THE WORLD'S FIRST ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE


In September 2003, Facts On File of New York City published the worlds first ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE by authors Aberjhani and Sandra L. West. This momentous event did more than help to insure the ongoing celebrations focused on that early twentieth century explosion of cultural creativity known as the Harlem Renaissance. It also helped to place the movement within its rightful context as one of the greater triumphs of both African-American creative genius and American spiritual democratic vision.
Taking place as it did from the 1920s to the 1940s (though some stop at the 1930s) the Harlem Renaissance marked a period in African-American history when the rhymes of poets, the images created by painters, and those worlds constructed inside novels and upon the stage could not afford to limit themselves to pleasurable fantasies or uncaring indulgence. Government-sanctioned racism, the social and political oppression of women, war ripping across the planet, and daily adjustments to increasingly sophisticated technology meant that creative works by inspired thinkers needed to stand for something in order to make some kind of difference in the world.
Less than a century before the Harlem Renaissance, the act of reading or writing could cost an African-American his or her life. During the Harlem Renaissance, reading and writing became principle methods that often saved black lives and raised white consciousness. Therefore, what one read and what one wrote was always significant.
Rap music, the blues, jazz, gospel, classic black comedy, and classic black theatre were all products of the Harlem Renaissance. So were the poems of Gwendolyn Brooks and Langston Hughes, the films of Oscar Micheaux and Paul Robeson, the novels of Zora Neale Hurston and Claude McKay, the art of Miguel Covarrubias and Elizabeth Catlett, and the teachings of Carter Godwin Woodson and W. E. B. Du Bois. With the traumatizing nightmare of American slavery now in the past and the shimmering vision of the American dream glowing in the future, the era was one like no other.
It may be said that the seed which gave life to the Harlem Renaissance was planted in the hearts and souls of more than a million people of African descent who made their way during the Great Migration to the neighborhood of Harlem in New York City. However, once that seed germinated and sprouted, it blossomed all over the world.

Aberjhani
Co-author of ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE
And author of I MADE MY BOY OUT OF POETRY

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

From Dream to Book: How I Wrote Dreams of the Immortal City Savannah

Image
Like many of the real-life characters in its pages, including me, the author, Dreams of the Immortal City Savannah is a survivor. It has endured several powerful hurricanes, withstood the terror of too many computer crashes to count, eluded theft, and dodged falling ceilings. The real miracle is the book not only survived these successions of turmoil but managed to steadily evolve with the addition of my artwork to the nonfiction stories. To appreciate how truly exceptional that is, please note that when I first began writing the book I did not consider myself a visual artist of any kind at all: not an amateur digital craftsman, acrylic stylist, photographer, or portraitist. I was the author of Songs from the Black Skylark zPed Music Player and co-author of Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance beginning a new literary adventure. Dreams of the Immortal City Savannah started with the experience of an actual dream in 1989. It had to do with a group of friends banding toge
Read more

The Year of James Baldwin Now in Full Classic Literary Swing (part 1) - by Aberjhani

Image
Author James Baldwin in St. Paul de Vence, France, 1976. (photo by Dmitri Kasterine) “It has always been much easier (because it has always seemed much safer) to give a name to the evil without than to locate the terror within. And yet, the terror within is far truer and far more powerful than any of our labels: the labels change, the terror is constant.” –James Baldwin, from  the essay Nothing Personal Members of New York City’s cultural arts community made a rare kind of decision earlier this year and the results of that decision continue to generate exceptional events and responses. They–– as in Columbia University School of the Arts, Harlem Stage, and New York Live Arts–– elected to observe The Year of James Baldwin from April 2014 until June 2015 in honor of the late iconoclastic African-American author’s 90th birthday August 2, 2014. Long before he died on December 1, 1987, millions came to recognize the indelible mark of Baldwin’s impact on, and the incredible depth
Read more

THE EXTRAORDINARY TALENT OF BEAUFORD DELANEY

Image
    This 1941 portrait of celebrated author James Baldwin, entitled “Dark Rapture,” is one of numerous masterworks created by the equally celebrated Harlem Renaissance artist Beauford Delaney (1902-1979). Delaney (whose brother Joseph, 1904-1991, was also an accomplished artist) enjoyed a remarkable career that spanned some five decades. That he was a visual artist whose creative aesthetics profoundly influenced the work of a major literary artist like James Baldwin is one indicator of how powerfully charged the creative energy of the Harlem Renaissance truly was. Aberjhani Co-author of ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE And the author of I MADE MY BOY OUT OF POETRY
Read more