Style Imitating Art: “Harlem at Night” by Charles Henry Alston

2026-01-14 10:15

From blog Living Outside the Stacks

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Style Imitating Art: “Harlem at Night” by Charles Henry Alston

When I initially saw the title of the painting for this week’s selection, the first thing that popped into my head was the Harlem Renaissance . And if you’ve been around me for any period of time, you know that the Harlem Renaissance is my favorite era — there was so much cultural growth within the Black community with writers like Nella Larsen, Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, and more. But once I saw the art piece, it made me think of a more contemporary Harlem, like Charles H. Alston may have been looking into the future. That being said, I’ve never been to Harlem and I know I romanticize it quite a bit, but if I ever have the...

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