The Harlem Renaissance, which flourished in the 1920s and 1930s, was a time of intense
cultural production and social revolution; many artists, writers, and musicians were
redefining and celebrating Black culture. The migration of African Americans from the South
to Northern cities brought together a concentrated community of sophisticated, ambitious,
and talented people in Harlem,* where they experimented with creative forms, from jazz and
blues music, to jazz poetry which Langston Hughes pioneered to theater, visual art, and …

One of the most promising of the young Negro poets said to me once," I want to be a poet—
not a Negro poet," meaning, I believe," I want to write like a white poet"; meaning
subconsciously," I would like to be a white poet"; meaning behind that," I would like to be
white." And I was sorry the young man said that, for no great poet has ever been afraid of
being himself. And I doubted then that, with his desire to run away spiritually from his race,
this boy would ever be a great poet. But this is the mountain standing in the way of any true …