BIO

Kaysyn Jones is a second-year student pursuing dual degrees in English and African American Studies with a minor in Museum Studies. She has a strong interest in African American history and its intersections with literary movements at the turn of the 20th century. She deeply enjoys research, reading, and art, and hopes to pursue an M.A. in History after completely her undergraduate degrees.

Moscow in the Harlem Renaissance

Abstract

Through a detailed analysis of two key African American writers who interacted with the Soviet Union during the Cold War period, this project hopes to identify the potential influence of Soviet interactions on the New Negro movement. Dorothy West and Langston Hughes were two of the notable Black artists and intellectuals prominent in the Harlem Renaissance who were invited to Moscow, Russia, in 1932 in order to film a Soviet-funded movie on racism in the United States.
By a thorough reading of both writers’ work and respective archival letters, I hope to indicate the role that Moscow played in shaping the ways in which Black intellectuals perceived the shifting economic position of Black America in the early 20th century.

Keywords: History, African American, Russia, Art, Literature