Black History Month 2020

Photo: Untitled. Courtesy of Vincentchapters, 2016

I've left Earth & i am touching everything
you beg your telescopes to show you. i’m
giving the stars their right names. & this
life, this new story & history you cannot
steal or sell or cast overboard or hang or
beat or drown or own or redline or shackle
or silence or cheat or choke or cover up
or jail or shoot or jail or shoot or jail
or shoot or ruin

this, if only this one, is ours.

— Danez Smith, “dear white america,” 2017

Woman power
is
Black power
is
Human power
is
always feeling
my heart beats
as my eyes open
as my hands move
as my mouth speaks

I am
are you

Ready.

— Andre Lorde, “Now,” 1973

Harlem Renaissance

Photo: The Judgment Day, by Aaron Douglas. Courtesy of the National Gallery of Art, 1939

In the 1880s, rapid overdevelopment in the neighborhood of Harlem left landlords desperate to fill empty buildings. Over 175,000 black people lived in Harlem, many settling after the Great Migration, the movement of six million black Americans from the rural South to the urban North. This Upper Manhattan neighborhood soon became the largest concentration of black people in the world and a site for black culture to be reborn. This era became known as the Harlem Renaissance.

The Harlem Renaissance was inspired by Marcus Garvey, the founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association. Garvey contributed philosophical thought to the ideas of Pan-Africanism, which inspired a global mass movement known as Garveyism. W. E. B. Du Bois was the founder of the Niagara Movement, an organization that met on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls and demanded an end to segregation and equality of economic and educational opportunity, and a cofounder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Du Bois’s contributions allowed for the work of countless black intellectuals to become publicized and recognized. Another significant activist was Alain Locke, who wrote to mobilize college-educated black people to lead the community. Locke was also responsible for urging black artists to draw their inspiration from black history.

Harlem Renaissance

Photo: Blues, by Archibald J. Motley Jr. Courtesy of the Whitney Museum of American Art, 1929

Authors during the Harlem Renaissance produced a significant amount of literature that spanned many genres of creative writing. There were numerous black authors who gained prominence and recognition. These writers took inspiration from their daily lives to craft stories that were deeply political as well as entertaining. The effect that these writers had on literature was significant because of their ability to tell and celebrate the story of the black experience.

In October of 1929, the stock market crashed, sparking the Great Depression, which marked the beginning of the end for the Harlem Renaissance. Unemployment, poverty, and municipal neglect were widespread, leading to an increase in police presence in the area. Rumors circulated around Harlem that police had murdered a black Puerto Rican teenager for stealing a ten-cent pocket knife. Outrage over the rumor led over 10,000 people to take to the streets. The protests soon turned violent and resulted in three deaths, 125 arrests, and more than two million dollars in property damage. This race riot in Harlem seems to mark the end of the Harlem Renaissance.

Figures of Jazz – William “Count” Basie

Photograph: Count Basie waving, courtesy of National Public Radio, undated

At the cost of 25 cents a lesson, Basie learned how to play the piano in his hometown of Red Bank, New Jersey. As a child, he had to help support his family by doing chores at the Palace Theater. One afternoon, the house pianist failed to show up for work, and Basie sneaked into the orchestra pit and accompanied the film. In 1924, Basie moved to New York City, touring as a pianist and accompanist on major vaudeville circuits.

In 1927, after a canceled tour, Basie joined the Blue Devils, marking his introduction to the big band structure. In 1929, Basie left the Blue Devils to join the Bennie Moten Band. As a fellow pianist, Moten influenced and mentored Basie, even bringing Basie on stage to perform in his place. After a dispute before a performance, Moten was voted out of the band, and Basie was appointed leader of the group. Later the band would be renamed Count Basie and His Cherry Blossom Orchestra, marking the first time “Count” was added to his name.

In 1937, the thirteen-piece band known as the Count Basie Orchestra moved to New York City and became one of the world’s leading big bands. In 1950, financial situations forced Basie to disband the orchestra. However, in 1952, the second Count Basie Orchestra would be assembled and regarded as more important than the first. The second Count Basie Orchestra traveled internationally, playing at the request of kings, queens, and presidents, and issued a large number of recordings under Basie’s name.

In 1983, Basie made his last performance back in the town of Red Bank, at the Monmouth Arts Center, now known as the Count Basie Center for the Arts, nine days after the death of his wife Catherine. A year later, on April 26, 1984, Basie would die of cancer.

Figures of Jazz – Louis Armstrong

Photograph: Louis Armstrong, courtesy of the Louis Armstrong Foundation, undated

Louis Armstrong only had a fifth-grade education because he had to drop out of school early to work. An early job gave Armstrong enough money to purchase his first cornet. In 1912, Armstrong was arrested for firing his stepfather’s gun during a New Year’s Eve celebration and sent to the Colored Waif’s Home for Boys. There he was taught how to properly play cornet, eventually becoming the leader of the Waif’s Home Brass Band. By 1914, Armstrong was determined to become a professional musician.

Armstrong was mentored by one of the country’s most in-demand cornetists, Joe “King” Oliver. In 1919, Armstrong spent his summer playing on riverboats with a band led by Fate Marable. In 1924, Armstrong married Lillian Hardin, the pianist of Oliver’s band, who encouraged Armstrong to try and make it on his own.

Armstrong cut dozens of records as a sideman. However, OKeh Records let Armstrong make his first records with his Hot Five. From 1925 to 1928, Armstrong made more than 60 records with the Hot Five and later the Hot Seven. These recordings are seen as some of the most important and influential records in jazz history.

The 1930s found Armstrong achieving great popularity on radio, in films, and with his recordings. In 1937, he became the first black person to host a nationally sponsored radio show and in the same year became the first black person to get featured billing in a major Hollywood movie with his role in Pennies from Heaven. Armstrong also became the first black jazz musician to write an autobiography, Swing That Music.

In 1959, he had his first heart attack, and he returned to intensive care for heart and kidney problems in 1968. Despite protest from his family, Armstrong continued to practice his trumpet every day and continued a harsh performance schedule. A few months after his final performance in New York City, Louis Armstrong passed away in his sleep on July 6, 1971.

Figures of Jazz – Duke Ellington

Photograph: Duke Ellington playing piano. Courtesy of Lake Shore Public Radio, undated.

At the age of 17, Ellington began to perform after being inspired by ragtime artists. In 1917, Ellington dropped out of high school in his junior year to pursue a career in music. In the 1920s, Ellington played in Broadway nightclubs as the bandleader of a sextet that soon grew to a ten-piece ensemble.

At first, Ellington booked and performed in bands in the Washington, D.C. area, but in September of 1923, the Washingtonians moved permanently to New York City, where they gained a residency in the Times Square venue the Hollywood Club. After a while, the group grew in size and came under Ellington’s leadership.

Extended residencies at the Cotton Club in Harlem led Ellington to enlarge his band to 14 musicians and to expand his composing skills. By the late 1930s, Ellington’s melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic characteristics were fixed, at a time where he was the star of the swing era. A high point in Ellington’s career came in the early 1940s, when he composed several masterworks in which soloists accompanied him.

After World War II, the Ellington band toured Europe, Asia, West Africa, South America, and Australia, and also frequently toured North America. Despite the intense schedule, Ellington’s musicians stayed with him for decades. Ellington continued to perform regularly until he was overcome by illness in the spring of 1974, succumbing to lung cancer and pneumonia. His last words were, "Music is how I live, why I live and how I will be remembered."

Figures of Jazz – Ella Fitzgerald

Photograph: Ella Fitzgerald, courtesy of National Public Radio, undated

After getting into trouble with the police, Fitzgerald was taken into custody and sent to a reform school. While at the school, Fitzgerald faced abuse from her caretakers. At the age of 15, Fitzgerald escaped the school.

In 1934, Fitzgerald’s name was pulled in a weekly drawing where she won an opportunity to compete in Amateur Night at the Apollo Theater - a historic venue in Harlem known for its “tough” crowd. Originally, Fitzgerald wanted to dance but became intimidated when the Edwards Sisters took the stage. Once on stage, Fitzgerald made a last-minute decision to sing Hoagy Carmichael’s “Judy.” Saxophonist and arranger Benny Carter was in attendance that night. Impressed by Fitzgerald’s natural talent, Carter began introducing Fitzgerald to people who could help launch her career.

Soon afterwards, Fitzgerald began entering and winning every talent show she could find. In 1935, Fitzgerald won the opportunity to play with the Tiny Bradshaw band. There she met the drummer and bandleader Chick Webb. Webb was impressed with Fitzgerald’s sound, but he had already hired a male singer. Webb offered Fitzgerald an opportunity to test with the band at a dance at Yale University. Despite the tough crowd, Fitzgerald was successful, and she began traveling with the band. In 1936, Fitzgerald made her first recording: “Love and Kisses.” In 1938, she recorded a version of the nursery rhyme “A-Tisket, A-Tasket.” The album sold one million copies, hit number one, and stayed on the pop charts for 17 weeks.

While on tour with Dizzy Gillespie’s band in 1946, Fitzgerald fell in love with bassist Ray Brown. Brown was working for producer and manager Norman Granz. Under Granz’s management, Fitzgerald performed on the Jazz at the Philharmonic tour, worked with Louis Armstrong, and began producing her songbook series. In 1974, she spent two weeks performing in New York City with Frank Sinatra and Count Basie.

In September of 1986, Fitzgerald underwent quintuple coronary bypass surgery. Doctors also replaced a heart valve and diagnosed her with diabetes. Despite protests by family and friends, she returned to the stage and pushed on with an exhaustive schedule. On June 15, 1996, Ella Fitzgerald passed away at her home in Beverly Hills.

Figures of the Visual Arts – Aaron Douglas

Photograph: Aaron Douglas, courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, 1953

Arriving in Harlem in June of 1925, Douglas became invested in its culture. Shortly after his arrival, he won a scholarship to study with German-born artist and illustrator Winold Reiss. Reiss encouraged Douglas to turn to his black heritage for artistic inspiration.

Douglas contributed illustrations to prominent magazines during the Harlem Renaissance, including Opportunity and The Crisis. In 1925, Douglas received a commission to illustrate an anthology of philosopher Alain Locke’s influential work The New Negro. The success of the book led to requests for illustrations from writers such as Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, and James Weldon Johnson. In 1933, Douglas had his first solo art show in New York City. Afterwards he started a series of murals titled Aspects of Negro Life. Each included a mix of his influences such as jazz music and abstract art, as well as a different part of black life.

In 1935, Douglas helped form the Harlem Artists Guild along with sculptor Augusta Savage, muralists Charles Alston and Elba Lightfoot, and writer Arthur Schomburg. Later in life, Douglas started to focus on working as an educator. He also established the Carl Van Vechten Gallery at Fisk University and helped secure significant works from Winold Reiss and Alfred Steiglitz. Until the end of his life in 1979, Douglas remained a dedicated artist and educator.

Figures of the Visual Arts – Faith Ringgold

Photograph: Faith Ringgold, courtesy of Sugarhill Museum, undated

At an early age, Ringgold was exposed to the cultural offerings of the Harlem Renaissance. As a young girl, she suffered from asthma, so she spent much of her time at home with her mother, a fashion designer who taught her how to sew and work with fabric. During school, Ringgold became interested in art, and, by the time she graduated, she was intent on turning her interest into a career.

In the early 1960s, Ringgold started creating her first political paintings in support of the civil rights movement: “The American People” series. Using first and second person points of view, Ringgold explored central themes of the civil rights movement. Early in the 1970s, Ringgold’s art took a new direction. She began incorporating Tibetan thangka painting elements into her acrylic paintings with fabric borders. In 1973, Ringgold began branching out into other mediums such as cloth dolls, sculpture, and cloth. She began with a series of portrait sculptures called “The Harlem Series” and a collection of African-inspired masks.

In 1980, after failing to publish an autobiography, Ringgold began utilizing quilts as a medium for her storytelling. Ringgold’s first quilt, “Echoes of Harlem,” was made in honor of her mother, who passed away a year later. Ringgold later implemented text into her quilt designs. Ringgold’s narrative quilts include “Who’s Afraid of Aunt Jemima” and one of her best-known works, “Tar Beach.” Ringgold continues to have her work featured in galleries worldwide.

Black Arts Movement

Image: All Power to the People. Courtesy of The New York Times, 1969

After the assassination of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. and the politicization of black students with the Watts Uprising in 1965, people who embraced the Black Power movement fell into two camps: the revolutionary nationalists and cultural nationalists. The revolutionary nationalists were best represented by the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army, who looked for the reform, reconstruction, or destruction of the world that structured the devaluation of black life. Cultural nationalists, however, called for the creation of poetry, novels, visual arts, and theatre to reflect pride in black history and culture.

In 1965, the movement was formally established with the creation of the Black Arts Repertory Theatre and School in Harlem by Amiri Baraka. Baraka was at the forefront of the Black Arts movement, both embracing and rejecting themes of the Harlem Renaissance; embracing the cultural nationalism that was promoted by Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston, while rejecting the desire for black art to be consumed by white audiences, instead looking to produce art for a black audience.

Black Arts Movement

Image: Revolutionary (Angela Davis) by Wadsworth Jarrell. Courtesy of the Brooklyn Museum, 1972

For the Black Arts Movement, an important space to spread the message of black life was the theatre. Theatres during this time were seen as spaces where communities could hold meetings and present poetry, music, dance, and plays to an audience outside the view of the traditional academy. Barka felt that the theatre of the Black Arts Movement must be political and antithetical to what he believed Western theatre was doing at the time. The movement started to spread outward from the Northeast to the South and West Coast with the transnational movements and communal exchange of artists like Amiri Baraka, Askia Touré, and Ntozake Shange. Artists involved in the Black Arts Movement were determined to display the intricacies of black life. This spread led to the creation of academic publications such as The Black Scholar and Negro Digest. Though the movement was criticized for being hyper-masculine, poets like Nikki Giovanni, Audre Lorde, and June Jordan, among others, were able to lay the foundation for spoken word, hip-hop, free verse, and other modern forms of poetry.

A mix of different issues contributed to the end of the Black Arts Movement. As the first black arts school of its time, the Black Arts Repertory Theatre and School was surveilled by FBI agents. Around the 1970s, black influencers were replaced with new educators who were less political. After a year, the school closed its doors. Critiques of the movement alienated many prominent influencers and supporters, allowing for a shift to different movements and signaling the end of the Black Arts Movement.

Figures of Writing – Zora Neale Hurston

Photograph: Zora Neale Hurtston, image by Carl Van Vechten, courtesy of zoranealehurston.com, undated

The Hurston family settled in Eatonville, Florida, one of the first incorporated black townships in the U.S., when Hurston was 13 years old. In 1917, 26-year-old Hurston arrived in Baltimore wanting to get a free public school education; however, in order to qualify, she had to claim to be 16 years old.

In 1924, Hurston sent her short story “Drenched in Light,” the subject of which was her hometown of Eatonville, to Charles S. Johnson, the editor of the scholarly journal Opportunity. Johnson quickly urged Hurston to move to New York. By 1925, Hurston found herself living in Harlem. By 1935, Hurston had published several short stories, articles, and a novel, and a collection of Southern folklore. While traveling in Haiti, Hurston began writing her best-known work, Their Eyes Were Watching God, which became published in 1937.

Later in Hurston’s life, she made her living by selling occasional articles to popular magazines and working as a maid. When she died on January 28, 1960, her neighbors had to take up a collection to pay for her funeral. Unfortunately, the collection didn’t yield enough money to pay for a headstone, so she was buried in an unmarked grave until 1973.