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"Wall's writing is lively and exuberant. She passes her enthusiasm for these writers' works on to the reader. She captures the mood of the times and follows through with the writers' evolution -- sometimes to success, other times to isolation.... Women of the Harlem Renaissance is a rare blend of thorough academic research with writing that anyone can appreciate." -- Jason Zappe, Copley News Service

"By connecting the women to one another, to the cultural movement in which they worked, and to other early 20th-century women writers, Wall deftly defines their place in American literature. Her biographical and literary analysis surpasses others by following up on diverse careers that often ended far past the end of the movement. Highly recommended... "  -- Library Journal

"Wall offers a wealth of information and insight on their work, lives and interaction with other writers... strong critiques... " -- Publishers Weekly

The lives and works of women artists in the Harlem Renaissance -- Jessie Redmon Fauset, Nella Larsen, Zora Neale Hurston, Bessie Smith, and others. Their achievements reflect the struggle of a generation of literary women to depict the lives of Black people, especially Black women, honestly and artfully.

Customer Reviews (1)

wonderful companion piece
This book is a wonderful companion piece to the works of Jessie Redmon Fauset, Nella Larsen and Zora Neale Hurston.Provides critical biographies for all three.Great reference for scholars, but interesting to anyone who's reading these amazing women. ... Read more

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Covering the years 1917-1933, this fascinating compilation spotlights a significant but sometimes overlooked era, supporting both the social studies curriculum and multicultural literature studies. ... Read more

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Useful addition to curriculum
I'm glad I was unaware of the Booklist review whenI purchased this book.Otherwise, I might have passed on it. I do agree that there are omissions,but I see it as a sort of pathfinder for my students. I can use it to givethem a list of references to begin their research on a particular person orsubject related to the topic. When we get to the library or when they go ontheir own, they will know what to look for. A few of my students have beenbrowsing it, and the photographs have been intriguing to them. It seems tome that this book might be more of a social studies supplement. As ateacher, I see it as a useful resource. ... Read more

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Teaching the Harlem Renaissance: Course Design and Classroom Strategies addresses the practical and theoretical needs of college and high school instructors offering a unit or a full course on the Harlem Renaissance. In this collection many of the field's leading scholars address a wide range of issues and primary materials: the role of slave narrative in shaping individual and collective identity; the long-recognized centrality of women writers, editors, and critics within the "New Negro" movement; the role of the visual arts and "popular" forms in the dialogue about race and cultural expression; and tried-and-true methods for bringing students into contact with the movement's poetry, prose, and visual art. Teaching the Harlem Renaissance is meant to be an ongoing resource for scholars and teachers as they devise a syllabus, prepare a lecture or lesson plan, or simply learn more about a particular Harlem Renaissance writer or text. ... Read more

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From 1910 to 1927, the Harlem Renaissance was the time when Harlem came alive with theater, drama, sports, dance, and politics. This was the time when the residents of northern Manhattan were leading their downtown counterparts at the vanguard of artistic ferment while at the same time playing a pivotal role in the evolution of Black nationalism. Looking at events as diverse as the prizefight between Jack Johnson and Jim White Hope Jeffries, the choreography of Aida Walker and Ethel Waters, the writing of Zora Neale Hurston and the musicals of the period, Krasner paints a vibrant portrait of the era. This is a thrilling piece of work, a classic destined to become the standard work on the Harlem Renaissance for years to come. ... Read more

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A Time of Rebirth
The Harlem Renaissance is defined by artlex.com as a literary and art movement in the uptown Manhattan neighborhood of Harlem, in the mid and late 1920's. In author David Krasner's A BEAUTIFUL PAGEANT, he provides a detailed capturing of a historical time when great pride and creativity for African Americans was not an unusual occurrence.

Many people tend to think of the Harlem Renaissance as a time when only literary notables such as Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes emerged, but it was so much more. There was a strong little theatre movement, great choreographers such as Ethel Waters and Aida Overton Walker, and most surprising to me, one of the most controversial sporting events of the time. The boxing match between Jack Johnson, a flamboyant and confident black fighter and Jim Jeffries who was known as "The Great White Hope", the hope of white people was that Jim Jeffries would prove that he was superior to the arrogant and inferior black man. When Jack Johnson was crowned the winner, it was a springboard to pride among African Americans.

Before I read this book I had a general view of what the Harlem Renaissance was about, but after finishing it, I have a much broader insight into this special era represented and produced. David Krasner is a very thorough writer and I was impressed with the attention to detail and the fact that the book was researched in depth. But as informative and knowledgeable as this book is, I was very frustrated while reading it because of the microscopic print which made it very difficult to read. If the font size of the print was larger this would have been a much more enjoyable read and my rating would have been a 4 instead of a 3.5.(RAW Rating: 3.5)

Reviewed by Simone A. Hawks
of The RAWSISTAZ™ Reviewers
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Nathan Irvin Huggins showcases more than 120 selections from the political writings and arts of the Harlem Renaissance. Featuring works by such greats as Langston Hughes, Aaron Douglas, and Gwendolyn Bennett, here is an extraordinary look at the remarkable outpouring of African-American literature and art during the 1920s. ... Read more

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Recounts the vibrant personalities and the remarkable cultural, musical, and artistic movements that flourished in America's leading black community during the 1920s. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Harlem Renaissance
A good, but very general overview, of the Harlem Renaissance.There are lots of facts and photos and it would be a very useful introductory text for high school students.It is minimally useful as an adult introduction to the subject.There are far more useful and substantive texts available.

I loved this book it showed the black peoples accomplishment
The Harlem Renaissance (African American Achievers) was a superb book. AndMs. Chambers is one of the many a people who have succeded in capturing theAfrican Americans experiance. When I first started reading the introimmediatly captured my attention and, the preceding words held it. Again Istress that this novel is a superb one.Veronica Chambers should becomended. *****a book fanatic ... 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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When Celeste Lassiter Massey is forced to live with her actress Aunt Valentina in Harlem, she is not thrilled to trade her friends and comfortable North Carolina for scary, big-city life. While Celeste experiences the Harlem Renaissance in full swing, she sees as much grit as glamour. A passionate writer, talented violinist, and aspiring doctor, she eventually faces a choice between ambition and loyalty, roots and horizons. The decision will change her forever. ... Read more

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Celeste's Stellar Story
A motherless teenager at thirteen, Celeste lives with her beloved, consumptive father andabrasive Aunt Society inRaleigh, North Carolina in 1921.Despite Aunt Society's extreme strictness and terrible cooking, CeCe's life is relatively happy. She has supportive friends and recognition for her school work. Although her circumstances are modest, CeCeis talented and ambitious. She plays a mean violin, which she calls "DeDe," and plans to become a doctor. Her only other close relative is an aunt who shows up periodically from what Cece believes is a glamorous existence in Harlem.

Cece's circumstances are worse than modest, they are exceedingly precarious. When her father is sent to a sanatorium, she is bundled off to New York to live with Aunt Valentina. Auntie meets her at the train station, but instead of taking her to a beautiful home, she takes her to a theater. This is not the expected theater where her aunt is a star. This is a theaterwhere they both scrub the stageon their hands and knees until CeCeis so exhausted, she keeps falling down on the way to her aunt's tiny, windowless apartment. Her introduction to Harlem is harsh indeed. As a former companion to an opera singer,however, her aunt does know many of the people who are part of the Harlem Renaissance. Gradually, despite the grinding work, CeCe is introduced to them.

Filled with colorful characters - including Aunt Society - the author brings to vivid life a wonderful protagonist. CeCe seems absolutely real. She is ultimately presented with an ethical decision that would stagger a wise adult. Played out against the backdrop of the segregated south with its myriad oppressions and Harlem during the Renaissance period with its myriad chances, CeCe is influenced by both but overwhelmed by neither. A strong young heroine in a stellar story.
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An introduction to the period in the 1920s known as the Harlem Renaissance, when the expression of African American creativity in many forms flourished. ... Read more

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Real-life stories of struggle, achievement, victory, and sometimes loss that are an ideal companion for history, social science, language and geography studies. The Extroardinary People series is the perfect starter for students who want to know more about the people who shaped their world, focusing on the unique histories of people from every culture, and every walk of life. ... Read more

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Details the Harlem Renaissance, the era in the 1920s and 1930s where this New York City neighborhood celebrated their African American identity through art, music, literature, and theater. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A thrilling time in American history
All the excitement and intellectual vitality of Harlem in the 1920's is conveyed in this well-done book in the "We the People" series by Compass Point Books.Included is the "Facthound" Internet resource for further research.Glossary, Did You Know?, Timeline, and Important People accompany. ... Read more

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Washington challenges the long-held assumption that African American literature aptly reflects black American social consciousness. Offering a novel sociological approach, Washington delineates the social and political forces that shaped the leading black literary works, and shows that deep divisions between political thinkers and writers prevailed throughout the 20th century. Successful black writers inevitably diluted their ideological constructions of African American life as they gained celebrity as part of the mainstream American literary establishment. Encompassing the tumultuous and often volatile decades of transition in American race relations from 1920 to 1970, the book analyzes the sociological origins and cultural implications of the ideological images of black America projected by the dominant black literary schools: the primitivist Harlem Renaissance school of the 1920s, the naturalistic protest school of the Depression years, the existentialist school of the Cold War era, the moral suasion of the civil rights era, and the cultural nationalist school of the late 1960s. Washington's examination features the great African American writers beginning with Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, and Countee Cullen and continues through the decades with Richard Wright's "Native Son", Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man", James Baldwin and concluding with the controversial Amiri Baraka. This book is an extensive evaluation of whether these writers served the black American social consciousness, or ignored the social implications of their work. Not only does it create a thought provoking discourse, but it also gives the history of the social surroundings that shaped many of these authors as well as their writings. ... Read more

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Josephine Baker -- Walter White -- Zora Neale Hurston --A'Lelia Walker -- James Weldon Johnson -- Ethel Waters -- LouisArmstrong -- Bessie Smith -- Alberta Hunter -- Jessie Fauset -- NellaLarsen -- Florence Mills -- Duke Ellington -- Bill "Bojangles"Robinson -- Carl Van Vechten -- Langston Hughes -- Dorothy West

"The Power of Pride features seventeen of the most prominent men andwomen of the New Negro Renaissance. Alternately irreverent, racy, andpainfully honest, they were unique: risk-takers in dangerous times,sophisticated salonires in an age of bourgeois provincialism, andexperimenters who briefly managed to transcend race by immersingthemselves in it." --From the Introduction

The Harlem Renaissance was an electrifying period during which hugenumbers of African Americans threw off the shackles of discrimination,exploitation, and poverty in the South and moved north. Heady with thefeeling of liberation and the discovery of other like-minded folk,artists, writers, painters, and dancers engaged in bursts of furiouscreativity. From Josephine Baker, taking Paris by storm with hersensual performances and ravishing costumes, to Duke Ellington,revolutionizing the way people thought about rhythm and melody, theseartists were the preeminent stylemakers of the era. The Power of Prideis a visually spirited and intimate book full of photographs, letters,playbills, and drawings that capture the gaiety and excitement of thetime.

Moving from the brownstones of Striver's Row in Harlem to the NegroAppreciation salons in Paris, the book focuses on seventeenRenaissance figures who exemplify the themes of race, fortitude,talent, and style, and whose streng!th of will and ability created amodel for all those with dreams and aspirations emerging in theAfrican-American community. The work of each shared a common thread,their intent, as writer Ralph Ellison has articulated it, "to arousethe troubling suspicion that whatever else the true American is, he isalso somehow black." With a foreword by Juan Williams--author of Eyeson the Prize and Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary-- andstunning photographs throughout, The Power of Pride serves as a vividtestament to the artistic and social contributions of the HarlemRenaissance to the history of America.Amazon.com Review
The Harlem Renaissance, the legendary explosion of African American artistic excellence that stretched from 1921 to 1929, was arguably the most concentrated and influential cultural era in the history of the United States. The Power of Pride, a collection of letters, program notes, and gorgeous photographs compiled by University of Delaware Professor Carole Marks and photographic curator Diana Edkins, is a lovely literary and visual snapshot of this unique period in Afro-American history. The authors take us on an imaginary "A" train back to the early 20th century to celebrate the regal style of Duke Ellington and the pixyish sensuality of Josephine Baker, along with the down-home vibes of Louis Armstrong and the enigma of "mystery woman" Nella Larson. They detail Zora Neale Hurston's anthropological and ancestral words of wisdom, along with Dorothy West's early writings. Marks and Edkins also explore other black enclaves in Washington, D.C., Chicago, and Paris. What makes this collection special is the air of dignity and drive displayed by the African American aristocracy of the time. As Professor Marks writes, "they were the strivers--the dicty--who could not be categorized." --Eugene Holley Jr. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Engaging and stimulating
This book is fantastic and a source of pride! I studied this period in undergrad. and I love to read anything I can find on the Harlem Renaissance. The book is beautifully done, the photos are great and thechoices are interesting.Wondered why the authors placed Bill Robinson inthe DC section, but the bios are concise and complete. A great book foryoung people as well as students of the period.

Fantastic
As a student of the printed word, I've always been fascinated by the Harlem Renaissance, or the "RenGen" (Renaissance Generation). This book is wonderful to me because it offers information and faces tomatch the personalities with which I'd found myself identifying withthroughout most of my life.It is very uplifting and encouraging to readabout such a group of classy, glamorous, educated, eloquent, literate,ambitious, and talented young individuals.Even though a few of theirideals were somewhat disturbing (mainly the whole "paper-bagtest" mentality), this book was still thoroughly refreshing.With itswonderful photographs and biographical information, it is a plethora ofinformation in sepia.Today's writers should emulate the literary (prosaicand poetic) elegance and grace of Johnson, Fauset, Larsen, Hurston, Hughes,and others, instead of seemingly automatically gravitating towards awritten genre that seems to stress nothing but profanity and over-(overt)sexuality in the African American community.How I wish those days ofclass could come back to our literary community!Perhaps one day it will.

To know the history of American culture, read this!
Marks' and Edkins' book is an elegant portrayal of the lives of those who created the Harlem Renaissance. Beautifully illustrated with historical photographs--most rarely seen, this book should be read by anyone wantingto know about the evolution of American culture. The authors' narrativereveals the strength and creativity of these African American women and menwhose energy and talent has given the nation some of its richest culturalforms. They show how they grappled with questions of racial identity in ahighly segregated society and how their relationships with each otherfostered one of the most important cultural movements in the nation. Anyone wanting to know more about American history , its culturalinstitutions, and the legacy of racial prejudice should read this book andshow it to their children. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

fantastic book!
I first fell in love with the Harlem Renaissance, back in high school, when I had the great good fortune to do a research project on the intellectuals, artists, writers and multitudes of other great, visionary people who participated in this, possibly the greatest cultural revival in the United States.From the 1920s through the 1940s, African-American voices were finally being heard and recognized by a greater sector of the population.For starters, this renaissance was inspired by the renaissances of Europe, and the talent coming up at this time were truly voices of their culture and their generation.Some of the greatest voices that come to mind include Zora Neale Hurston (author of THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD) and Langston Hughes (poet and essayist).

ARTISTS AND WRITERS OF THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE takes a great look at just a few examples of some of the most-well respected contributors to this artistic movement.They include James Weldon Johnson, Alain LeRoy Locke (for some, he was best known as "the architect" behind the Harlem Renaissance), Bessie Smith and Duke Ellington (a legendary bandleader and composer).This book was short and sweet, yet very informative!It was great to refresh my memory about some of these great Americans.I hope that this book inspires a new generation of aspiring talent in the world, and that a resurgence of this cultural celebration takes place one day! ... Read more