Identity and freedom are important ideas presented in many of the poems from the Harlem Renaissance. Of the poems you have read so far, which did you find most powerful regarding the themes of identity and/or freedom and why

The creativity of the poets of the Harlem Renaissance reflects the social and cultural problems that worried African Americans at that time, such as the self-identification of black U.S. citizens, their degraded position in society, the destruction of stereotypical images of the Black man in American culture, the historical past of American blacks, and Africa as their ancestral home.

Hughes, in his poetry, showed his identity to the greatest extent. This poetry was fed by two life-giving sources. Firstly, it is black folklore, including its forms such as spirituals and blues - a folk lyric song, often of a sad character, performed with a banjo or guitar. Hughes made the blues a genre of poetic art, 'fixing' it as an original poetic form.

Secondly, the inspirational source for Hughes was the Whitman tradition, the poetics of "free verse." His poem “Old Walt” is not only a declaration of love for Walt Whitman, but also a symbol of poetic faith, a commitment to the ideals of genuine democracy, equality and nationality.

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