A Short Introduction to the Harlem Renaissance

You will remember the US Civil War ended in 1865,
and recently freed Black Americans looked for better opportunities,
to put it mildly.

In The Great Migration
thousands of Black Americans from
the Rural South moved to the Urban North
starting as early as the 1890s.

In addition to the devastation caused by the US Civil War
and Union General Sherman's devastating March to the Sea,
this great migration was accelerated by the Boll Weevil Blight
which ruined cotton crops in the 1890s, further depressing the economy of the Southern States.

Are you looking all this up?

The greatest influx of immigrants to the North was during the years 1910 to 1930
with many arriving in the Harlem neighbourhood of New York City.
Renovation projects in metropolitan New York pushed additional residents to Harlem.

(See?  Everything is part of some kind of domino effect.  That's why the subject of history is so complex.)

Anyway, this environment brought these great minds together and we still benefit from the tremendous artistic output by Black writers, poets and musicians
The decade of the 1920's  was originally referred to as The New Negro Movement, but we now call it
The Harlem Renaissance

Another Malapropism

...that's the truth, the whole truth.  The unvanquished truth

From Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick

Braggadocio vs Brag

Braggadocio is:

A) a community in Missouri

B) a character in Spencer's play  The Faerie Queen

C) a bragging style of rap music

yep, all of the above

but braggadocio most often means to lie in a cocky way about something that's not true,
giving you a neat way to call someone both a braggart and a liar at the same time

The origin is
1) the word brag (from around the year 1450)
2) Year 1590 - 1596 the name of the character in the play "Faerie Queen" was so named
    from the word brag + occio from the Italian meaning "something large of its kind"

Malapropisms

Malapropisms are so named for Mrs Malaprop in a 1775 play The Rivals
The word malaprop makes a person think of mal=bad and aprop = appropriate

a Malapropism substitutes an incorrect word for another word of similar pronunciation.

sometimes the mistaken word interpreted simultaneously by the brain gives a double meaning:
"you should be careful not to jump to confusions" (instead of conclusions)

Baseball player Yogi Berra was prone to malapropisms, actor Mike Smith (who said "it's got lots of installation in it (instead of insulation) and more recently George Bush, who said
(among other slips) "we need an energy bill that encourages more consumption (instead of conservation)

Also known as Dogberryisms named for the Shakespearean character Dogberry in
Much Ado about Nothing who said such things as
"our watch, sir, have indeed comprehended two auspicious persons" (apprehended two suspicious persons)

Solecism

MEANING 1) 

"you is what you is"

is an example of a solecism
using nonstandard grammar,often intended to make a statement of rebellion.

"curiouser and curiouser"  

Is an example of a solecism
spoken by Alice in Wonderland reflecting how absurd she found her situation

MEANING 2)

A solecism is also just a mistake--a slip, faux pas, or oversight

"an artist has got to get acquainted with himself 

just as much as he can. 

It is no easy job 

as it is not a present-day habit of humanity"

From  My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok

Rembrandt gets the prize for the most (62) self portraits.  

(the ancient equivalent of a selfie.)

But he also painted 600 paintings (plus drawings and etchings)

"A fat mattress of clouds"

from McNally's Secret by Lawrence Sanders