On September 28, 1954, poet/playwright/activist Langston Hughes wrote to Ethelred Brown, the Jamaica-born founder of the Harlem Community Church, to inquire about his faith and the distinct beliefs his church kept for a series he was planning to write in the Chicago Defender. Become a Harlem Insider! Sign-Up for our Newsletter *Constant Contact Use. Please…
Countee Cullen May 30, 1903 – January 9, 1946, born as Coleman Rutherford, was an African American poet, author and scholar who was a leading figure in the Harlem Renaissance. (He pronounced his name “Coun-tay”, not “Coun-tee”.) Become a Harlem Insider! Sign-Up for our Newsletter *Constant Contact Use. Please leave this field blank.By submitting this form, you…
Arnaud “Arna” Wendell Bontemps October 13, 1902 – June 4, 1973 was a Harlem poet, novelist and librarian, and a noted member of the Harlem Renaissance. Become a Harlem Insider! Sign-Up for our Newsletter *Constant Contact Use. Please leave this field blank.By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails from: . You can revoke…
The Harlem Chamber Players and Chamber Music NY commissioned Jeffrey Scott to compose A Hug for Harlem for orator and orchestra especially for this concert. Become a Harlem Insider! Sign-Up for our Newsletter *Constant Contact Use. Please leave this field blank.By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails from: . You can revoke your consent…
In anticipation of the New York premiere of Charlie Parker’s YARDBIRD, a co-production between the Apollo Theater and Opera Philadelphia, the Apollo has announced today that it will offer related cultural events for the public at the legendary Theater as well as other community institutions. Become a Harlem Insider! Sign-Up for our Newsletter *Constant Contact…
Originally published in 1926, this periodical was re-issued in limited quantity in 1985. Harlemite by Wallace Thurman, Editor and contributor, it contains work by many of the best-known and most celebrated artists and writers of the Harlem Renaissance…. Become a Harlem Insider! Sign-Up for our Newsletter *Constant Contact Use. Please leave this field blank.By submitting…
By Souleo Visual artist, David Shrobe wishes that during his childhood in Harlem he had his own local children’s museum. As a fourth generation Harlemite he is finally seeing that dream manifested with the opening of Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling. Become a Harlem Insider! Sign-Up for our Newsletter *Constant Contact Use.…
Author/historian Greg Thomas continues his provocative look into the worlds of Alain Locke, Jean Toomer, Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston, four of the most innovative and original literary voices to emerge out of the Harlem of the 1920’s. Become a Harlem Insider! Sign-Up for our Newsletter *Constant Contact Use. Please leave this field blank.By…
By Robert Gibbons “By placing the writer in the context of human migrations, we can investigate some of the metaphysical aspects of a migrant writer’s life and work.” – Ha Jin Ha Jin was correct when he stated, “Writers often wrestle with the Aristotelian questions—to whom, as whom, and in whose interest does he write?”…
In 1942, cultural anthropologist and novelist Zora Neale Hurston listed the term “draped down” as one of several terms meaning “well-dressed” in a glossary of Harlem Renaissance -era slang. Become a Harlem Insider! Sign-Up for our Newsletter *Constant Contact Use. Please leave this field blank.By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails…
The Tastemaker explores the many lives of Carl Van Vechten, the most influential cultural impresario of the early twentieth century: a patron and dealmaker of the Harlem Renaissance, a photographer who captured the era’s icons, and a novelist who created some of the Jazz Age’s most salacious stories. Become a Harlem Insider! Sign-Up for our…
Ella Fitzgerald, 1940 In “White Mischief,” in this week’s issue of the New Yorker magazine, Kelefa Sanneh writes about Carl Van Vechten, a “New York hipster and literary gadabout” who was an unlikely champion of the African-American experience as it unfolded on the streets of Harlem in the nineteen-twenties. Become a Harlem Insider! Sign-Up for…
The Niggerati was the name used, with deliberate irony, by Wallace Thurman for the group of young African American artists and intellectuals of the Harlem Renaissance. “Niggerati” is a portmanteau of “nigger” and “literati”. Become a Harlem Insider! Sign-Up for our Newsletter *Constant Contact Use. Please leave this field blank.By submitting this form, you are…
James Langston Hughes was born February 1, 1902, in Joplin, Missouri. His parents divorced when he was a small child, and his father moved to Mexico. Become a Harlem Insider! Sign-Up for our Newsletter *Constant Contact Use. Please leave this field blank.By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails from: . You…
This fashion spotlight pays homage to the early 1920’s and the timeless fashion inspirations therein. Become a Harlem Insider! Sign-Up for our Newsletter *Constant Contact Use. Please leave this field blank.By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails from: . You can revoke your consent to receive emails at any time by…