Stephen_Murray's Full Review: Steven Watson - The Harlem Renaissance: Hub of Afr...
Not only is this the best short overview of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, it is one of the best succinct accounts of an "artistic circle" from any time or place. The choice of illustrations -- photos of the principal figures, paintings, cover art, maps, and diagrams of who was tied to whom -- is excellent. He knows the (large) literature by and about the Harlem Renaissance, draws from it judiciously, adds some original insights and writes clearly.
All this and many pithy quotes from those who were there then and various lists in the margins of a mere 180 pages (there are another 44 pages of "apparatus" including an index, a chronology, notes for the quotations, photo credits, and a list of additional suggested readings.
Steven Watson (who more recently wrote a book about the first production of Virgil Thompson's opera Four Saints in Three Acts; with a libretto by Gertrude Stein and an all-black cast) focuses on the writers who emerged during the 1920s (Jean Toomer and Claude McKay had tenuous connections to the circle that dubbed itself the "nIggerati" led by Wallace Thurman, and including Langston Hughes, Zora Neal Hurston, Richard Bruce Nugent, Eric Walrond, Rudolph Fisher, and Countee Cullen).
He also explains their relationship to their elders who were gatekeepers (notably Alain Locke and W. E. B. Du Bois, rival adjudicators of what about African American life should be portrayed) and to various white patrons, the best known of whom was Carl Van Vechten (who photographed most every Harlem celebrity, tirelessly promoted them, and also wrote NIgger Heaven, the title of which was as controversial then as it is now). In that her fortune came from hair-straightening products, the main black patroness, A'Lelia Walker, was a heavily compromised champion of black pride (après la lettre).
Painter Aaron Douglas and sculptor Richmond Barthé were also involved with the writers. Then there was the music. The nightclubs patronized by white folks from downtown mostly excluded blacks except on stage. Thus, the writers and painters had few chances to see the performances of such legendary figures as Josephine Baker, W. C. Handy, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Alberta Hunter, Mr. Bojangles (Bill Robinson), Fats Waller, Bessie Smith, Ethel Waters, many of whom went on to downtown (Broadway) successes.
As I think I have indicated, there was a lot going on. Watson explains something of the socioeconomic bases as well as the inter-relations of white patrons (buyers of books and magazines as well as those providing cash subsidies to chosen artists), the themes of Harlem Renaissance work, and more. And he does it in 180 pages, of which I estimate a third are pictures.
Along with The Portable Harlem Renaissance Reader, edited by David Levering Lewis. I can highly recommend this as an introduction to the major figures of a legendary epoch and to their inter-relations. For the visual arts of the Harlem Renaissance, Rhapsodies in Black, the catalog of an exhibit organized in England that toured the US a few years ago is very good, and a more expansive book about the period that I would also highly recommend is David Levering Lewis's When Harlem Was In Vogue. And Wallace Thurman's novel about the "NIggerati Manor," Infants of the Spring provides a view from inside.
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