A cultural renaissance that rivaled the 1920s Harlem Renaissance occurred in Black Chicago starting from the 1930s until the 1950s. The Black Chicago Renaissance developed a distinctive black cultural aesthetic, which included literature, visual art, and music.
Regarding literature, many poems, short stories, and novels by writers such as Gwendon Brooks, Margaret Walker, Arna Bontemps, Richard Wright, and Langstone Hughes emerged (Hine & McCluskey, 2012). These writings focused on the themes of the quest for dignity and meaning, identify issues, and racial conflicts. The short stories and Novels by Richard Wright such as Uncle Tom’s Children and Native Son offered a new Black writing voice that demonstrated irritation, bluntness, and frankness (Hine & McCluskey, 2012). Margaret Walker and Gwendon Brooks among others introduced Poetry. Brooks, for instance, wrote A Street in Bronzeville and Annie Allen poetry collections (Hine & McCluskey, 2012).
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Early black visual artists also contributed to the Black Chicago Renaissance. Examples of the artists include Eldzier Cortor, Charles White, William Edouard Scott, and Archidald John Motley, Jr. Scott, for example, focused on impressionist murals, portraits, and landscapes that depicted the achievements of African Americans in the 1940s (Hine & McCluskey, 2012). Motley raised debate over his artistic work that represented black sensuality celebration and jazz culture (Hine & McCluskey, 2012). Motley’s paintings offered clear images of the social life of blacks. Cortor became the first Black artist to focus on black women beauty as the major theme of his works (Hine & McCluskey, 2012).
During the Renaissance, different forms of music emerged. Examples include urban blues, gospel music, and jazz. Thomas Dorsey, for instance, wrote hundreds of songs that revitalized African-American religious music. The music was uniquely urban and featured steel tambourines, cymbals, drums, tambourines, and pianos (Hine & McCluskey, 2012). Muddy Waters’ Louisiana Blues also demonstrated the fun of dreaming and the inevitability of a return to reality concerning the failure of the dream that migrants had while moving to Chicago.
The Black Chicago Renaissance culminated into a distinctive Black culture that produced influential writers, artists, and musicians. The Renaissance contributed to the development of a unique urban culture represented in writings, arts, and music.
Reference
Hine, D. C., & McCluskey, J. (Eds.). (2012). The black Chicago renaissance . University of Illinois Press.
