The children’s classroom teacher wanted to approach the curriculum through the study of some of the famous people of the Harlem Renaissance. Working collaboratively, we hand-picked figures for the project, utilizing as our primary reference tool, Extraordinary People of the Harlem Renaissance by P. Stephen Hardy and Sheila Jackson Hardy. Together we chose a group of people whom we felt represented important politicians, philosophers and artists. We also wanted to be sure that we balanced the arts by including poets, painters, musicians and theatre artists. Finally, we sought to include important figures from both genders. With these guidelines in mind, we came up with our cast of characters.

At this point the job of creating a performance piece was left in my hands. I knew, early on, that I wanted to create a piece that felt like the Harlem Renaissance. To me, that feeling was Jazz. I also knew that I wanted to include the children’s work on their famous characters, but I didn’t want the children to ‘recite’ information. Finally, I felt I wanted to incorporate the real words and actual achievements of some of these important American figures. It had to be dynamic; colorful; musical, full of energy and imagery: but how? The children had been studying the art of William H. Johnson with their art teacher and had created fabulous, life-sized images of their famous characters. Their classroom teacher suggested that we use them as pieces of a backdrop. That didn’t work for me because it wasn’t compelling enough, and yet I knew we had to incorporate them. I had a feeling that these paintings had to come to life. They had to move.

Then I found my final piece of inspiration in a book called, The Harlem Renaissance: Hub of African-American Culture, 1920-1930, by Steven Watson. This wonderful resource had all kinds of interesting information about the people and events of the Harlem Renaissance, but what really caught my eye were a series of lists of words in Harlemese that could be found in the margins of the pages. These words and phrases captured the rhythm and excitement of the times. On one page I found a list of words describing movement in Harlemese. I had found my way into a script! I had also found a way to use the children’s portraits in a energetic manner. I began our play with Sympathy, by Paul Lawrence Dunbar, and then burst into the freedom of the Harlem Renaissance with our moving portraits and a rhythmic chant that became a through-line for the play: Harlem. Percolating, trucking, cruising, oozing, freewheeling, hauling, Harlem!

The finished script told the story of the Harlem Renaissance in a captivating manner. The serious thoughts and actual statements of such important political leaders as W.E.B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey and Alain Locke were juxtaposed with the poetry of Langston Hughes, the music of Louis Armstrong, and the words of famous Harlem Renaissance actors and singers. Music figured prominently throughout the play: the children sang Lift Every Voice and Sing by James Weldon Johnson, a student from the Middle School played one of Louis Armstrong’s jazz compositions, and famous songs such as The Cotton Club Stomp were incorporated. The children were taught the Jitterbug by one student’s grandparents which was later included in our play. The art teacher worked with the children to create a backdrop of Harlem (see top of page) which helped establish the vibrancy of this time and place. The children dressed ‘to the nines’ in 1920’s fashion, and in their big show-stopping dance number, The Charleston, they conveyed a real sense of the excitement and creative energy that was the hallmark of the Harlem Renaissance. It was a collaborative process, from start to finish. The children’s work on the play was both a celebration of their newfound knowledge and a learning experience in and of itself. In the lingo of Harlem, the resulting play, The Harlem Renaissance: A Flowering of Words, Songs and Souls, was “Out this world! Down to the bricks!”

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