Whether the black artists write to represent and be faithful to his larger black community or to find their place in the so-called western canon, their work is going to connect and have an impact on somebody. I don’t think that they should make their pieces of art to try and win popularity of one group or the other. The artists should do whatever they want to do and feel in their heart, whether that be something that speaks to most black or most white people. Even though there were racial problems during the Harlem Renaissance, I don’t it would have been right for people to judge other people based on what they created and who it was directed towards. Langston Hughes essay “From the Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain really inspired me to answer the question the way that I did.
From the beginning to the end of the essay it talked about how artist shouldn’t be afraid of who they are or what they produce in the pieces. He specifically stated that “no great poet has ever been afraid of being himself.” These words spoke to me, because it helps me understand why I believe that no artist back then should be influenced by a community of one color. The poem “The Weary Blues” by Hughes also shows that produce what you want to produce not what other people want. In this poem it talks about how on artist was singing and playing his own tones, but it was for himself and what he thought about his life and what other people thought and wanted him to think. Everyone is going to have different opinion on what artists should come out with and what artists during the renaissance should have done what producing work, but that doesn’t matter because anything anyone says isn’t going to be truth full unless they decided that is what they want and believe.
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