The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual and cultural revival of African American music, dance, art, fashion, literature, theater, politics, and scholarship centered in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, spanning the 1920s and 1930s. It was a period of rich cross-disciplinary artistic and cultural activity among African Americans between the end of World War I (1917) and the onset of the Great Depression and lead up to World War II (the 1930s) . The movement asserted pride in black life and identity, a rising consciousness of inequality and discrimination, and interest in the rapidly changing modern world. The Harlem Renaissance was successful in that it brought the black experience clearly within the corpus of American cultural history.

Here are some key points about the Harlem Renaissance:

• The Harlem Renaissance was not confined to the Harlem district of New York City, but Harlem attracted a remarkable concentration of intellect and talent and served as the symbolic capital of this cultural awakening.
• The movement was characterized by intense debate and was never dominated by a particular school of thought.
• The Harlem Renaissance encompassed poetry and prose, painting and sculpture, jazz and swing, opera and dance.
• The movement laid the groundwork for all later African American literature and had an enormous impact on subsequent Black literature and consciousness worldwide.
• The Harlem Renaissance is unusual among literary and artistic movements for its close relationship to civil rights and reform organizations.
• The movement brought notice to the great works of African American art and inspired and influenced future generations of African American artists and intellectuals.

Overall, the Harlem Renaissance was a significant cultural movement that helped to shape African American identity and culture, and had a lasting impact on American literature and art.