, speaking for the poor and homeless black people who suffered during the Great Depression. He wrote of their daily lives in America’s cities, of their anger and their loves. Black people loved reading his works and hearing him read his poems at public presentations all over the country. To them he was “Harlem’s Poet”. The Harlem that Langston Hughes loved and where he lived most of his life was an exciting place. This newly developed suburb of New York City was planned, laid out, and built almost too fast. Harlem had broad boulevards, beautiful town houses, and exclusive apartment buildings. After the war the combination of the Great Migration, the mix of cultures in Harlem, and a newfound sense of black unity and confidence produced a great burst of creativity. During the Harlem Renaissance, intellectual dialogue, literacy and artistic creation, blues and jazz, dance and musical theater came together and flowered as never before.Number 4” Jim EuropeEurope studied piano and violin in his youth and about 1904 settled in New York City, where he directed musical comedies and, in 1910, he helped organize the Clef Club, a union of African-American musicians. The 125-member Clef Club orchestra that he conducted at Carnegie Hall featured an extraordinary instrumentation, including 47 mandolins and bandores and 27 harp-guitars. Europe's Society Orchestra was probably the first African-American band to record, as early as 1913, when it offered fast versions of ragtime works, typically in 2/4 metre, with urgent rhythmic momentum. His band also regularly accompanied the popular white dance team of Irene and Vernon Castle, who popularized the fox-trot and a dance in 5/4 metre, to scores by Europe and his collaborator, Ford Dabney. During World War I Europe led the all-black 369th Infantry band, which toured France; it was noted for its syncopations and expressive colors. The band was nicknamed the "Hell Figh...
