in Fredericksville, a small, primarily African-American area Camden County, New Jersey on April 27th, 1882. Her mother died when she was still young, and her father remarried. She attended Philadelphia High School for Girls, and was the only African-American graduating in her class. She was only the second African-American woman elected to Phi Beta Kappa at Cornell University. Most of Faucet's major literary writings were published in the NAACP's journal, __The Crisis,__ working often with W.E.B. Dubois. She had main novels, __There is Confusion,__ written in 1924, __Plum Bun,__ written in 1928, __The Chinaberry Tree: A Novel of American Life,__ written in 1931, and __Comedy, American Stye,__ written in 1933.

__**Rudolph Fisher**__ was born in Washington, DC on May 9, 1897. He was well educated and not only known for his novels and short stories, but his talent as a musician and playwrite as well. The Atlantic was the first to publish his work in 1925, titled “The City of Refuge.” This not only gained him recognition as a black writer, but also gave new pride to the black community at this time. Four years later, he went on to write “The Walls of Jericho.” This novel specifically portrays the life for blacks in the 1920’s. In 1926, Rudolph and his wife Jane Ryder had a son, Hugh. This son however, didn’t have much time with his father because Rudolf died in 1934 of failed abdominal surgery. Throughout his life, most of which was spent in Rhode Island, Rudolph wrote numerous short stories, all of which range from dark and saddening realities, to lighthearted realities as well.

Spencer Broste: AMST-264

Group A: Alyssa Reilley

Langston Hughes: Hughes was born Feb. 1 1902 and passed away in May of 1967. His most famour time was during the Harlem Renaissance when he was a poet, novelist, playwiight and short story writer. Hughes' signature poem was published in 1926 in the middle of the Harlem Renaissance and the verse that became so famous was. "The Negro Speaks of Rivers". Much of his work focused on the view of middle/working class black people living in America. Hughes spent much of his life doing some traveling after he earned his BA at Linclon University, but finished his life in Harlem where he became most famous during the Harlem Ranaissance.

Group A: Mike McNamara

Langston Hughes: James Mercer Langston Hughes was an avid American writer, writing in many forms of literature such as poetry, novels, plays, short stories, and columns. He was an early pioneer of a new literary art form called //jazz poetry//. Jazz poetry is a form of poetry that demonstrates jazz-like rhythm and the general feel for improvisation, commonly found in jazz during the time. Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri on February 1, 1902. His parents were Carrie Mercer Langston and James Nathaniel Hughes. Hughes was working as a busboy in a hotel when he encountered a poet by the name of Vachel Lindsay who was impressed with the poems Hughes showed him and began to publicize him, even though previously some of Hughes' works had been published in magazines. Some academics and biographers today believe that Hughes had secretly coded into his poems clues of his homosexuality, or just homosexuality in general. Some of Hughes' better-known poems include //Let America Be America Again//, //Life is Fine//, and //Dream Deferred//. In 1930 Hughes wrote a famous novel for which he is well known today called //Not Without Laughter//. He was also famous for a series of short stories titled //The Ways of White Folks// (1934). Even after the Harlem Renaissance ended in the mid-1930s, Hughes continued to write and publish his works. He died on May 22, 1967 from post-surgical heart failure. Group A: Marissa Garcia Rudolph Fisher was born May 9th, 1897 in Washington, DC. During the Harlem Renaissance, Rudolph Fisher was widely known for being an African-American novelist and a musician. His significant works were "City of Refuge," "The Conjure-Man Dies," and "The Walls of Jericho." He began his career writing the "City of Refuge" in 1925 and from then on continued writing novels and poetry. His career lasted throughout final days, and at the age of 37 passed away due to an unsuccessful surgery. Rudolph Fisher's was influenced by the Harlem Renaissance movement, and how a door was opened for African Americans to achieve work and to express their voice. Group A: Kaja Knapp ** James Weldon Johnson  ** ** (Born June 18, 1871, Jacksonville, Florida – Died June 26, 1938, Wiscasset, Maine) ** Johnson was a musician, poet, writer, diplomat, and anthologist of black culture. His mother introduced him and trained him in music; he graduated from Atlanta University and later studied at Columbia. For several years he was the principal of a black high school in Jacksonville, Florida. At the same time he studied law and was admitted to the Florida bar in 1897, where he began practicing. Later Johnson began writing songs including “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” he also wrote a 1900 poem of the same name which became somewhat of a national anthem to many African-Americans. Johnson and his bother wrote over 200 songs for the Broadway musical stage in New York. In 1901 President Theodore Roosevelt appointed James Johnson U.S. consul to Puerto Cabello, Venezuela and in 1909 he became consul in Corinto, Nicaragua where he served until 1914. While he was teaching at Fisk University he began writing a novel, //Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man// (published anonymously, 1912). The book attracted little attention until it was reissued under his own name in 1927. From 1914 Johnson was a leader in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He wrote // Poetry // in 1922 as well as books such as //American Negro Spirituals// 1925-1926. His best-known work, //God's Trombones// 1927, which is about a group of black dialect sermons in verse, it includes "The Creation" and "Go Down Death." Johnson's literature is one of the greatest perceptive assessments ever made about African-American contributions to American culture. //Along This Way// 1933 is his autobiography.