(Continued from Part 1) Setting aside for the moment debates about starting dates and end dates, the Harlem Renaissance is now among the most documented and studied events in world history with encyclopedias, biographies, major films, theater productions, and conferences all dedicated to sustaining its legacy and preserving its ideals. One contribution toward that effort, and which hopefully will see a makeover by the time of the event’s centennial, is Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance (Facts On File/Infobase Publishing) written by Sandra L. West with this author, and featuring a foreword by the late historian Clement Alexander Price. To write an award-winning volume on the phenomenal Harlem Renaissance is to do a lot more than simply author a good book about African-American history. Any sane author, though, would greatly appreciate the honors that have been bestowed upon Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance for some important reasons. Such recognition provides major validation of the years of labor required to create such a work; and, perhaps more importantly, they pay just tribute to the lives of the volume’s Jazz Age heroes. Considering that these heroes did what they did at a time when the United States witnessed its second resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan and other hate groups determined to exterminate African Americans (as well as Jews, Europeans, etc.) their accomplishments can never be over exaggerated. As Clement Alexander Price noted, “They wrote, painted, composed, argued, marched, and protested on a scale not seen, or accounted for, earlier.” To propose a volume in recognition of such individuals is also to find oneself humbled by the privilege of contributing to a global legacy established by the likes of: historian W.E.B. Du Bois, author Ralph Ellison, journalist Ida B. Wells-Barnett, jazz-master Duke Ellington, blues empress Bessie Smith, the great artist Romare Bearden, iconic poet Langston Hughes, renaissance man Paul Robeson, and many extraordinary others. These were the individuals who comprised African America’s “Greatest Generation.” Closing in on the 100th Anniversary As we approach the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the Harlem Renaissance, the gifts it showered upon humanity grow more and more relevant. The combination of music technology and musical genres it gave us in the 1920s and 1930s has since evolved into the cross-cultural powerhouse known as hip-hop. Seeds of tenuous literary beginnings have blossomed into strong ongoing traditions. Strategic protests against American apartheid, including the routine brutal lynching of African Americans, developed into a movement that eventually saw the election of the United States’ first African-American president: Barack Obama . The men and women of the Harlem Renaissance made up a kind of peaceful army of agents of change. Their creative genius as literary artists, musicians, visual artists, social theorists, educators, and political leaders helped move the world forward from times of war, oppression, and poverty, to times of greater political cooperation, racial equanimity, and economic growth. Much of the world is struggling with such issues at this very moment. And, also at this very moment, many of those who are creatively inclined are trying to help humanity weave its way around the bloodshed to more life-enhancing solutions. Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance has come to serve as one of the fundamental works for understanding the wider scope of the much-celebrated movement. Its publication helped to inspire further studies of the period and readers can find it cited in numerous biographies and reference books that were published later. It is a title that is much bigger than the authors who produced it and one that continues to add to the discovery, and re-discovery, of one of humanity’s great cultural heirlooms. Aberjhani About the AuthorSince 2003, Author-Poet Aberjhani has been among the among the major chroniclers of stories documenting the people, places, events, and trends associated with the Harlem Renaissance. He has accomplished this as: co-author of the critically-acclaimed Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance, author and editor of The Wisdom of W.E.B. Du Bois, a national cultural arts columnist for AXS Entertainment, originator of the 100th Anniversary of the Harlem Renaissance Initiative, and as an independent lecturer and writer.
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The celebration of major historic milestones is a favorite pastime in pretty much every culture. In the year, 2011, in the United States, many commemorated the 150th Anniversary of the American Civil War. That meant four year later, numerous festivities took place to observe the same anniversary for Jubilee Day, or the liberation of America’s slaves. In addition, countries around the world, also in 2011, honored the first United Nations-declared International Year for People of African Descent. Flip the calendar forward by almost a decade and we find ourselves approaching another major milestone: the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the Harlem Renaissance. This past decade has already seen celebrations of the centennials of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the National Urban League. Both organizations during the Harlem Renaissance played key roles–– as advocates for racial equality and as publishers of influential magazines that featured prize-winning works by now major authors like Dorothy West, Jean Toomer, and Zora Neale Hurston. Exactly When did the Harlem Renaissance Start? Marking the centennial of the NAACP and the National Urban League was relatively easy because records indicate clearly enough when they started. The actual beginning and ending of the Harlem Renaissance itself is not so well defined, though most scholars will say it lasted at least from 1920 to 1940. One of the great leaders of the Harlem Renaissance, James Weldon Johnson, noted in his book Black Manhattan, that the 1922 publication of Claude McKay’s book, Harlem Shadows, represented a major history-altering event. In Johnson’s words, “Claude McKay’s poetry was one of the great forces in bringing about what is often called the ‘Negro literary renaissance.’” But celebrated author Langston Hughes thought the history-making Broadway musical Shuffle Along kicked the Renaissance into high gear in 1921. As he put it, Shuffle Along “gave a scintillating send-off to that Negro vogue in Manhattan, which reached its peak just before the crash of 1929…” Still others will say it started with the end of World War I in 1918, or with the Great Migration of African Americans into industrial areas of the U.S. North and Midwest during the 1910s. Enter the New BlackNBA Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar co-wrote On the Shoulders of Giants, the acclaimed documentary on the Harlem Rens basketball team. From his highly-regarded perspective, the Harlem Renaissance never truly ended at all but simply changed names, at one point becoming the Civil Rights Movement, and at another the Black Arts Movement. In these ultra-techno days of the 21st century, some authors such as the late poet Diann Blakely ––taking their cue from the title of Evie Shockley’s poetry collection–– have adopted the term The New Black to describe the current wave of African-American author-poets who have won substantial recognition for their literary labors. A number of authors listed in this group are in fact well-established literary veterans. Blakely, a White southerner who sought to honor the positive influence of Blacks in her life, described the cultural significance of the years 2010 and 2011 as follows: “…A perfect microcosm of a great third flowering of African-American poetry in less than a century because of the great number of distinguished titles published, plus the awards and honors conferred upon African-American poets.” Blakely’s list of “New Black” poets was published on the Best American Poetry Series website. One should note that her assessment was a well-honed one informed by her own status as an award-winning author of three volumes of poetry, as a former editor for Antioch Review, and a nominating editor for the highly-acclaimed Pushcart Prize Series. NEXT: The Approaching 100th Anniversary of the Harlem Renaissance Part 2 by Aberjhani About AberjhaniSince 2003, Author-Poet Aberjhani has been among the among the major chroniclers of stories documenting the people, places, events, and trends associated with the Harlem Renaissance. He has accomplished this as: co-author of the critically-acclaimed Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance, author and editor of The Wisdom of W.E.B. Du Bois, a national cultural arts columnist for AXS Entertainment, originator of the 100th Anniversary of the Harlem Renaissance Initiative, and as an independent lecturer and writer. |
AberjhaniWinner of Choice Academic Title Award, Best History Book Award, and Notable Book of the Year Award for Encyclopedia of the Harlem Remaisssance. Archives
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