Harlem Renaissance and Selma Burke

Selma Burke's Life and Career

• In 1935, Selma Burke married writer Claude McKay, but he passed away only a year later.
• Burke was involved with the Harlem Renaissance cultural movement through her marriage and later became a part of it.

The Harlem Renaissance

• The Harlem Renaissance was a movement in African-American culture in the 1920s and 1930s that greatly influenced African-American literature, philosophy, and music.
• It is also known as the "Black Literary Renaissance".
• The movement challenged white Americans' thinking towards black Americans and refused to copy white American art, literature, and music.
• It celebrated the survival of African culture through the slave era and its subsequent rebirth.

Selma Burke's Art and Activism

• In 1936, while in Paris, Burke created "Frau Keller", a portrait of a German-Jewish woman, in response to the rising Nazi threat.
• During World War II, Burke worked as a truck driver in a factory at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, believing that "artists should get out of their studios" during the war.

Education and Teaching

• In 1941, Burke earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from Columbia University, funded by a graduate school scholarship.
• In 1940, she founded the Selma Burke School of Sculpture in New York City, demonstrating her commitment to teaching art.
• In 1946, Burke opened the Selma Burke Art School in New York City, and later established the Selma Burke Art Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Community Involvement

• Burke used her art to bring people together and create opportunities for social change.
• She donated a bust of a local doctor to the town of Mooresville on the condition that the ban on black children using the public library be removed, and the town accepted.