1. Identity and freedom are important ideas presented in many of the poems from the Harlem Renaissance. Of the poems you have read so far, which did you find most powerful regarding the themes of identity and/or freedom and why? Don't forget evidence (quotes, name of poem, author).

Answer: The Heart of a Woman, by Georgia Douglas Johnson (1918)

Explanation:

Along with other Harlem Renaissance poets, like Langston Hughes and Claude McKay, Georgia Douglas Johnson showed that longing for freedom is a key element of their identity. In the poem "The Heart of a Woman", Georgia reflects the experience of being an African American woman, and the pain that experience brings. Women enter "some alien cage in its plight, And tries to forget it has dreamed of the stars", she writes, reflecting the subjugation that her community, especially women, experienced.