Teaching the Harlem Renaissance is essential for any English class as it provides a wide variety of lessons on culture, artists, poets, and literature. Here are some key Harlem Renaissance artists, facts, and teaching tips to make your lesson planning a breeze. What is the Harlem Renaissance? The Harlem Renaissance was an artistic movement of African American writers, artists, musicians, thinkers. The epicenter of this movement was in Harlem, New York, but its impacts could be felt widely in the Northern cities and across the world.  What was the goal of the Harlem Renaissance? The Harlem Renaissance was also known as the “New Negro Movement.” African American thinkers wanted to remake their image instead of being cast into racial stereotypes created by and for white people. They wanted to use art to change how Black

Teaching the Harlem Renaissance (and Black History) with Intention Are you teaching the Harlem Renaissance? It can be tempting to gloss over the struggle and conflict and just stick with the jazz. This would be doing your students a huge disservice, however. This week on the Secondary English Coffee Shop Blog, I wrote about keeping your unit sensitive and intentional.     Here are my biggest tips. When teaching Black History, teachers should:   1. Acknowledge the hard road to the Harlem Renaissance As English teachers, it’s easy to focus on the teaching the Harlem Renaissance as just a series of awesome products [poems, art, literature]. Leave it to the Social Studies teachers to talk about the justice issues leading up to the art, right? Wrong. When teaching the Harlem Renaissance, it’s important to recognize