After reviewing scores of websites on the Harlem Renaissance, I found the following links to be the most useful and authoritative:
http://web.nypl.org/research/sc/sc.html. This site is for the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture--part of the New York Public Library system. It lists exhibits, programs, and performances and gives selections from featured exhibits, e.g., last month's "Harlem: The Vision of Morgan and Marvin Smith" which included some of their photographs. In addition, the site provides links to six other divisions at the center including a multimedia sampler.
http://www.best.com/~fearless/Harlem.html. Entitled "Harlem Renaissance in the Twenties,"this site includes writers of the Renaissance, e.g., Jessie Fauset and Nella Larsen. The link to Zora Neale Hurston, however, is to a festival given in her honor in 1996.
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/AfricanAmVid. This site is primarily an annotated list of videos related to African American culture but also includes related web sites, reviews and articles. As I Remember It: A Portrait of Dorothy West is described as addressing the "forgotten role of women" in the Renaissance. Against the Odds: The Artists of the Harlem Renaissance and Harlem also look like good introductions to the place and the cultural event.
http://www.nku.edu/~diesmanj. In addition to some good links, the site includes painters of the Renaissance with thumbnail pictures for such artists as Lou Marlow Jones, Hale Woodruff, John T. Biggers, Jacob Lawrence, Edward Burra, and Aaron Douglas. It also features selected paintings of William H. Johnson and Palmer Hayden. Don't bother with the irrelevant X Files stuff.
http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/Chap.9/9intro.html. This is an online ongoing project by Paul P. Reuben from California State University at Stanislaus. It gives an introduction to the Harlem Renaissance and includes a chronology of events, the character and characteristics of the movement and some 40 significant figures. Besides the course materials which include study questions and research topics, it has the electronic text of the March 1925 issue of Survey Graphic.
http://www.library-csi.cuny.edu/dept.history/lavender/harlem. This site is for a course called "The Harlem Renaissance: Hub of African-American Culture 1920-1930" given in fall 1997. It includes an introduction to Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston and includes photos by Carl Van Vechten as well as other resources.
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/harlem/ This site, called "Harlem: Mecca of the New Negro," gives the hypermedia edition of the March 1925 Survey Graphic: Harlem Number. It includes an introduction on the significance of this issue, reviews, and one of the pages. The connection between Survey Graphic and New Negro Anthology is "coming soon."
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum. This site has relevant information on such poets as Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, Jean Toomer, Claude McKay and some selected poems. Under the "Women" category are Jessie Fauset, Nella Larsen, and Zora Neale Hurston. The "Politics" heading includes material on Marcus Garvey.
Perkins/MA_WEB/harlem.html. Entitled "The Harlem Renaissance Embodied It All," this site features artists of the Renaissance and gives thumbnail pictures of representative works, such as Jitterbug III by William H. Johnson; The Lovers by Lois Mailou Jones, the only surviving painter of the Renaissance: and Aspirations by Aaron Douglas. The "Knowledge is Power" section discusses the Corcoran's recent acquisition of 30 works assembled by Thurlow Tibbs. The site is sponsored by an art publishing company.
http://www.encarta.com/schoolhouse. This is the Encarta Schoolhouse site for teachers K-12. However, much of it is very useful, interesting and sophisticated enough for college students. It includes extensive material on music and gives good biographical information and links on Josephine Baker, Paul Robeson, Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Coleman Hawkins. It also contains audio files for Smith, Ellington and Hawkins. The Red Hot Jazz Archive lists "Red Hot Musicians 1895-1927" and gives bios, photos and audio clips. Jazz films, such as Bessie Smith's St. Louis Blues, can be accessed through VivoActive. Brief bios of writers like James Weldon Johnson, Claude McKay, Langston Hughes, Jean Toomer, Countee Cullen and Zora Neale Hurston are also included. Links to Survey Graphic are listed as well as to individual poets and to Writers/Black USA.
s.aol.com/bonvibre/rmp0a.html. BonVibre's "Phat African American Poetry Book" site includes selections from Hughes, McKay, Cullen, as well as the lesser know Arna Bontemps, Georgia Douglas Johnson, and Helene Johnson. Although its special pages feature mostly contemporary poets, Jean Toomer is also included. In addition to some excellent links, it also offers membership to an AfroAmerican Web Ring.
http://www.geocities.com/Silicon Valley Heights?5881/ This site is called "Blacks: Striving for a Better Future." It gives historical information on the Great Migration as well as a biography of W.E.B.Dubois. It includes the summary of a story from The Crisis and links to the W.E.B.Dubois Institute.
http://www.2.uncwil.edu/english/newlin/224/harlem/nature.htm. This site, termed "Nature and Love," not only features the "major" literary figures of the Renaissance--Dubois, McKay, and Cullen--it also gives excerpts from the works of Hurston and Larsen. A separate section is on poetry. The "Worldly Events" segment gives a political and historical perspective and lists the scientific and technological discoveries of the time. It also contains a Bibliography and a short list of other links.
http://www.cc.colorado.edu/Dept/EN/Courses/EN3707-117Garcia/ "Rhapsodies in Black: Art of the Harlem Renaissance," an exhibit the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the site features the work of Arthur Motley and Aaron Douglas and the sculpture of Richmond Barthe and Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller. It also includes the paintings and silkscreens of Jacob Lawrence as well as the work of Edward Burra, Palmer Hayden, William H. Johnson, Winold Reiss, Sargent Johnson, and Augusta Savage. This exhibit is now at the Corcoran until August 3.
Audio/052694_harp_ITH.html. Although it takes forever to download, these readings of Langston Hughes' stories by Ossie Davis may be worth the wait. Four stories are included: "Simple on Indian Blood," "A Toast to Harlem," "Last Whipping," and "Feet Live Their Own Life." (Ignore the ad for Harper Audio tapes.)
http://www4.jazzcentralstation.com/jes/station/newstan/history/index.html. This site was created by Dan Morganstern, noted jazz authority and director of the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University. Its contents includes brief descriptions of the history and origins of jazz under such titles as "The Jazz Story," "The Roots," and "The Birth of the Blues." Most directly relevant were "Jazz Comes North" and the material on Louis Armstrong in New York.
For more information contact Barbara Seaman