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What was the Harlem Renaissance? What is a renaissance? A renaissance is a movement or period of vigorous artistic and intellectual activity. There was a famous renaissance in Europe during the transition from medieval times to modern times that is still taught today. The Harlem Renaissance was an African American cultural movement of the late 1920s and early 1930s that was centered in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City. Variously known as the New Negro movement, the New Negro Renaissance, and the Negro Renaissance; the movement emerged toward the end of World War I in 1918, blossomed in the mid- to late 1920s, and then faded in the mid-1930s with the beginning of the Great Depression. Black painters and sculptors joined their fellow poets, novelists, dramatists, and musicians in an artistic outpouring that established Harlem as the international capital of Black culture. The Harlem Renaissance was an African American cultural birth that emphasized the artistic and intellectual abilities of African Americans. Africans and their descendants have been an essential part of the story of America since the late 1400s. Horton (2002) says Blacks were scouts, interpreters, navigators, and military men, and were among those