//soul ::decency
and honesty of feeling ::emotional, moral and intellectual energy as, for
example, revealed in works of art ::in black american culture especially,
qualities enabling a person to be in harmony with himself and others
//heart
::center of a person's thoughts and emotions, especially of love ::ability
to feel emotion
//classic
::having a high quality that is recognized and unquestioned ::of lasting value
and importance
//feel ::to
be particularly aware of something ::to be affected by something
//harlem renaissance ::by 1925, the allure of harlem was a compelling influence on the consciousness of a vanguard of young black painters and writers waiting in the wings to be proclaimed as the new negroes of the harlem renaissance. there was a happening in america in those days: suddenly stars started falling on a part of manhattan that white residents had begun abandoning to black new-comers. a handful of harlem’s cultural "midwives" discovered and first published several talented young african-american artists, tempted them to come to harlem, and gave them the opportunity for cultural exchange with other artists. the existence of a new spirit and psychology abroad among african-americans with its most characteristc instance in harlem was recognized nation-wide. in harlem, african-american life was seizing its first chances for group expression and self determination. the new negroe movement could, on the one hand, be defined by the consciousness of acting as the advance-guard of the african peoples in their contact with twentieth century civilization. on the other hand, there was a sense of a mission of rehabilitating the race in world esteem from that loss of prestige for which the fate and conditions of slavery have so largely been responsible. (alain locke). what the new york herald tribune first announced a negroe renaissance included artists like langston hughes, countee cullen, aaron douglass, sterling brown, zora neale hurston, richard wright, claude mckay, rudolph fisher, nella larsen, or helene johnson.
//references:
//cowie, a.p. (ed.). (1989). oxford a.l.d. (4th ed.). oxford: oxford university press.
//kellner, b. (ed.). (1984). the harlem renaissance: a historical dictionary for the era. westport, usa: greenwood press.
//de jongh,
j. (1990). vicious modernism: black harlem and the literary imagination. new
york: cambridge university press.