Temples for Tomorrow

<p>The Harlem Renaissance is rightly considered to be a moment of creative exuberance and unprecedented explosion. Today there is a renewed interest in this movement calling for a re-evaluation and a closer scrutiny of the era and of documents that have only recently become available. Temples for Tomorrow reconsiders the period--between two world wars--which confirmed the intuitions of W. E. B. DuBois on the color line and gave birth to the American dilemma later evoked by Gunnar Myrdal. Issuing from a generation bearing new hopes and aspirations a new vision takes form and develops around the concept of the New Negro with a goal: to recreate an African American identity and claim its legitimate place in the heart of the nation. In reality this movement organized into a remarkable institutional network which was to remain the vision of an elite but which gave birth to tensions and differences.<br /><br />This collection attempts to assess Harlem's role as a Black Mecca as site of intimate performance of African American life and as focal point in the creation of a diasporic identity in dialogue with the Caribbean and French-speaking areas.<br /><br />Essays treat the complex interweaving of Primitivism and Modernism of folk culture and elitist aspirations in different artistic media with a view to defining the interaction between music visual arts and literature.<br /><br />Also included are known Renaissance intellectuals and writers. Even though they had different conceptions of the role of the African American artist in a racially segregated society most participants in the New Negro movement shared a desire to express a new assertiveness in terms of literary creation and indentity-building.</p>