Three Harlem Renaissance Writers (Hughes, McKay, & Cullen)

The period known as the Harlem Renaissance was one of extraordinary literary creativity, and took place during the 1920s. It was centered in the ghettos of Harlem, New York City, considered to be around Seventh Avenue. Then a cosmopolitan community, Harlem consisted of "rural farmworkers, black professionals, musicians and hustlers." Three of the artists that emerged from this period were Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, and Claude McKay. They all wrote from the Harlem neighborhood.

Cullen was the only writer of the these three that lived in New York early on in life, though he was born on May 30th (1903) in Louisville, Kentucky. His last name was Porter at birth, but he was adopted by Reverend and Mrs. Frederick Ashbury Cullen at age 15. His adopted father pastored the largest AME church in Harlem. Unlike McKay, Cullen "considered poetry raceless," but he did recognize racism in America. He expressed an interest in poetry early on, winning a citywide contest at DeWitt Clinton High School (predominantly white and "considered to be one of the finest public schools in New York at the time.") He later attended New York University, where, "his works attracted critical attention." Cullen graduated from college with honors, and published Colors (1925). He was established a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance.

His style is lyrical, and had to do with mildly racist themes in his poem Yet Do I Marvel. Cullen approaches God as faulted: "good, well-meaning, kind," at the same time a Creator who inflicts torture on people He made in His own likeness. Cullen likens the God/Man relationship as a simile with the stories of two Greek myths: 'Tantalus' and 'Sisyphus.' Tantalus was the son of Zeus, who was punished in the underworld for sins by suffering from thirst, hunger or fear for all eternity (there are three versions to the myth). Sisyphus was the king of Corinth, punished for tricking Death. For eternity, Sisyphus had to push a rock up a hill, which always rolled back. His task was never to be finished; an effort in futility. Cullen also makes use of irony when he states, "Yet do I marvel at this curious thing: To make a poet black, and bid him sing!" He finds contradiction in his "plight in a racist society." Yet Do I Marvel struggles with identity and justice in a racist society.

In 1924, Cullen published Copper Sun, a poetry collection which includes the poem "Heritage." Again, Cullen wonders about identity, making a statement: "What is Africa to me ... " He goes on to speculate what sights he might behold there: the sun, the sea, the jungle, black men and women. Countee Cullen wonders about his ancestry ("One three centuries removed"), and then again of nature ("Spicy grove, cinnamon tree, What is Africa to me?"). Cullen was conservative in view, basing his works on 19th century poets like Keats.

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