Schuyler Family Photos, Box 4, Photographs and Prints Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library.
Today’s correspondence is recited by Miranda Mims, an Archivist in the Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library.
*Special Note: All text is represented as originally written by the correspondent.
Group portrait of (left to right): Bob Rogers, Ishmael Reed, Jayne Cortez, Léon-Gontran Damas, Romare Bearden, Larry Neal; seated: Nikki Giovanni and Evelyn Neal, in New York City, 1969. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division. Image ID: 1953510
When we explore the dynamics of the Black Power Movement, we must not fail to explore the Black Arts Movement as well. It was the artistic voice that helped increase political activism and express the importance of cultural values through various art forms.
Founded by Imamu Amiri Baraka, who was formerly known as Leroi Jones, the Black Arts Movement came at a time when African Americans were mourning the loss of their leader, Malcolm X. His sudden death would spark Baraka’s literary and political activism. Aligning himself with the principles of Malcolm and the tenets of the Black Power movement, Baraka sought to give birth to a black nation within America by establishing his own notion of the black aesthetic through his essays, poems, and plays.
In 1965, Baraka, along with Charles Patterson, William Patterson, Clarence Reed, and Johnny Moore founded the Black Arts Repertory Theatre School. It was a space that allowed for the creation of performance art, writing classes, music, philosophy, and poetry. Although the theater closed shortly after due to lack of funding, it did not stop Baraka from delivering his political message through controversial plays such as Dutchman, Jello, Slave Ship, and The Toilet.
Although not included within the anthology, the Black Arts Movement produced many other notable writers as well, such as Ishmael Reed, Nikki Giovanni, Toni Cade Bambara. These writers promoted the black aesthetic within their work, while acknowledging self-love. In her poem, “Walking Down Park,” Nikki Giovanni writes:
Ever, did you ever, sit down
and wonder about what freedom’s freedom
would bring
it’s so easy to be free
you start loving yourself
then those who look like you
all else will come
Giovanni’s lyrical poetry exemplifies the determination of those involved in both the Black Arts and Black Power Movements to establish an ideology inspired by black culture, identity, and pride.
As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Black Power Movement this June, let’s not forget the political contributions that the Black Arts Movement made. The two movements allowed artists who were activists—and vice versa—to organize, and perform their works. Let’s also not forget that by exploring the Black Arts Movement, art can serve as a means of protest and should not be separated from the political.
Join us as we acknowledge the 50th anniversary of the Black Power Movement with former Black Panthers Kathleen Cleaver and Jamal Joseph, who will help us launch our year-long examination. You may register on EventBrite for this event taking place on Wednesday, June 15 at 6:30 PM, or tune in via Livestream.
Much has been written about the diversity reflected in the 2015-2016 Broadway season. A recent Playbill.com article states “Of the 40 acting nominations in eight categories, 14 went to actors of color, and there’s a strong possibility that all four acting categories on the musical side could be won by a nonwhite actor.”
The diversity represented on Broadway and the recognition of these performances by the award granting institutions which concludes with the prestigious Tony Awards—to be handed out on Sunday, June 12—is in stark contrast to the absence of inclusion at the 2016 Academy Awards. The backlash to the lack of diversity at the Oscars caused an uproar which went viral on social media thanks to the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite. Despite the fact that many are celebrating the record number of Tony nominations for artists of different ethnicities this season, others have asked will the #TonysSoDiverse change Broadway for good and ensure that there is parity on stage and behind the scenes.
As it is too soon to tell if the 2016-2017 Broadway season will boast the same number of projects that star Asian-Americans, Latinos, African-Americans, deaf and disabled artists that it did in 2015-2016, some of the details about the upcoming season have been released. So far the season will include revivals, debuts of new work as well as productions that premiered Off-Broadway that will finally be presented on Broadway. Here’s a look at upcoming projects that are scheduled to open soon.
Plays
Ruben Santiago-Hudson. Image ID: Swope_629166
The only play in August Wilson’s 10 play cycle that has yet to reach Broadway is his 1970s set drama Jitney. This will be remedied because it was announced that the Broadway production of Jitney will be directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson, who is known as one of the top interpreters of August Wilson’s work. Santiago-Hudson won a Tony Award for his performance in Seven Guitarsand he also starred in Gem of the Ocean. Santiago-Hudson will be making his Broadway debut as a director on Jitney which begins performances in December 2016.
African American director Kenny Leon is reportedly attached to two revivals (Children of a Lesser God and Proof) which will be non-traditionally cast.
The revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Cats, which was one of the longest running shows on Broadway, is set to open during the summer of 2016 starring the British recording artist Leona Lewis and also Quentin Earl Darrington. A multicultural cast of other performers will be also featured in Cats.
Corbin Bleu, who achieve famed in Disney’s High School Musical series and appeared in Broadway in the musicalIn The Heights, has been cast in Holiday Inn: The New Irving Berlin Musical.
The immersive new musicalNatasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, which was inspired by the novel War and Peace, is finally bowing on Broadway beginning in October after several successful off-Broadway runs (which co-starred Philipa Soo who is currently in Hamilton). Recording artist Josh Groban is making his Broadway debut as is the African American actress Denee Benton. Rachel Chavkin is directing and the creative team includes set designer Mimi Lien and costume designer Paloma Young.
Also, the 1990s Vietnam set mega-musical Miss Saigon, which was recently revived in London, is expected to return to Broadway in 2017.
The above mentioned shows will be featuring multicultural or non-traditional casting, but as of yet information is scant about which shows written by women, Latinos, African-Americans, or Asian Americans, if any, are scheduled to play on the Great White Way. Producers can look to Off-Broadway for shows that may fit the bill.
The Public Theater’s upcoming season includes the New York City premiere of Lynn Nottage’s play Sweat, a winner of the 2016 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. There was talk that another of Nottage’s work, her Pulitzer Prize winning play Ruined should’ve immediately transferred to Broadway when it broke box office records and received numerous extensions and accolades during its Off-Broadway run in 2009. Besides Ruined, fans of Nottage also hoped that her hit 2004 Off-Broadway play Intimate Apparel, which starred Viola Davis would premiere on Broadway with Tony Award winning Davis reprising her role as Esther, a New York City seamstress who lived in the early 1900s. Nottage’s Sweat, which stars a multicultural cast of characters and is set in Reading, Pennsylvania, during the decline of that town’s manufacturing base in the early 2000s, could be a contender for a Broadway transfer.
John Leguizamo, who has written and performed a series of solo shows for decades both on and Broadway (including Spic-O-Rama, Freak, Sexaholix...A Love Story, and most recently Ghetto Klown), is returning to the stage at The Public Theater with a new work called Latin History for Morons. Leguizamo’s fans who have supported him on stage and on film would most likely follow him back to Broadway if his show earns a transfer.
Tony Award winning performer Sarah Jones, who like Leguizamo, Whoopi Goldberg and Lily Tomlin has found success playing a variety of unforgettable and hilarious characters of various ethnicities in solo shows including Surface Transit and Women Can’t Wait (the latter of which was commissioned by the women’s rights organization Equality Now and was performed at the United Nations). Jones is premiering a new one woman show called Sell/Buy/Date during the upcoming season. If audiences respond to Sell/Buy/Date the way they did her earlier work Bridge & Tunnel, which was originally produced Off-Broadway by Meryl Streep and later received a Broadway production, then Jones’ return to Broadway would be imminent.
John Leguizamo. Image ID: Swope_624774
Broadway producers hoping to source new and exciting work by women and artists of color should consider what is being produced regionally or turn to the local organizations that develop and produce new works by national and international artists of color (such as Ma-Yi Theater Company, NAATCO, New Black Festival, Noor Theater, and the online theater commons platform Howlround, which has a Latino/a Theater Commons). Multi-talented artist Christine Toy Johnson shared her thoughts about how to achieve diversity in the theater in an article on leeandlow.com, and she mentions the names of artists who should be on theater producer’s radars.
NYPL plays a starring role in documenting all things performing arts: research libraries including the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and Library of the Performing Arts are the perfect place for producers to do their homework. These libraries have a wealth of materials (including published and unpublished play manuscripts) in their collections that are waiting to be tapped or revisited. Commercial theater producers out there, stop by the libraries the day after the Tonys are presented to find your next projects that will sweep the awards season for a long time to come.
Today’s episode features a letter from internationally renowned jazz pianist and composer Thomas Wright "Fats" Waller, to his first agent-manager Phil Ponce.
Fats Waller Collection, Box 1, Folder 4, Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library.
Today’s correspondence is recited by Lake Bunkley, library page, Jean Blackwell Hutson Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library.
*Special Note: All text is represented as originally written by the correspondent.
Kiani Ned, our Communications Intern, writes about the importance of black fatherhood in the wake of boxing legend Muhammad Ali's death, and the legacy he left behind:
It’s been two weeks since the death of boxing legend and civil rights activist Muhammad Ali, who passed away at age 73 in Scottsdale, Arizona on June 3. We mourn his loss and in celebration of Father’s Day this weekend, remember Ali as a champion father figure in the black community—exemplifying strength, confidence, and a love for people around the world.
One could say that Ali’s career is marked by a series of bold and polarizing demonstrations of self. From his self-imposed nickname “The Greatest,” to his joining of the Nation of Islam and becoming Muhammad Ali, to his refusal to be inducted into the United States Army and fight in the Vietnam War, citing religion and racism in the United States. While many critics perceived his confidence as off-putting, Ali’s supporters recognized his bold and assured spirit as necessary. In the heart of the Civil Rights Movement, it was exhilarating for the black community and the world to see a black man be unapologetic about his strength, his faith, and his blackness.
In 1968, Ali became a father with the birth of his first child, Maryum Ali, with then wife Khalilah Ali, formerly known as Belinda Boyd. He would later father eight more children with wives Khalilah Ali, Veronica Porsche, Yolanda Williams, and three other women. Regardless of their separate maternities, Ali wanted his children to build relationships with one another. In a People Magazine interview after Ali’s death, his daughter Hana noted that her father’s desire for his children to become friends had come to fruition. She recalls him saying this to his daughters:
“You have different mothers, but you are sisters, and I want you all to come together and love each other.”
Throughout his boxing career, it was not uncommon to see Ali’s children with him at his training camp in Deer Lake, Pennsylvania. The 5-acre property was outfitted with cabins for sleeping, eating, praying, and training. There, the children would watch their father spar and go for early morning jogs. After Ali’s retirement in 1981, the kids spent the summers on a western Michigan ranch with him and his fourth wife, Yolanda Williams. He prioritized being a father by making a point to integrate his life and career with the lives of his children.
Ali taught his children to be of service to others, to be humble, and to love others and themselves. He raised his children in the Muslim faith—instilling in them the morals and values he spoke about to the world. In the 1960s, Ali made an inspiring call to black fathers: “I challenge them to help their children find their purpose in life and then see that the purpose is fulfilled.”
Ali’s sense of duty and responsibility to the black community and the world did not end with his own family. Over the course of his life, Ali supported organizations such as the Special Olympics and Make-A-Wish Foundation, and raised funds for the Muhammad Ali Parkinson’s Center after announcing his diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease in 1984. With the 2005 opening of the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, Kentucky, Ali aimed to inspire children and adults to find and fulfill their purpose in life. Programs like “Generation Ali” help young people find their voice in social justice movements and as agents of social change.
In the April 17, 2016 issue of the New York Times Book Review, Dr, Khalil Gibran Muhammad, Director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture reviews the new book, Ghetto, The Invention of a Place, the History of an Idea, by Dr. Mitchell Duneier, Professor of Sociology at Princeton University. Dr. Muhammad describes the book as "a stunningly detailed and timely survey of scholarly work on the topic." As I read through the review, I was struck by how much of this scholarship, mostly written by African Americans, is housed here at the Schomburg Center. Below is a list of some of these primary sources, which are at the heart of this new book.
"a seminal and devastating critique of Northern racism in migration-era Chicago"—K. Muhammad
Life magazine. St. Clair Drake
St. Clair Drake Papers, 1935-1990. Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Born in 1911, St. Clair Drake was an educator and social anthropologist who taught sociology at Roosevelt and Stanford Universities and at the Universities of Liberia and Ghana. His study of social life in the Caribbean and West Africa and in the black communities of Chicago and Great Britain spanned the 1930s to the 1980. His major study of Blacks in Chicago, Black Metropolis, written in collaboration with Horace Cayton, was published in 1945. A prolific lecturer and author, his many articles and essays appeared in books and in scholarly and non-scholarly journals in the United States and in Africa.
Horace R. Cayton Papers, 1866-2007.Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature, Chicago Public Library. Sociologist, writer and academician Horace Roscoe Cayton was born in Seattle on April 12, 1903. In 1936, Cayton returned to Chicago to work on a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project. The project was charged with studying the structure of the African American family and juvenile delinquency for three years, until 1939. St. Clair Drake, an anthropology instructor at the University of Chicago, joined the project. In 1941, funding from the Julius Rosenwald Fund enabled Drake and Cayton to organize their findings from the WPA project and supplement it with additional findings from the early 1940s. The result was one of the most seminal works on the life and culture of African Americans in Chicago— Black Metropolis. (1945).
"Myrdal’s bible of mid-20th-century race-relations policy — a book so influential it was cited in the Brown v. Board of Education decision — left a gaping hole in the scholarship." K. Muhammad
Carnegie-Myrdal Study of the Negro in America research memoranda collection, 1935-1948. The Carnegie Corporation of New York hired Gunnar Myrdal, a Swedish social scientist to organize and direct the project. He put together a team of African-American and white social scientists working in the field of race relations who prepared reports, also known as memoranda, on all aspects of life in the African-American community. These memoranda served as working documents to assist Myrdal in the preparation of his report, published as An American Dilemma.
Metropolitan Applied Research Center (MARC). Kenneth Bancroft Clark (1914-2005) founded and directed the Metropolitan Applied Research Center, a non-profit research corporation concerned with the problems of American urban society. The collection contains drafts of Roy Wilkins' and Ramsey Clark's book, "Commission of Inquiry into the Black Panthers and the Police. Search and Destroy: a Report, 1973 concerning the police raid of the Black Panther headquarters in Chicago on December 4, 1969, resulting in the deaths of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark. The reports of the Grand Jury which conducted the investigation as well as the Commission's findings are included. Additionally, there are reports from the Metropolitan Applied Research Center, 1967-1975; and minutes of the New York State Urban Development Corporation.
The Negro Family, the Case for National Action. (the "Moynihan report."). United States. Department of Labor. Office of Policy Planning and Research. Washington, U.S. Govt. Print. Office [1965]. Digital scan from Stanford University.
"And the black ghetto remains for many people a product of what Myrdal called “certain characteristics of the Negro population,” rather than, as Duneier concludes and the history attests, “a phenomenon of ongoing external domination and neglect.” —K. Muhammad
See other books written by Mitchell Duneier available at the New York Public Library.
Director Bill Gunn talks it over with actor Duane Jones on the set of "Gangja & Hess." Photo courtesy of Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture/NYPL, Photographs and Prints Division
Bill Gunn, while too obscure for household name status, is regarded as an icon of black independent filmmaking. Throughout his thirty-year career as an actor, playwright, novelist and filmmaker, until his untimely death in 1989, he amassed a rich oeuvre of creative work, both published and produced, unreleased and unrealized. The collection of his life’s work is now available for research purposes in the Schomburg Center’s Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division.
As the Pre-Professional for the Division, I help to process the In the Life Archive, a collection of cultural materials and records created by black LGBT/queer individuals and organizations. Working on the Bill Gunn Papers gave me a chance to familiarize myself with a lesser-known and immensely talented auteur whose works offer a unique vision of black American life.
Bill Gunn was born in 1934 and raised in Philadelphia by his equally gifted parents, William Harrison, Sr., a musician and poet, and Louise Alexander, an actress who directed a local theater company. Gunn began his career as a theater and film actor, making his Broadway debut in the 1954 production of The Immoralist starring James Dean, and later appeared in The Member of the Wedding with Ethel Waters in 1955. Frustrated with the lack of creative control as an actor as well as the limited roles available to him, Gunn turned his attention to playwriting and directing his own original work. In 1959, he premiered his first play, Marcus in the High Grass, at the Theater Guild in New York. The success of his subsequent plays, Celebration (1965) and the one-act Johnnas (1968), allowed Gunn to pursue screenwriting. His early output includes his adaptation Kristen Hunter’s novel, The Landlord (1970).
Gunn was a pioneer of black filmmaking, and in 1970 he became the second black filmmaker to direct a film for a major studio with his directorial debut Stop, of which he also served as the film’s screenwriter, co-producer, and casting director. Shot on location in Puerto Rico, Stop’s controversial premise and X rating caused Warner Bros. to shelve the film, which remains unreleased to this day.
Gunn’s second and most iconic film was Ganja & Hess, a 1973 horror film starring Duane Jones and Marlene Clark. Written and directed by Gunn and produced by Chiz Schultz, the film was marketed as a blaxploitation film and received a limited release in the United States, where it performed poorly. Nevertheless, Gunn’s experimental spin on vampire horror earned him critical acclaim, including being selected for Critic’s Week at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival, where it was also recognized as one of the ten best American films of the decade. Ganja & Hess remains an enduring cult classic of both horror and independent black filmmaking, and was remade by Spike Lee as Da Sweet Blood of Jesus in 2014. Lee credited Gunn as the co-writer.
Gunn later worked on the screenplay of Muhammad Ali’s 1977 biopic, The Greatest, for which he was uncredited in the final version of the film, and directed Personal Problems, a 1980 avant-garde soap opera featuring black directors, writers, and actors. He continued to write plays, including the musicals Black Picture Show, Rhinestone, Family Employment, and The Forbidden City (his final work in 1989). In addition to his extensive credits as a playwright, screenwriter and filmmaker, Gunn was the author of two novels, All the Rest Have Died (1964) and the semi-autobiographical Rhinestone Sharecropping (1981), as well as many unpublished works.
The Bill Gunn Papers offer researchers a treasure trove of his creative work captured throughout all stages of the writing process. The collection contains drafts, annotated scripts, and notes of his produced work, as well as a vast array of his unproduced and unpublished material across these mediums. In surveying the collection, it is apparent that Gunn had an immense creative spirit and a unique vision. Regretfully, much of his work would remain unreleased, and with his early passing at the age of 54, Gunn’s full potential would never be realized in his lifetime. Nevertheless, Bill Gunn created a body of work worthy of preservation and further investigation so that his legacy may continue to resonate and inspire.
Shaun Neblett, aka MC SNEB, is a playwright, educator, and founder of Changing Perceptions Theater. As a young adult, Neblett entered his short play "This is About A Boy's Fear," into the Young Playwrights Festival contest for high school students where the winners received a professional production of their works at a New York City Off-Broadway theater. "This Is About A Boy's Fear" was presented along with other winning plays at The Public Theater in 1995. On April 20, 2016, the Schomburg Center hosted a reading of Neblett’s newest play "Homage 5: Life After Death," after the album of the same name by one of the most influential rappers in the game, the late Notorious B.I.G. Neblett’s “Homage Series” is a cycle of seven plays inspired by hip hop MCs and their classic albums. One of the plays, "Homage 3: Illmatic," inspired by NAS' debut album was presented Off-Broadway, and also received a reading at the Schomburg Center in 2014. As of yet, Neblett has completed other plays in the cycle including "Homage 2: The Great Adventures of Slick Rick" after the album by Slick Rick.
Although the plays are not about the MCs, they are inspired by themes in the songs on the albums that Neblett has selected for his Homage cycle. "Homage 5" is set in 1997 at an inner city barber shop and focuses on a group of African American men, including the shop's proprietor, one of the barbers on staff, the barber's brother and the shop’s clientele. The play infuses the wit, lyricism and bravado found in Notorious BIG's music. It also examines the mortality of African American men, which is possibly even more relevant now in a Black Lives Matter-era America than it was when Biggie's album "Life After Death" was originally released.
During the talk back session following reading of "Homage 5," Neblett explained his goal is to create theater that features and appeals to young African-Americans, particularly men, who don't usually attend the theater because they don't see themselves represented on stage. Neblett's plays depict a slice of life in urban America and themes such as education, popular culture, art, family and crime recur in his works. Neblett plans to produce a full production of "Homage 5" in 2017 in Brooklyn. Read more about Neblett’s work and receive updates on the development of "Homage 5," by following Neblett @MCNEB or at shaunneblett.com
Dick Gregory, courtesy of the Photographs and Prints Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
One of the greatest benefits that a celebrity has is a platform to speak out against the injustices of society. Comedian, social activist, writer, and entrepreneur, Dick Gregory, born Gregory Richard Claxton, can be noted as doing this over the course of his life.
Born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1932, Gregory advocated for social justice at an early age, organizing a student-led march at Sumner High School to protest segregated schools. Not only was he was a community organizer, but he was also an athlete. He earned a track scholarship to Southern Illinois University Carbondale, yet his college career was interrupted after he was drafted into the military in 1954. His involvement in the military is where he would start his comedic work, both performing and winning army talent shows. Upon his return to the states, he dropped out of college, as he felt they did not want him to learn, but rather used him for his athletic abilities.
Gregory got his big break in 1961 in the Chicago night scene when he replaced white comedian “Professor” Irwin Corey, per the request of Hugh Hefner at the Chicago Playboy club. After performing at the club for a few shows, he won over white audiences that even included southerners. The success earned him a contract to perform at the club for three years.
Gregory drew his material from current events, poking fun at racial issues such as segregation, and would be the first African-American comedian to produce satire based on this concept. This strategy enabled him to sell out shows at numerous night clubs in Chicago, becoming a national headliner, earning television appearances, and selling comedy albums.
With substantial success and national attention, Gregory partnered with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), becoming heavily involved in the Civil Rights Movement. On numerous occasions, he faced jail time as a result of his activist work, and even endured police brutality. But he did not let this defeat him. When the Mississippi government blocked the Federal surplus commodity program to areas where SNCC was registering black voters, Gregory chartered a plane with food to feed those communities. He not only protested on behalf of African Americans, but he also protested against the Vietnam War, world hunger, and drug abuse.
This coming Monday, May 2, our program Theater Talks: Turn Me Loose, will cover the new play, starring Scandal’s Joe Morton, about the extraordinary life and career of Dick Gregory. This event is currently sold out, however you may still tune in via LiveStream to join the discussion with Morton, director John Gould Rubin, and producer Ron Simons.
Part of FDR's New Deal, the Works Progress/Projects Administration (WPA) was created in 1935 to provide paying jobs for the unemployed at every skill level. Workers built bridges, dams, roads, libraries, courthouses, schools, parks and gardens... they created art... and they wrote.
Now, newly available on NYPL's Digital Collections site, are biographical sketches, sociological studies, essays on history, economics, sports, theater, religion, and many other subjects that informed the world of blacks in New York City in the 1930s and '40s. Authors include Ralph Ellison, Abram Hill, and Ellen Tarry, among many others. Also in the collection are edited chapters of The Negro in New York: An Informal Social History, edited by Roi Ottley, which was originally prepared under the auspices of the Federal Writers' Project of New York City.
Miriam Makeba and Harry Belafonte. Schomburg Center Photographs and Prints Division
As we celebrate the 56th anniversary of South African singer/songwriter Miriam Makeba’s self-titled debut album on May 11, Alicia Perez, Schomburg Communications Pre-Professional, reflects on her inspiring life and music career.
For over half a century, the world has embraced international hits like “Mbube (The Lion Sleeps Tonight),” “Olilili,” and “Where Does It Lead” from songstress Miriam Makeba (born Zenzile Miriam Makeba). Often called Harry Belafonte’s protégé or Mama Africa, Makeba made her debut in the United States on TheSteve Allen Show in November 1959, after starring in the internationally recognized anti-apartheid documentary Comeback, Africa, and the South African musical King Kong.
One of the most moving things about Makeba’s music is her ability to turn a painful theme into a uplifting tune, like “The Retreat Song,” which opens her iconic 1960 self-titled debut album, about a Xosa warrior's defeat. “The Click Song,” “Nomeva,” and “Saduva” are also rooted in Xosa beats, but Makeba’s musical range is expansive. “Suliram” is an Indonesian lullaby, and “One More Dance” is an Austrian tune about a satirical battle of the sexes. Belafonte once described her music as “…strangely powerful, a startling blend of the highly sophisticated and the primitive." In the decades following her debut, Makeba continued to inspire and influence a number of artists—from Nina Simone to Miles Davis—while uplifting the citizens of South Africa during Apartheid-era South Africa.
Though she faced great challenges throughout her whole life—apartheid, breast cancer, a teenage pregnancy, being exiled from her own home, and losing her 35-year-old daughter—her music remained upbeat and her performances consistently enchanted her audiences. When the album was released in 1960, just after Makeba became acquainted with Belafonte and his wife at the time, Julia Robinson, her life was rife with uncertainty and a sense of insecurity. However, Makeba’s 2004 autobiography, Makeba: the Miriam Makeba Story, housed here in our Jean Blackwell Hudson Research and Reference Division, tells the story of a resilient woman:
“I have had great times and I’ve had difficulties. I have had mountains put in front of me but I climb and I get up. I always said ‘Fine, Makeba, if you go down and you fall, if the ground opens up and covers you that is that! But if you go down and the earth doesn’t cover you up—you must come up again!’ And I did.”
Celebrate Countee Cullen’s birthday (May 30, 1903) on Tuesday, May 31, 2016, at the Countee Cullen Library with a film screening from 12-1 PM, and readings from Cullen’s work and other artists from the Harlem Renaissance from 6-7:30 PM. In conjunction with celebration, there will also be pop-up exhibits on Cullen at both the Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference Division of the Schomburg Center and also at the Cullen Library. The exhibits will contain rare documents and images from the Schomburg Center’s Research and Reference, Manuscripts, Archives & Rare Books, and Photographs and Prints Division. Events for children and teens will also be included during the celebration at the Cullen Library.
By the time the prodigiously talented Countee Cullen was in his mid 20s, his first book of poetry, Color, was released in 1925 and was a literary sensation. He became one of the most influential figures of the Harlem Renaissance. Cullen was educated at DeWitt Clinton High School, New York University, Harvard, and the Sorbonne in Paris. Sources such as Margaret Perry’s A Bio-Bibliography of Countee Cullen, 1903-1946, state that during his lifetime he worked as an assistant editor for Opportunity, a journal published by the National Urban League. He also taught different subjects at Frederick Douglass Junior High School before his untimely death in 1946. During his career, Cullen’s work spanned a variety of genres including poetry, fiction, children’s literature, music, drama and musical theater.
When Cullen wedded Nina Yolande DuBois (daughter of W.E.B DuBois) on April 9,1928, at the Salem Methodist Episcopal Church in Harlem, it was one of the most talked about events of the year. His wedding attracted a thousands of spectators, and a host of celebrities from around the country and elite African Americans scholars, educators, socialites and artists attended. An April 10, 1928, New York Herald Tribune article reported that Langston Hughes, Arna Bontemps and others notables served as ushers at the wedding. In addition to her maid of honor, Yolande reportedly had sixteen bridesmaids in her wedding party while Cullen’s close friend Harold Jackman was the best man. A contemporary and fictionalized account of the events leading up to Cullen and DuBois’ short-lived marriage, Knock Me a Kiss, was written by playwright Charles Smith, and is in the anthology New Playwrights: Best Plays of 2000. You can also listen to the reading of a letter that was written by Harlem Renaissance author Nella Larsen to a friend regarding the wedding in this Live from the Reading Room post.
Live from the Reading Room: Correspondence is a podcast series that aims to share interesting and engaging letters written by or to key historical figures from the African Diaspora.
Today’s episode features a letter from journalist and essayist Josephine Schuyler, to her daughter, pianist, composer, journalist, and child prodigy Philippa Duke Schuyler.
Schuyler Family Photos, Box 3, Photographs and Prints Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library.
Today’s correspondence is recited by Tiana Taliep, an Archivist in the Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library.
*Special Note: All text is represented as originally written by the correspondent.
Myles Dawson, a Junior Scholar at NYPL’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, has a dream: to change the world through comic books. As a budding comic book artist, Myles hopes to help educate his generation about black history and black culture through a medium that everyone can understand and enjoy. Learn more about Myles’s vision for a more peaceful world, and how the Junior Scholars program inspires his work, in this week’s Library Story.
Library Stories is a video series from The New York Public Library that shows what the Library means to our users, staff, donors, and communities through moving personal interviews.
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Portrait of Malcolm X, 1950s, Photographer unknown. Courtesy of the Photographs and Prints Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
“do not speak to me of martyrdom,
of men who die to be remembered
on some parish day.
i don’t believe in dying
Though, I too shall die.”
These are the words of prolific poet, writer, activist, and scholar Sonia Sanchez from her poem “Malcolm.” As an ode to the man who will forever be embedded in the memory of Black history and culture, Sanchez doesn’t remember Malcolm X, or el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz, as a martyr, because his legacy is still very much alive. She recounts Malcolm’s gentleness from when she met him for the first time in an interview from the Eyes on the Prize program series.
With Malcolm’s position as the leading spokesperson for the Nation of Islam, it can be discerned that much of his time, outside of the public eye, was spent with various men who were either civil rights activists, scholars, or public officials. As a result of being from a political, social, and cultural era that was male-dominated, the influence Malcolm had on women (and vice versa), and the ways he attempted to uplift women can be overlooked. In his 1964 interview in Paris, Malcolm explicitly revealed his political position on women, explaining that women should be given the tools necessary to become empowered.
Malcolm was not only adamant about uplifting women publicly, but on an intimate level as well. In his letter to friend Maya Angelou, he writes, “You are a beautiful writer and a beautiful woman. You know I will always do my utmost to be helpful to you in any way possible so don’t hesitate.” His sincerity and genuineness also left an impression on those women who worked with him. Vicki Garvin, who introduced Malcolm to ambassadors of China, Cuba, and Algeria, and served as his translator during his time in Ghana, wrote many essays about her experience with Malcolm and his impactful legacy. In her “Beacon For Young People” essay, Garvin wrote that “[Malcolm] liberated himself with self-love and self-respect and worked to instill these values with others.”
It was with these same values that inspired Malcolm to fight for human rights and social justice transnationally--not just at home in the states. Most people are not aware of Malcolm’s relationship with Japanese-American human rights activist, Yuri Kochiyama, and his concern for the third world. In the documentary, Mountains That Take Wing, Kochiyama recounts Malcolm attending a meeting in her apartment in Harlem, for the survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. A meeting attended by mostly Blacks and Whites, she described him as “gracious, and being as warm to Whites as he was to Blacks.” Kochiyama was also present the day Malcolm was assassinated, seen in photographs hovering his own slain body, an image not included in Spike Lee’s movie Malcolm X (1992).
As much of a public and international figure Malcolm was, his life and the very essence of who he was became much more amplified after his death more than fifty years ago. There are thousands of books, documentaries, periodicals, essays, and scholarly journals that attempt to interpret Malcolm. But remembering Malcolm through the women who knew him best reflects his ability to recognize the inherent power that women possess and their ability to not stand behind their men in the fight for freedom, but side-by-side as allies. We must therefore remember Malcolm X’s, el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz, message of solidarity, which is the true essence of brotherhood that he wholeheartedly embodied.
Our annual celebration of the birthday of Malcolm X will be held on May 19 in collaboration with the Malcolm X Museum. The all-women panel, Women Speak About Malcolm X, is sold out, but you may still join the discussion via LiveStream.
Our Communications pre-professional, Alicia Perez, takes a deeper dive into our collections and finds a gem that perfectly aligns with her current journey at this time in her professional and personal life:
Just a few days before my college graduation, I discovered Jewelle Gomez’s Forty-Three Septembers(1993) in our Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference Division. I remain stunned by how significantly the book has inspired me as I move to the next phase of life. This has been a difficult time for me, as it is for many other graduating students, but reading Gomez’s collection of essays has made this journey so much easier.
Forty-Three Septembers helped me gain more confidence in the experiences I’ve had and all I’ve accomplished. As a young Afro-Latina student, there have been many times that I felt as if I was the only person struggling with feeling like an outsider as a woman of color. Then, I came across this affirming passage from Gomez’s book:
I am left to wrestle with who I’m for and speaking to. I keep faith with the idea that my life can have meaning for others just as the lives of those who went before me have meaning in my life. I must insist that the combination of factors that make me who I am are as natural as the two Hs and the O constituting water.
It is the deeply personal way Gomez, 68, details conversations she had in the 1960s about black female sexuality that drew me to this book. For example, another essay titled “In The Telling,” she writes about Aunt Irene and Moms Mable—strong black women who dared to carry their blackness with pride and speak loudly about their experiences.
Gomez's work is always biting, frank, and eye-opening, but Forty-Three Septembers particularly moved me. “I Lost It At The Movies,” the first essay in the collection, explores the challenges of transitioning to adulthood, self-acceptance, and navigating the world as a black woman. She writes from her experiences as a young black lesbian at a time when black male homosexuality was becoming more acceptable.
After reading Gomez’s seminal work, and as I prepare to enter the adult world without the nurturing protection of a collegiate atmosphere, I’ve realized that I need to be equally as confident in my own life. In writing about her journey as a young black lesbian woman, Gomez tackles issues of classism, racism, homophobia, and sexism—all while creating a riveting narrative that engages readers and transcends race, sexual orientation, and age. We all can learn something from her earnest words and courage to live out loud.
Schuyler Family Photos, Box 4, Photographs and Prints Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library.
Today’s correspondence is recited by Miranda Mims, an Archivist in the Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library.
*Special Note: All text is represented as originally written by the correspondent.
Group portrait of (left to right): Bob Rogers, Ishmael Reed, Jayne Cortez, Léon-Gontran Damas, Romare Bearden, Larry Neal; seated: Nikki Giovanni and Evelyn Neal, in New York City, 1969. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division. Image ID: 1953510
When we explore the dynamics of the Black Power Movement, we must not fail to explore the Black Arts Movement as well. It was the artistic voice that helped increase political activism and express the importance of cultural values through various art forms.
Founded by Imamu Amiri Baraka, who was formerly known as Leroi Jones, the Black Arts Movement came at a time when African Americans were mourning the loss of their leader, Malcolm X. His sudden death would spark Baraka’s literary and political activism. Aligning himself with the principles of Malcolm and the tenets of the Black Power movement, Baraka sought to give birth to a black nation within America by establishing his own notion of the black aesthetic through his essays, poems, and plays.
In 1965, Baraka, along with Charles Patterson, William Patterson, Clarence Reed, and Johnny Moore founded the Black Arts Repertory Theatre School. It was a space that allowed for the creation of performance art, writing classes, music, philosophy, and poetry. Although the theater closed shortly after due to lack of funding, it did not stop Baraka from delivering his political message through controversial plays such as Dutchman, Jello, Slave Ship, and The Toilet.
Although not included within the anthology, the Black Arts Movement produced many other notable writers as well, such as Ishmael Reed, Nikki Giovanni, Toni Cade Bambara. These writers promoted the black aesthetic within their work, while acknowledging self-love. In her poem, “Walking Down Park,” Nikki Giovanni writes:
Ever, did you ever, sit down
and wonder about what freedom’s freedom
would bring
it’s so easy to be free
you start loving yourself
then those who look like you
all else will come
Giovanni’s lyrical poetry exemplifies the determination of those involved in both the Black Arts and Black Power Movements to establish an ideology inspired by black culture, identity, and pride.
As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Black Power Movement this June, let’s not forget the political contributions that the Black Arts Movement made. The two movements allowed artists who were activists—and vice versa—to organize, and perform their works. Let’s also not forget that by exploring the Black Arts Movement, art can serve as a means of protest and should not be separated from the political.
Join us as we acknowledge the 50th anniversary of the Black Power Movement with former Black Panthers Kathleen Cleaver and Jamal Joseph, who will help us launch our year-long examination. You may register on EventBrite for this event taking place on Wednesday, June 15 at 6:30 PM, or tune in via Livestream.
Much has been written about the diversity reflected in the 2015-2016 Broadway season. A recent Playbill.com article states “Of the 40 acting nominations in eight categories, 14 went to actors of color, and there’s a strong possibility that all four acting categories on the musical side could be won by a nonwhite actor.”
The diversity represented on Broadway and the recognition of these performances by the award granting institutions which concludes with the prestigious Tony Awards—to be handed out on Sunday, June 12—is in stark contrast to the absence of inclusion at the 2016 Academy Awards. The backlash to the lack of diversity at the Oscars caused an uproar which went viral on social media thanks to the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite. Despite the fact that many are celebrating the record number of Tony nominations for artists of different ethnicities this season, others have asked will the #TonysSoDiverse change Broadway for good and ensure that there is parity on stage and behind the scenes.
As it is too soon to tell if the 2016-2017 Broadway season will boast the same number of projects that star Asian-Americans, Latinos, African-Americans, deaf and disabled artists that it did in 2015-2016, some of the details about the upcoming season have been released. So far the season will include revivals, debuts of new work as well as productions that premiered Off-Broadway that will finally be presented on Broadway. Here’s a look at upcoming projects that are scheduled to open soon.
Plays
Ruben Santiago-Hudson. Image ID: Swope_629166
The only play in August Wilson’s 10 play cycle that has yet to reach Broadway is his 1970s set drama Jitney. This will be remedied because it was announced that the Broadway production of Jitney will be directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson, who is known as one of the top interpreters of August Wilson’s work. Santiago-Hudson won a Tony Award for his performance in Seven Guitarsand he also starred in Gem of the Ocean. Santiago-Hudson will be making his Broadway debut as a director on Jitney which begins performances in December 2016.
African American director Kenny Leon is reportedly attached to two revivals (Children of a Lesser God and Proof) which will be non-traditionally cast.
The revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Cats, which was one of the longest running shows on Broadway, is set to open during the summer of 2016 starring the British recording artist Leona Lewis and also Quentin Earl Darrington. A multicultural cast of other performers will be also featured in Cats.
Corbin Bleu, who achieve famed in Disney’s High School Musical series and appeared in Broadway in the musicalIn The Heights, has been cast in Holiday Inn: The New Irving Berlin Musical.
The immersive new musicalNatasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, which was inspired by the novel War and Peace, is finally bowing on Broadway beginning in October after several successful off-Broadway runs (which co-starred Philipa Soo who is currently in Hamilton). Recording artist Josh Groban is making his Broadway debut as is the African American actress Denee Benton. Rachel Chavkin is directing and the creative team includes set designer Mimi Lien and costume designer Paloma Young.
Also, the 1990s Vietnam set mega-musical Miss Saigon, which was recently revived in London, is expected to return to Broadway in 2017.
The above mentioned shows will be featuring multicultural or non-traditional casting, but as of yet information is scant about which shows written by women, Latinos, African-Americans, or Asian Americans, if any, are scheduled to play on the Great White Way. Producers can look to Off-Broadway for shows that may fit the bill.
The Public Theater’s upcoming season includes the New York City premiere of Lynn Nottage’s play Sweat, a winner of the 2016 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. There was talk that another of Nottage’s work, her Pulitzer Prize winning play Ruined should’ve immediately transferred to Broadway when it broke box office records and received numerous extensions and accolades during its Off-Broadway run in 2009. Besides Ruined, fans of Nottage also hoped that her hit 2004 Off-Broadway play Intimate Apparel, which starred Viola Davis would premiere on Broadway with Tony Award winning Davis reprising her role as Esther, a New York City seamstress who lived in the early 1900s. Nottage’s Sweat, which stars a multicultural cast of characters and is set in Reading, Pennsylvania, during the decline of that town’s manufacturing base in the early 2000s, could be a contender for a Broadway transfer.
John Leguizamo, who has written and performed a series of solo shows for decades both on and Broadway (including Spic-O-Rama, Freak, Sexaholix...A Love Story, and most recently Ghetto Klown), is returning to the stage at The Public Theater with a new work called Latin History for Morons. Leguizamo’s fans who have supported him on stage and on film would most likely follow him back to Broadway if his show earns a transfer.
Tony Award winning performer Sarah Jones, who like Leguizamo, Whoopi Goldberg and Lily Tomlin has found success playing a variety of unforgettable and hilarious characters of various ethnicities in solo shows including Surface Transit and Women Can’t Wait (the latter of which was commissioned by the women’s rights organization Equality Now and was performed at the United Nations). Jones is premiering a new one woman show called Sell/Buy/Date during the upcoming season. If audiences respond to Sell/Buy/Date the way they did her earlier work Bridge & Tunnel, which was originally produced Off-Broadway by Meryl Streep and later received a Broadway production, then Jones’ return to Broadway would be imminent.
John Leguizamo. Image ID: Swope_624774
Broadway producers hoping to source new and exciting work by women and artists of color should consider what is being produced regionally or turn to the local organizations that develop and produce new works by national and international artists of color (such as Ma-Yi Theater Company, NAATCO, New Black Festival, Noor Theater, and the online theater commons platform Howlround, which has a Latino/a Theater Commons). Multi-talented artist Christine Toy Johnson shared her thoughts about how to achieve diversity in the theater in an article on leeandlow.com, and she mentions the names of artists who should be on theater producer’s radars.
NYPL plays a starring role in documenting all things performing arts: research libraries including the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and Library of the Performing Arts are the perfect place for producers to do their homework. These libraries have a wealth of materials (including published and unpublished play manuscripts) in their collections that are waiting to be tapped or revisited. Commercial theater producers out there, stop by the libraries the day after the Tonys are presented to find your next projects that will sweep the awards season for a long time to come.
Today’s episode features a letter from internationally renowned jazz pianist and composer Thomas Wright "Fats" Waller, to his first agent-manager Phil Ponce.
Fats Waller Collection, Box 1, Folder 4, Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library.
Today’s correspondence is recited by Lake Bunkley, library page, Jean Blackwell Hutson Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library.
*Special Note: All text is represented as originally written by the correspondent.
