Book

A renaissance in Harlem : lost voices of an American community / edited by Lionel C. Bascom.

1st ed.

New York : Bard, ©1999.

xi, 302 pages ; 22 cm

Contains essays written in the years between 1929 and the 1940s by writers employed by the Work Projects Administration who were assigned to gather information about the lives of ordinary men and women living in New York's Harlem.

American literature -- African American authors.

American literature -- New York (State) -- New York.

African Americans -- Literary collections.

American literature -- 20th century.

Harlem Renaissance -- Sources.

Harlem (New York, N.Y.) -- Literary collections.

Essays.

Literature.

Bascom, Lionel C., editor.

Compiled with manuscripts from the Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, WPA Writer's Project Collection, 1936-1940.

Introduction : history from the ground up -- Minstrel show -- Whites invade Harlem / Levi Hurbert -- Visible men -- Eddie's bar ; Colonial Park ; Sweet the monkey ; The street / Ralph Ellison -- My people / Ralph Ellison and Clarence Weinstock -- Pluto / Dorothy West -- Rent parties ; Buffet flat ; Slick Reynolds / Frank Byrd -- Laundry workers ; Negro laundry workers / Vivian Morris -- Afternoon in a pushcart peddlers' colony / Frank Byrd -- Street cries and criers / Frank Byrd and Terry Roth -- Homey the vegetable man / Frank Byrd -- Kingfish / Marion Charles Hatch ; Life in the Harlem markets ; The Harlem market ; Fatso the slickster, Pullman porters', and dining car folklore ; Fatso's mistake ; Chef Watkins's alibi ; Chef Sampson's icebox / Frank Byrd -- West Indies / Ellis Williams -- Worker's Alliance ; Laundry worker's choir ; Thursday girls ; Slave market ; Domestic Workers Union ; Domestic price wars / Vivian Morris -- Private life of Big Bess ; Betty / Frank Byrd -- Commercial enterprise ; Dancing girls ; Finger waves and Nu Life pomades / Vivian Morris -- God was happy / Vivian Morris -- Peace in the kingdom / Frank Byrd -- Father Divine comes to Harlem / Levi Hurbert -- Emancipation / Frank Byrd -- Divine is Gawd / Herman Spector -- Temple of Grace / Dorothy West -- Deities and their Duesenbergs ; Holy and sanctified / Vivian Morris -- Obeah / Ellis Williams -- Conjure man / Vivian Morris -- Ghost story / Dorothy West -- Amateur night at the Apollo / Dorothy West -- Almost made king / Vivian Morris -- Cocktail party / Dorothy West -- Cliff Webb and Billie Day / Frank Byrd -- Matt Henson retires / Theodore Poston -- Race Horse Row ; Harlem Hospital / Vivian Morris -- Angelo Herndon / Theodore Poston -- Swing clubs / Vivian Morris.

Publisher description

99033449

0380976641

9780380976645

41628154

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73283

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