Home in Harlem, New York: Lessons from the Harlem Renaissance Writers Author(S): Sidney H

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Home in Harlem, New York: Lessons from the Harlem Renaissance Writers Author(S): Sidney H Home in Harlem, New York: Lessons from the Harlem Renaissance Writers Author(s): Sidney H. Bremer Source: PMLA, Vol. 105, No. 1, Special Topic: African and African American Literature (Jan., 1990), pp. 47-56 Published by: Modern Language Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/462342 Accessed: 27-03-2017 16:13 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms Modern Language Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to PMLA This content downloaded from 76.77.171.74 on Mon, 27 Mar 2017 16:13:42 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Sidney H. Bremer Home in Harlem, New York: Lessons from the Harlem Renaissance Writers SIDNEYH. BREMER earned A*.m erica's mainstream cultur e has long lodged "home" in the her doctorate in English from mythic permanency of a rural cottage. There the kinship circle, sense of belonging, and implicit responsibilities that define Stanford University and "home" are tended by a purely white, motherly wife. As an imaginary teaches literatures and cultures bulwark against industrial urbanization, this mythic image of home of the United States at the in- took shape in the nineteenth century's mass periodicals. It later terdisciplinary University of expanded into the small-town Main Streets of Hollywood movies and Wisconsin, Green Bay, where the privatized suburban fantasies of television. It is an unrealistic, even she is associate professor of Ur- dangerously deceptive image, as many American authors-from Mark Twain and Charles Chesnutt to Sinclair Lewis to Joyce Carol Oates- ban and Public Affairs, Liter- have shown. Few of us are wived and familied white men commuting ature, and Women's Studies. to some privileged space apart. Even for those few, the cottage front She has published essays on hides the complexities of familial and social relations. The rural rooted- women as characters and ness of our mythic home ignores, moreover, the predominantly mo- authors in literature, on urban bile, urban realities of modern American life. Indeed, "movement over literature and its biographical a variety of county" may well be Americans"'largest common back- and cultural contexts, and es- ground," as a wise though little remembered Chicago novelist named Edith Wyatt affirmed as early as 1914; and most of us have been doing pecially on the gender differ- our moving and working and living in cities since the 1930 census. ences in turn-of-the-century If we are to feel at home in our changing urban world, we need Chicago literature. "Home in images of home that are more fitting to our experience-not for rea- Harlem, New York" is part of sons of sentiment but in order to feel realistically grounded, belong- her book-length study, tenta- ing, and responsible there. We need specifically urban images of home tively entitled Urban Inter- to be able to see ourselves at home with-even when at odds with- our own experience, with others, and with our dreams in cities. First, sections, on the informing we need to know the city as a physical home place, with the power to influence of gender, ethnicity, evoke sensory memory, what William Faulkner calls the "memory and region on United States [that] knows before knowing remembers" (111). Second, we need to authors' urban experiences and recognize that, like it or not, we belong to urban home communities- imagery. those families and neighborhoods and birthright groups with which we share our history, images, social circumstances, and physical experience. Third, we need to be able to find a symbolic home for our aspirations in the city, as F. Scott Fitzgerald once could in Edmund 47 This content downloaded from 76.77.171.74 on Mon, 27 Mar 2017 16:13:42 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 48 Home in Harlem, New York Wilson's book-lined New York apartment. ness, Harlem also had its own cultural institutions But that homelike "apartment [where] life was -political organizations, clubs and cafes and mellow and safe" was a city whose loss Fitzgerald theaters, newspapers, and places of worship. Like lamented in his 1932 essay "My Lost City" (25). the Lower East Side, it was touted as a "city within Just when cities were becoming de facto home for a city" (Cahan 51; White 187; see also Ellison 122). most Americans, much American literature Like Jewish immigrants from the pogroms of despaired of an urban "home." It conceded to eth- Eastern Europe, too, Harlem's migrants from the nic minority writers the imaginative home that Jim Crow South viewed the city as a "promised Walt Whitman had offered for mobile urban land"-as Jewish American Mary Antin also Americans when he "loved well those cities" of proclaimed Boston in the title of her 1912 autobi- Manhattan and Brooklyn, with their sensory vi- ography and as Claude Brown, a second- tality, embracing crowds, and visionary unities, in generation Harlem autobiographer, confirmed "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" (160-62). The wake of even in 1965 in Manchild in the Promised Land. World War i swamped the Progressive dream of a Brown referred to that vision with some conscious "civic family" that turn-of-the-century Chicago's irony, however. For Harlem's African Americans, residential writers like Henry Blake Fuller, Edith like the Jews before them, were also subject to con- Wyatt, and Elia Peattie had shared with Jane Ad- tinuing minority exclusions-not only from dams (Bremer 39). It also upset the thrust toward American society's daily goods and powers but realistic comprehension and technological prog- also from such common dreams as the sentimen- ress that had mitigated the newcomer's reaction to tal, rural-cottage image of home. So they were the city's strangeness in turn-of-the-century works predisposed to a critical perspective on the domi- by William Dean Howells, Theodore Dreiser, Up- nant cultural values that World War i had bank- ton Sinclair, Henry James, and others. Only the rupted. Indeed, as in Jewish American literature, latter group's alienating images survived in the a strong tension between hope and oppression Euro-American vision of the living-dead megalop- grounds the Harlem Renaissance vision of urban olis-its physical landscape reduced to a "valley neighborhood-ghetto as a home away from home. of ashes," its society and psyches to grotesque The writers of the Harlem Renaissance were an "fragmentation," and its dreams to "gruesomely extremely mobile crew, who felt joined, not es- preserved" artifacts and mass-produced cliches tranged, by their wanderings, because they were (Fitzgerald, Great Gatsby 23; Dos Passos, qtd. in part of the great migration of black people to the Wagner 63; Wharton 50; West). The megalopoli- urban Northeast around World War i. Collectively tan world epitomized by these images of Greater they developed a vision of an urban home that was New York offers no home to the human body, so- at once an organic place, a birthright community, cial spirit, or soul. and a cultural aspiration. In all three of these But our literature does include an alternative dimensions, the vitality of their home reached out stream of urban imagery. During those same even across continents joined in oppression. And megalopolitan 1920s, some of New York's most Harlem, New York, their capital city within a city, powerful ethnic minority writers bravely claimed was the center. Whether or not they happened to the city-at least, their neighborhood microcosm be living there at any particular time, the Harlem of the city-as a home for the transient outcasts Renaissance writers regarded Harlem as their pri- of American society. Like the Jewish immigrants mary, symbolic home. Thus their Harlem focused crowded into the Lower East Side before them, an exemplary attempt to make a home for mod- Harlem's African American newcomers con- ern urban transients. ' Their lives and works tried stituted a critical mass large enough to sustain a Harlem's strengths as well as its limitations as subculture and to achieve high visibility. Harlem, home place, community, and aspiration. Their too, had its own cultural resources of language, Harlem Renaissance was a civic, as well as an aes- folkways, and ritual aesthetic forms. Although thetic, enterprise. seriously compromised by poverty, undependable Nearly all the Harlem Renaissance writers were white patronage, and a colonized color conscious- urban wanderers. Even those who were raised in This content downloaded from 76.77.171.74 on Mon, 27 Mar 2017 16:13:42 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Sidney H. Bremer 49 small towns came to Harlem via other cities- Indeed, Harlem's symbolic status knew few cir- Northerner W. E. B. Du Bois from the faculty of cumstantial limits. Wherever they might be, the Atlanta University, Southerner Zora Neale Hur- wandering citizens of Harlem felt its presence ston from service as a manicurist in Washington, whenever they came into contact with its charac- DC, Westerner Wallace Thurman from the post teristic textures, persons, or arts. Distance could office in Los Angeles. Young Langston Hughes ar- even increase African Americans' sense of iden- rived from Cleveland, Nella Larsen from Chicago, tification with Harlem, as a place to go to or as- Rudolph Fisher from Washington, DC, Dorothy pire to or think toward.
Recommended publications
  • Garland's Million: the Radical Experiment To
    October 14, 2019 To: ABF Legal History Seminar From: John Fabian Witt Re: October 23 seminar Thanks so much for looking at my drafts and coming to my session! I’m thrilled to have been invited to Chicago. I am attaching chapters 5 and 8 from my book-in-progress, tentatively titled Garland’s Million: The Radical Experiment to Save American Democracy. The book is the story of an organization known informally as the Garland Fund or formally as the American Fund for Public Service: a philanthropic foundation established in 1922 to give money to liberal and left causes. The Fund figures prominently in the history of civil rights lawyering because of its role setting in motion the early stages of the NAACP’s litigation campaign that led a quarter-century later to Brown v. Board of Education. I hope you will be able to get some sense of the project from the crucial chapters I’ve attached here. These chapters come from Part 2 of the book. Part 1 focuses on Roger Baldwin, the founder of the ACLU and the principal energy behind the Fund. Part 2 (including the chapters here) focuses on James Weldon Johnson, who ran the NAACP during the 1920s and was a board member of the Fund. Parts 3 and 4 turn respectively to Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (a labor radical on the board) and Felix Frankfurter, who in the 1920s served as a key outside consultant and counsel to the Fund. To set the stage, readers have learned in Part 1 about Baldwin as a disillusioned reformer, who advocated progressive programs like the initiative and referendum only to see direct democracy produce a wave of white supremacist initiatives.
    [Show full text]
  • Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
    Tuesday through Friday, March 14 –17, 2017, 8pm Saturday, March 18, 2017, 2pm and 8pm Sunday, March 19, 2017, 3pm Zellerbach Hall Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Alvin Ailey, Founder Judith Jamison, Artistic Director Emerita Robert Battle , Artistic Director Masazumi Chaya, Associate Artistic Director COMPANY MEMBERS Hope Boykin Jacquelin Harris Akua Noni Parker Jeroboam Bozeman Collin Heyward Danica Paulos Sean Aaron Carmon Michael Jackson, Jr. Belen Pereyra Elisa Clark Megan Jakel Jamar Roberts Sarah Daley Yannick Lebrun Samuel Lee Roberts Ghrai DeVore Renaldo Maurice Kanji Segawa Solomon Dumas Ashley Mayeux Glenn Allen Sims Samantha Figgins Michael Francis McBride Linda Celeste Sims Vernard J. Gilmore Rachael McLaren Constance Stamatiou Jacqueline Green Chalvar Monteiro Jermaine Terry Daniel Harder Fana Tesfagiorgis Matthew Rushing, Rehearsal Director and Guest Artist Bennett Rink, Executive Director Major funding for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts; the New York State Council on the Arts; the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; American Express; Bank of America; BET Networks; Bloomberg Philanthropies; BNY Mellon; Delta Air Lines; Diageo, North America; Doris Duke Charitable Foundation; FedEx; Ford Foundation; Howard Gilman Foundation; The William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust; The Prudential Foundation; The SHS Foundation; The Shubert Foundation; Southern Company; Target; The Wallace Foundation; and Wells Fargo. These performances are made possible, in part, by Corporate
    [Show full text]
  • Freedom Fighter: Juanita Jackson Mitchell
    The Great Freedom Fighter . From Labor to Reward JUANITA JACKSON MITCHELL, daughter of Keiffer Albert Jackson and Lillie May Jackson, was born on January 2, 1913, in Hot Springs, Arkansas. She was their second child, following Virginia; the other children were Marion (deceased), and Bowen Keiffer. Educated in Baltimore's public schools, Juanita graduated from Douglass High School with honors in 1927. She subse• quently attended Morgan College and the University of Penn• sylvania, graduating from there with a Bachelor of Education cum laude in 1931. In 1935, she received her Master of Sociology from the University of Pennsylvania, and in 1950 her Bachelor of Laws from the Maryland School of Law. While in graduate school, she led a student demonstration that desegregated the University's dormitories in 1935. From 11946 to 1950 while at• tending the University of Maryland Law School, she served on the editorial board of the Law Review. The Mitchells She was admitted to practice law before the Court of Appeals Juanita, Keiffer, Marion, of Maryland, the United States District Court for the District of Lillie May and Virginia Maryland, the United States Supreme Court. In the true spirit of a freedom fighter, Juanita in 1931, co-founded the City-Wide Young People's Forum as a vehicle for raising the consciousness of Baltimore's downtrodden Black masses. One of the forum's primary responsibilities was finding jobs for Blacks during the depression. That activity was an early highlight of her life-long career as a civil rights leader. In 1933, she was a youth delegate to the NAACP's Second Amenia Conference at the "Troutbeck" estate of Joel E.
    [Show full text]
  • Proquest Dissertations
    Race-crossings at the crossroads of African American travel in the Caribbean Item Type text; Dissertation-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Alston, Vermonja Romona Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 03/10/2021 22:46:02 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/280506 RACE-CROSSINGS AT THE CROSSROADS OF AFRICAN AMERICAN TRAVEL IN THE CARIBBEAN by VERMONJA ROMONA ALSTON Copyright © Vermonja Romona Alston 2004 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the PROGRAM IN COMPARATIVE CULTURAL AND LITERARY STUDIES In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2004 UMI Number: 3131583 Copyright 2004 by Alston, Vermonja Romona All rights reserved. INFORMATION TO USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleed-through, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMI UMI Microform 3131583 Copyright 2004 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code.
    [Show full text]
  • Beinecke Library Annual Report 2018-2019
    BEINECKE ILLUMINATED No. 5, 2018–19 Annual Report Front cover: Rachel Kaufman ’19 at 2019 Yale Students Poetry Reading on the mezzanine Back cover: Professor Jennifer Raab and students in History of Art 705: Representing the American West Contributors The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library acknowledges the following for their assistance in creating and compiling the content in this annual report. Articles written by, or adapted from, Michael Morand, with editorial assistance from Tubyez Cropper, Dante Haughton, Eva Knaggs, and David Baker. Statistics compiled by Matthew Beacom, Ellen Doon, Moira Fitzgerald, Eric Friede, Audrey Pearson, Allison Van Rhee, and the staff of Technical Services, Access Services, and Administration. Photographs of Beinecke Library events, exhibitions, and materials by Tubyez Cropper and Michael Morand; photograph of library staff by Bill Landis; Windham-Campbell Prize image from YaleNews; Bollingen Prize winner photograph from University of Pennsylvania. Design by Rebecca Martz, Office of the University Printer. Copyright ©2019 by Yale University facebook.com/beinecke @beineckelibrary twitter.com/BeineckeLibrary beinecke.library.yale.edu subsCribe to library news subscribe.yale.edu BEINECKE ILLUMINATED No. 5, 2018–19 Annual Report 4 From the Director 5 Exhibitions and Events Fall Exhibition Explored How Photos Shaped Views of North American West Exhibition Invited Bibliomaniacs to Go Mad for Books Glamour Abounded in Summer 2019 Exhibitions Biography Symposium Showcased Power of Library for Creative Research
    [Show full text]
  • To View Or Download the Exhibition Checklist Please Click Here
    GATHER OUT OF STAR-DUST The Harlem Renaissance & The Beinecke Library JANUARY 13 – APRIL 17, 2017 AT YALE UNIVERSITY Melissa Barton, Curator of Drama and Prose, Yale Collection of American Literature This exhibition was organized with the assistance of Olivia Hillmer Additional support provided by Phoenix Alexander GRD ’18 and Lucy Caplan GRD ’18 Additional commentary by Professor Robert B. Stepto THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE: 6. Marcus Garvey. An Appeal to the Soul of White America. New York: A CHRONOLOGY Universal Negro Improvement Association [?], 1923. 7. Window card for national tour of The Emperor Jones, 1921. A timeline of African American culture from 1910-1940, while 8. Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake. “I’m Just Wild About Harry,” in far from comprehensive, o≠ers a sense of the abundance, vari- Shu≠le Along. New York: M. Witmark and Sons, 1921. ety, and texture of documentation for this period available in the 9. Jessie Fauset. Letter to Langston Hughes, January 16, 1921. James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection. The chronologi- Langston Hughes Papers. cal arrangement gives rise to interesting juxtapositions, such as 10. Claude McKay. Harlem Shadows. New York: Harcourt, Brace, and the appearance in the same year—1917—of Ridgley Torrence’s Company, 1922. “Negro plays” on Broadway and the N.A.A.C.P.’s Negro Silent 11. James Weldon Johnson. “A Real Poet.” New York Age, May 20, 1922. Protest Parade, or the emergence of Jean Toomer with Cane in 12. Claude McKay’s membership card for the Russian Communist the same year—1923—as the Charleston. Well-known events Party, March 1923.
    [Show full text]
  • Poetry Recordings in the Classroom
    APPENDIX A LEARNING TO LISTEN: POETRY RECORDINGS IN THE CLASSROOM his study has been dedicated to the premise that listening to poetry, espe- Tcially in the poet’s voice, should be integral to scholarship in modern poet- ics and reception. Audio recordings and other traces of the aural/oral life of a poem belong among the “texts” that scholars research, analyze, edit, and dis- seminate. By that same token, they belong in the classroom as more than ancil- lary materials or adjuncts to the anthology. In this appendix, I provide the syllabus for a course on poetic sound and voice in which audio plays a central role. In effect, this course is a seminar on the questions raised when we approach poetry as a speech act, when we listen to it as crafted sound, and when we par- ticipate in it as a situated performance. Roughly, the course mirrors the design of Recorded Poetry and Poetic Reception, insofar as it begins with varieties of poetry “in first person” and “in another’s voice,” then modulates to considerations of studio and stage performances as they are captured on record and in a poet’s reception. While “Poetic Voices” is a specialized seminar, the course’s guiding principles and sample lessons are readily transferable to the general modernist survey. All of the recordings I include are available commercially or from libraries, except when the lesson involves students in archival research. As a context for the syl- labus, I want to describe in detail an essential pedagogical principle of the course and two of the course assignments that involve research in the audio archive.
    [Show full text]
  • James Weldon Johnson: in Quest of an Afrocentric Tradition for Black American Literature
    Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1972 James Weldon Johnson: in Quest of an Afrocentric Tradition for Black American Literature. Arthenia Bates Millican Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Millican, Arthenia Bates, "James Weldon Johnson: in Quest of an Afrocentric Tradition for Black American Literature." (1972). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 2229. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/2229 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact gradetd@lsu.edu. INFORMATION TO USERS This dissertation was produced from a microfilm copy of the original document. While the most advanced technological means to photograph and reproduce this document have been used, the quality is heavily dependent upon the quality of the original submitted. The following explanation of techniques is provided to help you understand markings or patterns which may appear on this reproduction. 1. The sign or "target" for pages apparently lacking from the document photographed is "Missing Page(s)". If it was possible to obtain the missing page(s) or section, they are spliced into the film along with adjacent pages. This may have necessitated cutting thru an image and duplicating adjacent pages to insure you complete continuity. 2. When an image on the film is oblitpreted with a large round black mark, it is an indication that the photographer suspected that the copy may have moved during exposure and thus cause a blurred image.
    [Show full text]
  • MARCH 2017 2016/2017 Note from the BOARD of DIRECTORS PRESIDENT OFFICERS Lisa Specht Karen Kay Platt & CEO Board Chair Secretary Robert J
    Robert Battle, Artistic Director Masazumi Chaya, Associate Artistic Director Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s Yannick Lebrun. Photo by Andrew Eccles. MARCH 2017 2016/2017 Note from the BOARD OF DIRECTORS PRESIDENT OFFICERS Lisa Specht Karen Kay Platt & CEO Board Chair Secretary Robert J. Abernethy Susan M. Wegleitner Michael J. Pagano Treasurer Vice Chairs Lisa Whitney Rachel S. Moore Assistant Treasurer and s the world appears to grow more chaotic every day, I hear from so many President and Chief Chief Financial Officer people who are in search of an outlet to express what they are thinking Executive Officer and feeling. That’s among the many reasons why I am so pleased we can come together to experience Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater as part of Glorya MEMBERS AT LARGE ^ Leave of Absence Kaufman Presents Dance at The Music Center. Now more than ever, we need William H. Mattie McFadden- to hear from all voices and provide a platform for dialogue. Ailey offers that Ahmanson Lawson^ opportunity and so much more. Wallis Annenberg Diane G. Medina Jill Baldauf Elizabeth Michelson It will be 59 years ago this month that Alvin Ailey and a group of young, Darrell Brown Darrell D. Miller black modern dancers performed for the first time as members of Alvin Ailey Kimaada M. Brown Cindy Miscikowski Dannielle Campos Shelby Notkin American Dance Theater at New York’s 92nd Street Y. That performance Greg T. Geyer Rory Pullens forever impacted both modern dance and American culture. Fast forward Lisa Gilford Max Ramberg to today, and the company, which has been recognized by U.S.
    [Show full text]
  • “The Harlem Renaissance: Rebirth of African-American Arts” Westbury Arts Remembers James Weldon Johnson 1871-1938
    “The Harlem Renaissance: Rebirth of African-American Arts” Westbury Arts Remembers James Weldon Johnson 1871-1938 Poet, Novelist, Historian, Diplomat, Lawyer, Civil Rights Leader, Editor, Educator, and Songwriter Portrait of James Weldon Johnson by Laura Wheeler Waring National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of the Harmon Foundation James Welton Johnson was truly a “renaissance man,” a person of broad talents and ability, who lived a life that was defined by his accomplishments. Born in Jacksonville, Florida in 1871, Johnson grew up in a middle-class home. His father worked as a headwaiter in a hotel and his mother was a teacher at Jacksonville’s segregated Stanton School, where he also attended. James grew up in cultured and economically secure surroundings that were unusual among Southern Black families at the time. Under his mother’s guidance he developed a love of reading, poetry, and music. Johnson attended and graduated from Atlanta University in 1894 with a bachelor of arts (BA) degree. He returned to the Stanton School as its Principal and at the same time began studying law. In 1898 he became the first African American lawyer in the state of Florida. Working both as a principal and lawyer, he found time to write poetry and songs. Johnson, collaborated with his brother, John Rosamond Johnson, in setting one of his poems to music. The resulting song, “Lift Every Voice and Sing” is known today as “Black National Anthem.” Explaining how the song took on a life of its own, he wrote: “A group of young men in Jacksonville, Florida, arranged to celebrate Lincoln’s birthday in 1900.
    [Show full text]
  • James Weldon Johnson's Groundwork for an African
    Race Literature, Modernism, and Normal Literature: James Weldon Johnson’s Groundwork for an African American Literary Renaissance, 1912–20 Michael Nowlin Modernism/modernity, Volume 20, Number 3, September 2013, pp. 503-518 (Article) Published by Johns Hopkins University Press DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/mod.2013.0058 For additional information about this article https://muse.jhu.edu/article/525169 [ Access provided at 27 Sep 2021 01:37 GMT with no institutional affiliation ] Race Literature, Modernism, and Normal Literature: James Weldon Johnson’s Groundwork for an African American Literary Renaissance, 1912–20 Michael Nowlin MODERNISM / modernity VOLUME TWENTY, NUMBER THREE, PP 503–518. © 2013 I’ll recommend a book or two on form—etc.; however, JOHNS HOPKINS you should not pay too much attention to conventional UNIVERSITY PRESS form; your forte is your unconventionality. Still, there must be form. There can be no real art without form. But form for you does not mean lines measured off into lengths of just so many feet in each, with an anticipated rhyme at the endings. James Weldon Johnson to Anne Spencer Michael Nowlin is Professor of English at the University of Among the congratulatory letters James Weldon Johnson Victoria in Canada. He received upon the New Year’s Day publication in the New York is the author of F. Scott Times of “Fifty Years” (1913), his poem commemorating the Fitzgerald’s Racial Angles anniversary of emancipation, none so uncannily hit on the ambi- and the Business of Liter- tion underlying it than that of novelist Charles Chesnutt, who ary Greatness (2007), and editor of the had been one of black America’s great literary hopes a decade Broadview editions of earlier.1 In Johnson he saw a worthy successor, someone to whom F.
    [Show full text]
  • REVOLT, THEY SAID. 1 a Project by Andrea Geyer
    REVOLT, THEY SAID. 1 a project by Andrea Geyer INSTALLATION MUSEUM OF MODERN ART NEW YORK Ida York Abelman (1908–2002) was a highly regarded Social OCTOBER 16th - NOVEMBER 27th 2015 Realist, known for the graphic work that she produced for the various Federal Art Projects in New York during the Depression. BIOGRAPHIES FOR DRAWING Her etchings and lithographs of the 1930s depict the difficult living conditions endured by many. Abelman also completed two murals for the Federal Art Projects: Lewiston Milestones in Lewiston, Illinois, and Booneville Beginnings in Booneville, Indiana, both extant. Her art training included the National Academy of Design, Grand Central Art School, College of the City of New York, and Hunter College, all in New York City. She was a member of the American Artists Congress and exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum Louise Abbéma (1853–1927) was an artist known for her of American Art, and the Berkshire Museum, Massachusetts, portraits of notable figures of the Belle Époque, including among other venues. Her work is the collections of numerous Emperor Dom Pedro II of Brazil, architect Charles Garnier, and museums as well as the Library of Congress. actress Sarah Bernhardt. Bernhardt and Abbéma were lovers and exhibited artworks together at the 1893 World’s Columbian Gertrude Abercrombie (1909–1977) was an American Exposition in Chicago. Abbéma was a regular exhibitor at the painter. She spent much of her childhood traveling Europe with Paris Salon and regular contributor to the journals Gazette des her parents who toured with an opera company. The outbreak of Beaux-Arts and L’Art.
    [Show full text]