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What was Countee Cullen's influence on the Harlem Reniassance?

The Harlem Renaissance was a powerful movement in art, literature and music in the 1920's.  It had its roots in Harlem, NY, and it marked great achievements of African-Americans in this discipline.  Jazz saw its beginnings in this time, and provocative poetry and prose helped to identify and develop the dynamic culture of African-American community.  Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Duke Ellington are just a few of the names associated with this period.

Countee Cullen was the author of "Color", a 1925 book of poetry that established itself both as a expression of the times, as well as an expression of racial controversy.  The lyrics challenged the traditions of poetry with their sensuous nature.  Critics hailed the book, and Cullen's success helped to promote the work of his fellow African-American writers.

Besides addressing issues of race, in terms of the beauty of being black the one hand and the effects of racism on the ohter, Cullen also contributed to the Harlem Renaissance a sense of poetry as a tradition. That is, although his topics were often controversial, he wrote many of his poems in the form of the Shakespearean sonnet, and critics often discuss the influence of English Romantic poets, such as William Wordsworth and William Blake on his verse.  In this way, he brought a legitimacy to the Harlem Renaissance, providing it a piece of white culture, which he converted to his own radical use. His sonnet "The Black Christ," for example, which is written in a traditional sonnet form, usually reserved for topics of love or other elevated ideas, compares a black man who is lynched, hanging from a tree, to Christ: this mixture of irreverence toward and celebration of tradition provided a unique tone to the literature of the Harlem Renaissance.