Past Institutes

The Harlem Renaissance

On February 28, 2014, Humanities Texas held a one-day workshop in Austin focusing on the literature and history of the Harlem Renaissance.

Curriculum

Topics addressed included the history of the Harlem Renaissance as well as the works of Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston, among others.

Forty-three teachers attended the workshop. Faculty helped participants develop ideas for effective writing and research assignments related to the Harlem Renaissance. Content was aligned with the secondary English and language arts TEKS. Teachers received books and other instructional materials and were trained in the examination and interpretation of primary sources.

Faculty

Workshop faculty included Cary D. Wintz (Texas Southern University) and Brian A. Bremen, Shirley E. Thompson, and Jennifer M. Wilks, all of The University of Texas at Austin.

Program resources

Our March 2014 newsletter included a slideshow of images from the workshop. Our February 2015 newsletter featured a transcript of Cary Wintz’s talk, “The Harlem Renaissance: What Was It, and Why Does It Matter?” and a complete, digitized issue of The Negro American, a Harlem Renaissance era magazine published in San Antonio, Texas.

View videos of faculty lectures from the workshop:

• Brian A. Bremen, "Teaching the Harlem Renaissance: Annotation, Text, and Context"
• Cary D. Wintz, "The Harlem Renaissance"

For our spring 2014 workshop on the Harlem Renaissance, Humanities Texas assembled a number of online educational resources related to the Harlem Renaissance and its history, literature, and culture. These websites include primary source documents, lesson plans, photographs, and other interactive elements that will enhance classroom instruction and student comprehension.

As part of our Author Index, Humanities Texas has developed webpages on Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston. Each author page includes links to the first and significant publications of commonly taught texts; early reviews of the author's work; excerpts of critical reviews of that author's work; and suggestions for lessons, discussion, and activities.

Location and schedule

The workshop overview details the program's schedule and participants.

Sponsors

These workshops were made possible with major funding from the State of Texas and the Brown Foundation, Inc. of Houston, with ongoing support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.