Harlem Renaissance refers to the flowering of African American cultural and intellectual life during the 1920s and 1930s. Centered in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City, the movement impacted urban centers throughout the United States. Across the cultural spectrum, literature, drama, music, visual art, dance and also in the realm of social thought, sociology, historiography, philosophy, artists and intellectuals found new ways to explore the historical experiences of black America and the contemporary experiences of black life in the urban North.