The Harlem Renaissance

What happens when poetry becomes a revolution? When language refuses silence? When art insists on dignity, joy, and defiance?

This workshop explores the poetry of the Harlem Renaissance — the extraordinary cultural movement of the 1920s and 30s that reshaped American literature and redefined Black artistic expression.

We’ll immerse ourselves in the work of poets such as Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Claude McKay, Georgia Douglas Johnson, and Anne Spencer - who fused lyric beauty with political urgency, jazz rhythms with formal mastery, intimacy with protest.

Through close reading and generative prompts, we’ll explore how poetry can respond to racial injustice with both fire and elegance, the music of jazz and blues in poetic form, the sonnet as protest, and writing the city as both dream and battleground.

Participants will experiment with blues structures, formal verse, and contemporary responses to Renaissance themes. We’ll consider how this movement continues to influence poets today, and how its spirit of artistic boldness can energise your own work.

Expect vibrant discussion, daring drafts, and a deep dive into a movement that changed the sound of American poetry.

About Rachel Long

Rachel Long’s debut collection, My Darling from the Lions (Picador, U.K, 2020 / Tin House, US, 2021) was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, The Costa Book Award, The Rathbones Folio Prize, the Jhalak Prize Book of the Year by a Writer of Colour, and The Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award. The US edition featured in the New York Times Book Review, and was named one of the 100 must-read books of 2021 by TIME.

Zoom

These workshops will be conducted via Zoom. We have put together this simple 'How To' document to help you download Zoom, join a meeting, and navigate around the meeting features (such as adjusting video and audio, uploading files, and sharing screens).

You will receive a confirmation email from Ticket Tailor with your ticket and the Zoom invitation, containing the meeting link and Meeting ID & Password.

Someone from The Poetry Business team will be on hand prior to each workshop to offer additional help in getting connected.

There is usually a lot of interest in our workshops: in the interest of fairness, please limit yourself to one workshop ticket in every two week period.

Bursary Spaces

There are two bursary spaces available per workshop for writers from groups that are under-represented in contemporary poetry (for instance because of ethnic background) or who are experiencing financial hardship. If you would like to apply for one of these bursary places, please contact workshops@poetrybusiness.co.uk

Refunds

If you no longer wish to attend the workshop please let us know by emailing us. We ask for 3 working days' notice before the workshop starts in order to offer a full refund, and enable us to offer the place to someone else.

Though we will do all we can to help you get set up with the technology it is the participants' responsibility to ensure that their camera, microphone and other computer settings are configured correctly. Please contact us (workshops@poetrybusiness.co.uk) if you are concerned about getting set up for Zoom.