Unit 6 Week 2 Skills Test

 Harlem is a neighborhood in the northern part of New York City. After a fall in real estate prices in the early 1900s, the neighborhood quickly transformed. Apartments and homes became more affordable, and people from all over the world moved to the area. Some groups came from different neighborhoods in the city; others immigrated from countries in the Caribbean. Harlem also became a popular destination for many African Americans who lived in the South, where they had spent their lives struggling against racial prejudice to find good jobs and decent wages. They traveled north to look for new prospects as part of what was called the Great Migration.

 

       By the 1920s, around 100,000 African Americans had moved to Harlem. In a short span of time, the neighborhood had more African Americans living together than anywhere else in the United States. The number of thinkers, writers, and artists in the area made Harlem into one of the most vibrant places in the world. The outburst of ideas and art that came from Harlem during this time became known as the Harlem Renaissance.

   So, who were some of the people who contributed to the literary and artistic expression of the Harlem Renaissance?

 

Langston Hughes

     Langston Hughes was a poet, novelist, and playwright. He created a new style of poetry that had the rhythm of jazz and blues music that was also similar to how people spoke. His poems were about himself and the African American experience. He also wrote about what he believed African Americans could accomplish. Hughes’s poems would influence the work of many other poets during the Harlem Renaissance.

 

Zora Neale Hurston

       Zora Neale Hurston was a writer and anthropologist (someone who studies human beings) who wrote short stories, plays, and novels. After college, she traveled throughout the South and collected the stories of African Americans who lived there. She wrote about what these people remembered about their parents and grandparents and how they were raised. Her goal was to keep the past alive so that African Americans living across the United States could remember where they had come from. Hurston’s writing would inspire many writers.

 

W.E.B. Du Bois

       W.E.B. Du Bois was an educator, poet, writer, and one of the first activists to support the rights of African Americans. He founded the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People). He also edited a magazine called The Crisis, which gave African Americans a chance to express themselves through stories and poetry.

 

Duke Ellington

 Music was another form of African American expression during the Harlem Renaissance. Duke Ellington was a musician, composer, and leader of a jazz orchestra. His unique brand of “big-band jazz” blended genres and incorporated interesting harmonies, attracting Black and white audiences to the neighborhood. Because of Ellington and other musicians at the time, Harlem’s clubs and theaters–such as the Cotton Club, the Savoy, the Lafayette Theatre, and the Apollo–became famous. Ellington’s work also showed that jazz music could be as beautiful and important as classical music.

Aaron Douglas

   Aaron Douglas was one of the first American visual artists to use African subjects and images in their art. In the past, most images of African Americans were created by white artists. The images usually showed African Americans in a bad light. Douglas portrayed African Americans positively. For everyone who passed by, his powerful murals displayed both the prejudice African Americans faced and the pride they felt about their rich history.

 

       These are just some of the African Americans who were part of the Harlem Renaissance. However, their voices and work have carried far outside Harlem, echoing for a century to influence generations of people across the world.

 

• I read the text

• I didn't read the text

Read these sentences from the passage. Which phrase from the sentences is a clue to the meaning of the homophone there?

 

“After college, she traveled throughout the South and collected the stories of African Americans who lived there. She wrote about what these people remembered about their parents and grandparents and how they were raised.” (paragraph 5)

 

• “After college”

• “she traveled”

• “throughout the South”

• “collected stories”

Read these sentences from the passage. Which word from the sentences is a clue to the meaning of the homophone their?

 

“After college, she traveled throughout the South and collected the stories of African Americans who lived there. She wrote about what these people remembered about their parents and grandparents and how they were raised.” (paragraph 5)

• “about”

• “people”

• “how”

• “raised”

How does the caption under the map of Harlem support the information in the passage?

• It gives a sense of some of the issues discussed in Du Bois’s magazine The Crisis.

• It shows how African-American music helped break down barriers and inspire dance.

• It highlights some of the themes Hughes developed in his new, musical poetry.

• It demonstrates how Hurston’s work as an anthropologist and researcher influenced ballroom dancing.

Show how the homophone past is used in paragraph 8. There are 3 correct answers!

8       Aaron Douglas was one of the first American visual artists to use African subjects and images in their art. In the past, most images of African Americans were created by white artists. The images usually showed African Americans in a bad light. Douglas portrayed African Americans positively. For everyone who passed by, his powerful murals displayed both the prejudice African Americans faced and the pride they felt about their rich history.

• part of speech: verb

• part of speech: noun

• definition: what happened before

• definition: went near

• clue: “were created”

Show how the homophone passed is used in paragraph 8. There are 3 correct answers!

8       Aaron Douglas was one of the first American visual artists to use African subjects and images in their art. In the past, most images of African Americans were created by white artists. The images usually showed African Americans in a bad light. Douglas portrayed African Americans positively. For everyone who passed by, his powerful murals displayed both the prejudice African Americans faced and the pride they felt about their rich history.

• part of speech: verb

• part of speech: noun

• definition: what happened before

• definition: went near

• clue: “murals displayed”

Explain how the Aaron Douglas painting Song of the Towers and its caption support the information about his contribution to the Harlem Renaissance. Support your answer with evidence from the passage.