The social, cultural, and artistic explosion known as the Harlem Renaissance was the first time in American history that a large body of literary, art and musical work was contributed by African-American writers and artists. Countee Cullen was at the epicenter of this new-found surge in literature. Cullen considered poetry to be raceless. However, his poem "The Black Christ" took on a racial theme, exploring a black youth convicted of a crime he did not commit. "But shortly after in the early 1930s, his work was almost completely of racial subject matter. His poetry instead focused on idyllic beauty and other classic romantic subjects."