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The New Negro: An Interpretation

1925 · by Alain Locke

An anthology of poetry, fiction, essays and art from Harlem: a generation that represents itself instead of being represented.

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Introduction

The anthology grew out of a special issue of the magazine Survey Graphic, “Harlem: Mecca of the New Negro”, which Locke edited in March 1925; the expanded book appeared in December of that year. It gathers poetry, stories, drama and essays by, among others, Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Jean Toomer, Zora Neale Hurston, James Weldon Johnson and W. E. B. Du Bois, with portraits by Winold Reiss and designs by Aaron Douglas. Locke’s title essay describes a generation that no longer accepts the image others made of it and expresses itself on its own terms. The book is regarded as the manifesto of the Harlem Renaissance and was read in Paris by the founders of Négritude.

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