The Harlem section of New York City which covers just 3 sq mi, drew nearly 175,000 African Americans, turning the neighborhood into the largest concentration of black people in the world.
For African Americans, writing was an escape. Authors wrote to escape the trials and tribulations of life, such as poverty and discrimination. In the 1920s, literature blossomed and became a key factor in the Harlem Renaissance. There was no common literary style defined in the writings of the Harlem Renaissance. The writers were united by the sense of taking part in a common endeavor and their commitment to giving artistic expression to the African American experience. Their writings dealt with black life from a black perspective, and it celebrated the characteristics of African American life and the enjoyment of life without fear. We younger negro artists now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame.We build our temples for tomorrow, as strong as we know how and we stand on the top of the mountain, free within ourselves."(from Langston Hughes, The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain.") Their writing also defined the African American heritage and celebrated their new identity as Americans. Some common themes did exist however, such as an interest in the roots of the African American experience in Africa and in the South, and a strong sense of racial pride and a desire for social and political equality. But the greatest charcteristic of the Harlem Renaissance was the diversity of its expression. In a letter that Aaron Douglas wrote to Langston Huges he described the feeling that he felt towards the Renaissance he wrote, "Let's bare our arms and plunge them deep through laughter, through pain, through sorrow, through hope, through disappointment, into the very depths of the souls of our people and drag forth material crude, rough, neglected. Then let's sing it, dance it, write it, paint it.
