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While chronicling the development of Teer's National Black Theatre of Harlem, this study explores the National Black Theatre's quest to develop a new black theory of acting. Teer's theory of performance was realized in a theater that combined elements of Pentacostal worship and African ritual, melding spontaneity from the performers, percussive music, singing, dancing, emotional expression from both actors and audience, and spectacle. The National Black Theatre's major achievement is the creation of an original art form that helps African Americans identify with their roots and invites spontaneous audience interaction. The study offers the National Black Theatre as a model African American community theater with valuable lessons for other theaters. The innovative methods of the National Black Theatre provide a model for enlightening and sensitizing audiences to cultural diversity. A pioneering institution, the National Black Theatre has proven itself over its 25 year history to be a cultural treasure and the quintessential theater in Harlem.(Bibliography, and index; foreword by Dr. Winona Fletcher, Professor Emeritus of Theater and Drama and Afro-American Studies; Founder of the National Black Theatre) ... Read more

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Black poets of the Harlem Renaissance (1920-1929) relied heavily upon traditional rhetorical devices, specifically irony and paradox. In contrast, their counterparts of the sixties adopted a more radical approach, employing instead street idiom and other modes of Black discourse. While the poets' strategies of the two periods differ, one element remained constant--the theme of protest. It is this similarity in purpose that marks the poetry of the Harlem Renaissance as a precursor of the revolutionary poetry of the sixties. ... Read more

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This book evaluates Carl Van Vechten's contribution to the Harlem Renaissance by presenting hitherto unexamined documentary evidence.The author draws on correspondence, manuscripts, personal memorabilia, and published materials to examine the origins and development of the period in the 1920s which was termed the "New Negro Renaissance."
In the later years of the 1920s, as a result of the success of his novel, Nigger Heaven, Carl Van Vechten received extensive publicity associating him with Harlem and with the Harlem Renaissance. The vehement controversy which the book aroused among African American critics and the black press, who attacked it, and the African American authors and friends of Van Vechten who defended it, obscured the true extent of Van Vechten's role in the Harlem Renaissance. This study sheds light on the Van Vechten controversy which has continued to the present day.
(Ph.D. dissertation, University of Minnesota, 1969; revised with new preface) ... Read more

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The Harlem Renaissance was a monumental cultural event in African American history.Yet, unlike its literary artists, the Harlem visual artists have not been recognized by modern art critics; only one tenth of canonical textsmention African American artists of the Harlem Renaissance. This interdisciplinary study examines the reasons for the exclusion of Harlem artists from these texts.
A number of factors contributed to Harlem's becoming the Negro metropolis of the world. By the mid 1920s, with the Jazz Age in full swing, Harlem was, according to James Weldon Johnson, "the great Mecca for the sight-seer, the pleasure-seeker, the curious, the adventurous, the enterprising, the ambitious and the talented of the whole Negro world." An influx of artists, writers, philosophers, educators, actors, immigrants from the south and voyeurs seeking to fuel their fantasies culminated in the cult of the primitive, with Harlem as its center. In Paris, Josephine Baker had already thrilled Parisian audiences with the seductive rhythm of her dans sauvage.At the Cotton Club in New York City, black stars entertained the white elite and blacks and Africa were in vogue as they had never been before.
This study shows how historical events affected the cultural milieu that became the Harlem Renaissance. Other current issues discussed are: the blues aesthetic, feminism, the black aesthetic, the African diasporic influence, issues of difference and otherness and primitivism. (Ph.D. dissertation, Florida State University, 1993, revised with new index) ... Read more

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The Street Stops Here offers a deeply personal and compelling account of a Catholic high school in central Harlem, where mostly disadvantaged (and often non-Catholic) African American males graduate on time and get into college. Interweaving vivid portraits of day-to-day school life with clear and evenhanded analysis, Patrick J. McCloskey takes us through an eventful year at Rice High School, as staff, students, and families make heroic efforts to prevail against society's expectations. McCloskey's riveting narrative brings into sharp relief an urgent public policy question: whether (and how) to save these schools that provide the only viable option for thousands of poor and working-class students--and thus fulfill a crucial public mandate. Just as significantly, The Street Stops Here offers invaluable lessons for low-performing urban public schools. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Life at an Inner City Catholic School
This book was an interesting exploration of life at Rice High School, an inner city all-boys Catholic school in New York City. The author honestly explored and presented principal Orlando Gober's tenure there and his unique political and educational beliefs.Several interesting asides also explore the history of Catholic education in the United States.

This book was a compelling and accurate portrayal of life at an inner city Catholic school. I highly recommend it to anyone involved in education.

The street stops here
This is a terrific book- well-written and thoughtful. I recommend it to anyone with an interest in urban education.

Could Have Been Much better
I am reading the book right now...and I'm liking it but I must say that I feel Patrick is writing in a way that is--a little racist.Personally, I cringe every time I read phrases like "the blacks" and "a school with lots of blacks".I feel the same way when people say "that neighborhood is where Jews live" or "Jews generally...", it just makes my skin crawl a bit.Whatever happened to "Black people" or "Black men" or "a predominately Black neighborhood".It just turned me off.That and the way that Patrick seemed determined to view Gober (and other Black men) in a negative light.For example, he seemed to think that being a Black Panther in the past was a totally bad thing, instead of discussing how the experiences Gober must have had growing up in a segregated America might have led him to feel a need to grow confidence in himself by being a member of a group that uplifts Black Americans (notice how that sounds better than "a group that uplifts blacks"?).He also incorrectly stated that minorities are not overrepresented in the military front lines. His site was to a newspaper article.Even a Heritage Foundation study found that Black Americans were overrepresented in the military (http://www.heritage.org/research/nationalsecurity/upload/85083_1.gif for those of you interested).He should have done his research before assuming that Gober was incorrect.

I also felt that he dwelt on the history of Catholic schools (including the history of Irish Catholics) a wee bit too much.Off topic.Isn't there some history that would be on topic he could have talked about...like, oh I don't know, the history of education for Black Americans?As a white woman, I found myself a little embarrassed in the tone of his book.I wish he would have thought some of his statements through before he wrote them.

Otherwise, an interesting book.

A Principal's Struggle to Guide Black Youth
I taught at Rice High School in 2003, right after Gober left, so I never met the guy. There were rumors about why he left, but nobody would say, except that he "had some conflict with the Brothers."

Rice High School is a good school. The students are on time and sober, there is clear penalty for misbehavior, and with that kind of foundation, it's easier to teach the kids. It's an all-boys school, which eliminates the need to "look cool". With no girls around to impress, there's less opportunity to lose face.

Gober was a tough Principal, but also a good one. A lot of these boys didn't have fathers, so he was probably the only man who they could really trust. The author explains the students' mentality toward the teachers; West Indian teachers were used to absolute authority, and had difficulty with the rowdy boys. Black American teachers soured quickly, because the boys wouldn't take orders from someone who was "from the streets." But the White teachers did okay; Back youth were used to White authority figures.

Still there were more complicated problems. The Dean, a large Arab-American from Michigan, resented a lot of the teachers. He felt he was doing their job for them; after all, why should he have to deal with a disruptive boy? Why shouldn't the teacher be controlling the class? I can really relate to this because I ran a suspension site and had to deal with kids who the other teachers couldn't handle.

Gober was vocal about the problems these boys faced. He made no secret of his Afro-Centric attitude, and he wanted this school to have a clear emphasis on educating Black youth. He had a tough job, because Black men were not looked upon positively by these boys. It was the Black men, not the white men, that broke promises, walked out on them, neglected them, etc.

I was at Rice High School for only a short time. Most of the teachers mentioned in the book had left before I arrived, and I was one of six new ones. Olivine Brown was now acting as principal until a replacement was found, and though she was a decent person, she took the kids' side too often. Every time there was a discipline problem, she'd remind me "remember, you are teaching students of color" and "you have to remember that there is a lot of anger left over from slavery." This woman wasn't bad, but she was nuts!

Sometimes Gober was the only one out there trying to be the "man" in the boys' lives. When you have a school full of angry fatherless kids, you have worse problems than paper airplanes and lost homework.

Not Just for Catholics, New Yorkers and Educators
Although this book certainly is of interest to educators and Catholics, to New Yorkers who care about their youngest citizens, to those who know that the civil rights movement remains unfinished--those in "fly over country" must not neglect this book.We in rural America have a stake in ensuring that inner city youth lose none of their few opportunities to escape.While some of what goes on at Rice high is unfamiliar, these kids are ultimately like our own kids and their school friends.When you finish this book, you will care about these kids and cheer their hard-fought victories.You'll also want your schools to take from this book anything that might prevent your community's kids from being lost. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

Loved this book
I thoroughly enjoyed Dr. Wilson's exploration of 1920s & 30s Harlem.The reader is introduced to such fascinating performers as Gladys Bentley, Florence Mills and of course, Ethel Waters.This era was teeming with artistic talent.This book is scholarly yet highly readable. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (6)

A real eye opener.
A brief but enlightening account of the first African American regiment, formed in the latter part of WWI. Amidst racial tensions that was the norm back in the day, the author depicts the contributions these marginalised warriors brought not only to the war effort, but also to the advancement of racial tolerance in America.

These men grew in maturity and stature, as they advanced the cause of democracy and freedom through their courage, their music and ultimately their lives.

It is ironic to read too that both before and after the war, and despite their efforts and sacrifices for the greater good, that these men would continue to be discriminated by bigotry and small mindedness. More surprising is the fact that they were treated with much greater respect by their French comrades (whom they were annexed to) and European civillians, than their own army.

A real eye opener.

A More Ubending Battle; The Harlem Hellfighter's Struggle...
The story of the great contribution made by black men of Harlem, NYC. I saw them march down Fifth Avenue in Manhattan about seventy years ago.
This also cleared up a mystery, for me, as to why the guidions had
NY 15 instead of NY 369. They were a very proud group of men.

More Than One Battle
Review: "A More Unbending Battle" by Peter N. Nelson
This wonderful book is really 3 stories in one.A black regiment goes to France to fight in World War I, but their fight includes racial bigotry within the civilian and military population, in addition they become musical ambassadors.
The 369th US Regiment, assigned to the French army, is fighting for a country that has a good proportion of the population wishing them ill and to see them fail.Rather than succumb to a "demoralizing from within" environment they strive to do their best as American soldiers. They fight and are awarded France's highest honors. In doing so they find, in the French, a people that do not degrade them based on the color of their skin. They introduce to the French, jazz.
Peter N. Nelson has woven this tale with organizational skill and excellent writing. He puts the reader in the trenches and behind the scenes of an almost forgotten part of American black wartime history.
At the end of the book during a narration of the 369th's march in New York City up to Harlem, Peter intersperses bios of the men noted in the book. What happened to them after the war ends. Something you always are curious about when reading a documentary.

An excellent pick for any library strong in both military history and social issues
A MORE UNENDING BATTLE; THE HARLEM HELLFIGHTERS' STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM IN WWI AND EQUALITY AT HOME provides the powerful story of the first Afro-American regiment to fight in World War 1. Journalist Peter Nelson details the story of a troop recruited from all walks of Harlem life, which became one of most successful regiments of the war. An excellent pick for any library strong in both military history and social issues.

time alive
Mr Nelsons book brings history to life. He creates richly detailed scenes that made me feel like I was walking through the pages, and marching with these men- these honorable, mostly forgotten warriors who fought many wars simultaneously, forging the way for freedoms for all.
This book tells their story in an honest, unflinching ,time-alive way that gives their history the solid place it deserves. ... Read more

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During the Harlem Renaissance, African-American culture flourished. The period gave birth to numerous significant and enduring creative works that were at once American and emblematic of the black experience in particular. Even though those who contributed to the Harlem Renaissance recognized that they had much in common, they also distinguished themselves from one another. This book approaches the Harlem Renaissance from the perspective of the conflict between individual and group identity. Central to the imaginative effort of the era was an unresolved tension to construct an individual as well as a collective identity; this tension continues to characterize contemporary African-American culture. ... Read more

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Melvin B. Tolson (1898-1966), mostly known for his poetry and an unduly neglected figure in American literary history, is among the very first African American critics to comment on the Harlem Renaissance. This book is an edition of his 1940 MA thesis, the first academic study of the Harlem Renaissance written by an African American scholar. Tolson was a poet who lived in Harlem in the early 1930s and thus was both a participant in and historian of one of the most significant movements in African American literature and culture. ... Read more

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The period between 1880 and 1918, at the end of which Jim Crow was firmly established and the Great Migration of African Americans was well under way, was not the nadir for black culture, James Smethurst reveals, but instead a time of profound response from African American intellectuals. The African American Roots of Modernism explores how the Jim Crow system triggered significant artistic and intellectual responses from African American writers, deeply marking the beginnings of literary modernism and, ultimately, notions of American modernity.
In identifying the Jim Crow period with the coming of modernity, Smethurst upsets the customary assessment of the Harlem Renaissance as the first nationally significant black arts movement, showing how artists reacted to Jim Crow with migration narratives, poetry about the black experience, black performance of popular culture forms, and more. Smethurst introduces a whole cast of characters, including understudied figures such as William Stanley Braithwaite and Fenton Johnson, and more familiar authors such as Charles Chesnutt, Pauline Hopkins, and James Weldon Johnson. By considering the legacy of writers and artists active between the end of Reconstruction and the rise of the Harlem Renaissance, Smethurst illuminates their influence on the black and white U.S. modernists who followed.
... Read more

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The years between the collapse of Reconstruction and the end of World War I mark a pivotal moment in African American cultural production. Christened the "Post-Bellum-Pre-Harlem" era by the novelist Charles Chesnutt, these years look back to the antislavery movement and forward to the artistic flowering and racial self-consciousness of the Harlem Renaissance.

Post-Bellum, Pre-Harlem offers fresh perspectives on the literary and cultural achievements of African American men and women during this critically neglected, though vitally important, period of our nation's past. Using a wide range of disciplinary approaches, the sixteen scholars gathered here offer both a reappraisal and celebration of African American cultural production during these influential decades. Alongside discussions of political and artistic icons such as Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, Henry Ossawa Tanner, and James Weldon Johnson are essays revaluing figures such as the writers Paul and Alice Dunbar-Nelson, the New England painter Edward Mitchell Bannister, and Georgia-based activists Lucy Craft Laney and Emmanuel King Love.

Contributors explore an array of forms from fine art to anti-lynching drama, from sermons to ragtime and blues, and from dialect pieces and early black musical theater to serious fiction.

Contributors include: Frances Smith Foster, Carla L. Peterson, Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw, Audrey Thomas McCluskey, Barbara Ryan, Robert M. Dowling, Barbara A. Baker, Paula Bernat Bennett, PhilipJ. Kowalski, Nikki L. Brown, Koritha A. Mitchell, Margaret Crumpton Winter, Rhonda Reymond, and Andrew J. Scheiber.

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Exhaustively researched and well constructed, this comprehensive bibliography clears up mysteries and misconceptions about the work of this important African- American writer known especially for his Harlem series of detective novels, written in France where he lived as an expatriate. The primary bibliography identifies all U.S., French, and British first and second editions of Himes's novels, the first appearances of his short stories in periodicals, his collected fiction, and his nonfiction. It includes manuscript materials and film adaptations. The annotated secondary bibliography documents biographial and critical work about Himes published in the United States, Britain, and France. The volume introduction outlines Himes's life and career and provides a realistic evaluation of his critical reception based on the secondary bibliography. ... Read more

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This work provides an in-depth look at the role of black music within the Harlem Renaissance movement, suggesting its primacy to Renaissance philosophy and practice. Floyd holds that the music of this period was also the source of certain ambivalent attitudes on the part of the black leadership. The book features essays on various subjects including musical theatre, Duke Ellington, black music and musicians in England, concert singers and the interrelationships between black painters and music. It also includes a music bibliography of works composed during the period. ... Read more

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Andrew B. Leiter presents the first book-length study of the sexually violent African American man, or "black beast," as a composite literary phenomenon. According to Leiter, the black beast theme served as a fundamental link between the Harlem and Southern Renaissances, with writers from both movements exploring its psychological, cultural, and social ramifications. Indeed, Leiter asserts that the two groups consciously engaged one another's work as they struggled to define roles for black masculinity in a society that viewed the black beast as the raison d'être for segregation.

Leiter begins by tracing the nineteenth-century origins of the black beast image, and then provides close readings of eight writers who demonstrate the crucial impact anxieties about black masculinity and interracial sexuality had on the formation of American literary modernism. James Weldon Johnson's The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, Walter White's The Fire in the Flint, George Schuyler's Black No More, William Faulkner's Light in August, Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind, Allen Tate's The Fathers, Erskine Caldwell's Trouble in July, and Richard Wright's Native Son, as well as other works, provide strong evidence that perceptions of black male sexual violence shaped segregation, protest traditions, and the literature that arose from them.

Leiter maintains that the environment of southern race relations--which allowed such atrocities as the Atlanta riot of 1906, numerous lynchings, Virginia's Racial Integrity Act, and the Scottsboro trials--influenced in part the development of both the Harlem and Southern Renaissances. While the black beast image had the most pernicious impact on African American individual and communal identities, he says the "threat" of black masculinity also shaped concepts of white national and communal identities, as well as white femininity and masculinity. In the Shadow of the Black Beast signals a fresh interpretation of a literary stereotype within its social and historical context. ... Read more