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It’s a challenge for many historians to discern just when the Harlem Renaissance began and ended. No doubt that all of those who lived during that time, even in Harlem, didn’t know what they were experiencing. Imagine, realizing that one of the great African-American cultural movements was taking place in a time of extreme inequality and racial strife.  The era was most defined by artists like Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes, who, along with other poets, writers and musicians, led an energetic movement for Black artistic expression in the 1920s and 193os.

Duke Ellington performed regularly here, and Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday both launched their careers at the venue’s amateur night. You can say that the Apollo Theater was the ‘Motown’ before Motown. Today, the theater stands as an artifact on the bustling 125th street.

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