Renaissance House in Oak Bluffs is opening a branch in Harlem, offering the same retreat it offers here.

Renaissance House was founded in the memory of lifetime summer resident Helene Johnson, and Dorothy West, a legendary Vineyarder. Both writers were members of the Harlem Renaissance, an artistic movement in the 1920s and 30s. The writers were cousins who lived in Oak Bluffs; both lived in Harlem during the period of the Renaissance.

Helene Johnson once said that, “In order to write, a person must have time to sit at a window and stare.” That is the motto of Renaissance House on the Vineyard.

The New York city house is located half a block from the home of Langston Hughes. Writers will have “a room of my own” in one of the most stimulating and energetic cities in the world.

The program is the same: Writers sit in one room and write in silence for three hours a day. Then they take off on a guided tour of the city with museums, theatre and other places of interest. Then they will return to the house for dinner and a lecture from, in Harlem, a New York publisher, poet or editor.

There is, of course, Silent Wednesday, which in NYC is quite a challange.

The week is from Sunday to Saturday. The fees are: $700 weekly for a single room with dinner and $500 weekly for a double room with dinner. All tours, lectures, museums, theatre and activities are included.