Welcome to Conversations With Journalists! In this new series, we invite students every two weeks to join a discussion about a New York Times article with a Times journalist and other teenagers from around the world. Learn more about the feature and find a schedule of the pieces we’ll be reading together in the future here.
Langston Hughes. Zora Neale Hurston. Duke Ellington. W.E.B. DuBois. Bessie Smith. Jacob Lawrence. Paul Robeson. Josephine Baker.
You may recognize these names as some of the most influential figures of the Harlem Renaissance, the 1920s cultural movement that reshaped the landscape of American culture and opened up new possibilities for Black artists around the globe.
What do you know about the Harlem Renaissance? Do you have a favorite writer, poet, activist or artist from this era? How does the movement still reverberate today?
In this conversation, you’ll get to chat with Veronica Chambers, who helped to curate and edit a New York Times series celebrating and examining the 100th anniversary of the Harlem Renaissance. In an overview of the series, she wrote: “I’m a Brooklyn girl, but I’m low-key obsessed with the Harlem Renaissance.” Join the conversation this week to find out why.
Featured Article
Start by reading Ms. Chambers’s brief introduction to the series, “Harlem Was No Longer the Same After This Dinner Party,” published on April 5, 2024.
Then, explore further by choosing one additional piece from the series to read:
— A Visual History of the Harlem Renaissance
— Keeping the Spirit of Harlem Dance Alive
— When Harlem Was ‘as Gay as It Was Black’
— The Dinner Party That Started the Harlem Renaissance
— The Rent Was Too High So They Threw a Party
— New York’s First Black Librarians Changed the Way We Read
— Overlooked No More: Gwendolyn B. Bennett, Harlem Renaissance Star Plagued by Misfortune
— How Well Do You Know These Works of the Harlem Renaissance?
— The Met Aims to Get Harlem Right, the Second Time Around
— With ‘Gems’ From Black Collections, the Harlem Renaissance Reappears
Ms. Chambers is the editor of Narrative Projects at The Times, a team dedicated to starting up multilayered series and packages. She has worked on such projects as Black History, Continued, a series that explores pivotal moments and transformative figures in Black culture, and Suffrage at 100, a package about the 19th Amendment and women’s fight for the right to vote. She has also written and edited several books, including some for middle-grade readers.
Questions to Think About as You Read
Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public and may appear in print.
Are you a teacher or student who has feedback on this new feature or would like to suggest a Times piece for future discussion? Please post a comment here.