Harlem facts & stats

Question 1

Harlem was named by Dutch settlers after which city in the Netherlands?

Accepted Answer

Haarlem. Dutch colonists called the village Nieuw Haarlem after the city of Haarlem.

Question 2

The Harlem Renaissance was a flowering of what?

Accepted Answer

African American art, literature and music. In the 1920s and 1930s Harlem became a center of Black writing, music, theater and visual art.

Question 3

Which poet wrote 'The Negro Speaks of Rivers' and became a leading voice of the Harlem Renaissance?

Accepted Answer

Langston Hughes. Langston Hughes published the poem in 1921 and wrote about Harlem life for decades.

Question 4

Which subway train is named in the jazz standard about the quick way to get to Harlem?

Accepted Answer

The A train. Billy Strayhorn's 'Take the A Train' became the signature tune of Duke Ellington's orchestra.

Question 5

Harlem's classic row houses are called brownstones. What is brownstone?

Accepted Answer

A reddish-brown sandstone. Brownstone is a reddish-brown sandstone that was widely used to face 19th-century row houses.

Question 6

Which author of 'Their Eyes Were Watching God' was part of the Harlem Renaissance?

Accepted Answer

Zora Neale Hurston. Zora Neale Hurston was a novelist and folklorist active in Harlem's literary circles in the 1920s.

Question 7

Duke Ellington's orchestra had a famous residency at which Harlem nightclub from 1927?

Accepted Answer

The Cotton Club. Ellington's band played the Cotton Club from 1927 to 1931, broadcasting on radio nationwide.

The basics