Bronx Masquerade

The Harlem Renaissance was a period of great cultural, artistic, and social interdisciplinary growth among African American artists in New York City. This period began at the end of World War I and lasted through the mid-1930s. The aftermath of the Civil War and Reconstruction led to the “Great Migration,” a period when many African Americans fled the South to find better jobs, build families, and ensure their freedom. Harlem was a destination for many, and with the influx of residents came a new cultural scene. Artists, writers, thinkers, and musicians focused on the task of accurately representing Black life and culture as well as celebrating Black creativity and identity. Many Harlem Renaissance figures are referenced in Bronx Masquerade, including Langston Hughes (poet), Countee Cullen (poet), Zora Neale Hurston (writer), Archibald Motley Jr. (painter), and James Van Der Zee (photographer). The students in Mr. Ward’s class connect with the works, the themes, and the lives of these artists and wrestle with similar issues like racial identity, discrimination, and colorism.

As the epicenter of the literary movement, Harlem itself featured strongly in Harlem Renaissance literature. Its nightlife, music, and dancing are represented in poems like Claude McKay’s “Harlem Dancer” and novels like The Conjure Man Dies. Harlem is also the backdrop for the era’s social critiques in works like Passing by Nella Larsen and The Blacker the Berry by Wallace Thurman, both of which discuss colorism and the intersections of gender and race. Langston Hughes asks his most famous question, “What happens to a dream deferred?” in his poem entitled “Harlem.” Throughout the 20th century, Harlem was a popular setting in African American novels, adding its cultural context to works by James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, and Ralph Ellison. In Bronx Masquerade, Nikki Grimes extends this geography north to the Bronx for the 21st century, featuring rappers, subway trains, and references to cultural events like 9/11. This shift also reflects the Bronx’s status as the birthplace of rap and hip-hop. Through the students’ poetry, which blends the Harlem Renaissance, the Nuyorican movement, and rap, Nikki Grimes situates her text in the century-long tradition of Harlem and New York City literature, recreating the city in her novel for a new generation.