LittleNaija

There were a multitude of iconic media symbols that depicted Black Women during the Harlem Renaissance; the Mulatta, the Cabaret dancer, and the Blues Women are all essential to the scene of the 1920's Harlem Renaissance. Who is the New Negro woman? The various stereotypes of the N.N.W literally give birth to the ideal female prototype of that period. History speaks in volumes of the brilliance of the 1920’s Negro men (ie. Langston Hughes, Alain Locke, W.E.B. DuBois) but what of their equally scholarly female counterparts? The ideal New Negro woman was originally derived through a patriarchal perspective, however as these cultural symbols appeared these individual women represented the birth of the outspoken, politically active, socially conscious African American woman that epitomizes sophistication. However many different figures have emerged in order to conclusively define A New Negro Woman.

The Mulatta

The Mulatta sensation culminated at the peak of the Renaissance. Outside of the jazz club the Mulatta was given a more distinguished persona.

“…New Negro periodicals chose identifiably mixed-race women to represent the positive and dignified face of the New Negro. She is beautiful, educated, middle class, and usually engaged in a charitable, conscientious trade such as nursing, library science, or teaching…”because she flirted with the taboo of interracial romance” (Sherrard-Johnson 11).

During the Renaissance the mulatta was commodified and marketed through her “tragic” potential shedding the tempestuous Jezebel/ flapper to become “…an exemplar of ladyhood and respectability.” The color line is something that aims to inherently destruct the foundation of black sisterhood. The birth of this notion is embedded in the aristocracy of “blackness”. The invisible noose asphyxiated women of darker complexions essentially debasing the beauty of true Afrocentric qualities in a era that is labeled as the cultural flowering of an oppressed race.The Jazz Era was driven by a collective cultural conscious amongst the community. During the 1920’s it was easy for New Negro women intellectuals to be overshadowed by there male counterparts.

The Cabaret Dancer

Some young women found an escape in Cabaret or other types of innovative African dance.The notorious Cotton Club, a racially oppressed white only establishment featured the top musicians of the decade (Adelaide Hall, Lena Horne, Paul Robeson), the dancers that performed in the front of all white audiences were required to be “tall, tan, & terrific” It was considered the opposite side of the intectually driven 1920’s Negro life; the Jazz Bohemia of the Harlem village is inspired by the social vice of life, it was the freedom to explore and create a society of street culture that manifested itself.

The Blues Singer

The Blues Singers of the 1920’s, (Bessie Smith, Gertrude ‘Ma’ Rainey, symbolized the economically independent, sexually liberated, gambling figure; the formation of a new character stripped of ancestral stereotypes was the motive. Singers like Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey sung about ninety percent of they’re stories about being mistreated by men even though Smith lived openly as a bi-sexual.

During the Harlem Renaissance homosexuality as well as bisexuality was observed through open eyes, writers like Mae Cowerdy wrote poetry that conceived fantasies of the natural eroticism that takes place between women. Its not about perversion, its about evoking the identity of black sensuality unaffiliated with sex. Since it is clear that the New Negro movement was heavily male-dominated, African American women sought social support through each other, collectively they created individual voices.

“Do not let him lure you from laughing waters,/ Lulling lakes, lissome winds/ Would you sell the colors of your sunset and the fragrance/ Of your flowers, and the passion wonder of your forest/ For a creed that will not let you dance?”

An excerpt from Helen Johnson’s work, she was clearly a gifted imagination immersed in the Jazz atmosphere. She dropped off the popular and historical scene early in her career, the Depression was real and economic inequities were thriving against every race. Even talented writers like herself, based in the center of it all, Harlem, couldn’t survive the age that inspired her work.

Your submission at AfC Black Women during the Harlem Renaissance (August 15)

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Thank you for your contributions to Wikipedia! Lugia2453 (talk) 22:35, 15 August 2013 (UTC)

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Thanks for your submission to Wikipedia, and happy editing. C679 18:56, 8 December 2014 (UTC)