Also known as: Harlem Renaissance and Haiti, Haiti in the Harlem Renaissance, Harlem Renaissance Haiti
Last updated: April 23, 2026
Taking Haiti: Military Occupation and the Culture of U.S. Imperialism, 1915-1940 is the key source for this note. She shows that by the 1920s and 1930s Haiti was not only an object of white U.S. exoticism, but also a site of Black reclamation. Writers, artists, and performers such as Langston Hughes, Arna Bontemps, Jacob Lawrence, Augusta Savage, Katherine Dunham, and Zora Neale Hurston mined Haitian history and culture for different kinds of political and aesthetic work.
Aaron Douglas
Key literary figure connecting the Harlem Renaissance to Haiti as political and historical subject
Arthur Schomburg
Augusta Savage
Jacob Lawrence
James Weldon Johnson
Katherine Dunham
A central figure in the Harlem Renaissance Haiti cluster; his 1931 trip and subsequent writing helped transform Haiti into a site of Black reclamation rather than imperial spectacle.
Toussaint Louverture
Zora Neale Hurston
Us Occupation Haiti
Emperor Jones
Harlem Renaissance Haiti
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"Harlem Renaissance Haiti." Rasin.ai, 2026. https://rasin.ai/connections/concepts/harlem-renaissance-haiti. Accessed 2026-05-05.