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I Too Sing America: The Harlem Renaissance at 100
Winner of the James A. Porter and David C. Driskell Book Award for African American Art History, I Too Sing America offers a major survey on the visual art and material culture of the groundbreaking movement one hundred years after the Harlem Renaissance emerged as a creative force at the close of World War I.
It illuminates multiple facets of the era--the lives of its people, the art, the literature, the music, and the social history--through paintings, prints, photography, sculpture, and contemporary documents and ephemera. The lushly illustrated chronicle includes work by cherished artists such as Romare Bearden, Allan Rohan Crite, Palmer Hayden, William Johnson, Jacob Lawrence, Archibald Motley, and James Van Der Zee.
The project is the culmination of decades of reflection, research, and scholarship by Wil Haygood, acclaimed biographer and preeminent historian on Harlem and its cultural roots. In thematic chapters, the author captures the range and breadth of the Harlem Reniassance, a sweeping movement which saw an astonishing array of black writers and artists and musicians gather over a period of a few intense years, expanding far beyond its roots in Harlem to unleashing a myriad of talents upon the nation. The book is published in conjunction with a major exhibition at the Columbus Museum of Art.
It illuminates multiple facets of the era--the lives of its people, the art, the literature, the music, and the social history--through paintings, prints, photography, sculpture, and contemporary documents and ephemera. The lushly illustrated chronicle includes work by cherished artists such as Romare Bearden, Allan Rohan Crite, Palmer Hayden, William Johnson, Jacob Lawrence, Archibald Motley, and James Van Der Zee.
The project is the culmination of decades of reflection, research, and scholarship by Wil Haygood, acclaimed biographer and preeminent historian on Harlem and its cultural roots. In thematic chapters, the author captures the range and breadth of the Harlem Reniassance, a sweeping movement which saw an astonishing array of black writers and artists and musicians gather over a period of a few intense years, expanding far beyond its roots in Harlem to unleashing a myriad of talents upon the nation. The book is published in conjunction with a major exhibition at the Columbus Museum of Art.
- GenresArtHistoryNonfiction
248 pages, Hardcover
Published October 9, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 15, 2019
An Ohio Celebration Of the Harlem Renaissance
From October 19, 2018 -- January 20, 2019, the Columbus Museum of Art presented a large exhibition "I Too Sing America" in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Harlem Renaissance. The precise dating and nature of the Harlem Renaissance is subject to debate, but it is generally thought to run from the end of WW I to the early 1930s. The exhibition has been combined with other activities in the City of Columbus celebrating the Harlem Renaissance. The commemoration of the flourishing of the arts in Harlem is a worthy project for any city to undertake. In Columbus, the project was the result of a collaboration which began in 2015 between the Museum of Art and Will Haygood who was born in Columbus. Haygood has written well-received biographies of several figures associated with Harlem, including Thurgood Marshall, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Sugar Ray Robinson, and Sammy Davis, Jr. As a native son, Haygood worked closely with the museum staff and curators on the content of the exhibition.
Although I didn't travel to Columbus to see the exhibition, I was able to do the next-best thing by finding this new book based on the exhibition "I Too Sing America: The Harlem Renaissance at 100." The book includes many paintings, photos, sculptures, and artifacts shown at the exhibition and includes as well many items not part of the exhibition. The book also includes lengthy textual material. Haygood wrote the historical sections giving an overview of the Harlem Renaissance and its major figures. Scholars and curators at the Columbus Museum of Art wrote the sections involving the many artists whose works are featured in the book.
Langston Hughes' famous 1926 poem "I, Too, Sing America" is presented at the beginning of the volume and gives the book and exhibition their theme. The book shows an extraordinary output of feeling and thought about the United States, Harlem, African American life, and the spirit of individual creativity. It shows the great cultural achievements resulting in part from the return of African American soldiers from the War and from the Great Migration to northern cities from the South. Many people will be familiar with some of the major figures, but most people will have their understanding of the Harlem Renaissance broadened and deepened by this book.
Figures such as Langston Hughes, Adam Clayton Powell (father and son), Zora Neal Hurston, and W.E.B. DuBois receive substantial attention. But for me the heart of the volume was the images of the artwork. The book features many paintings by artists including Archibald Motley, Aaron Douglas, Allan Rohan Crite, Jacob Lawrence, and others. The reader meets gifted sculptors including Augusta Savage and Richmond Barthe. James Van Der Zee became a renowned photographer of the people and places of Harlem, and his work receives a great deal of deserved attention in this book together with a collection of African American vernacular photography taken mostly by amateurs. The illustrations show the gamut of life in Harlem from the streets and from the poor people to the buildings, frequent parades, tenements, and jazz clubs. The book shows a Harlem teeming with promise and with intellectual and artistic life. It is moving and inspiring. I learned a great deal about the Harlem Renaissance and wanted to learn more about many of the figures in this book that hadn't been familiar to me.
In Haygood's words concluding this book, the Harlem Renaissance continues to sing. He writes.
"So the Harlem Renaissance lives. It sings. It continues to do its part to explain America to itself, and also to the world. Hardly a racially charged political moment has gone by since the 1960s when a poem or a quote from the renaissance hasn't been summoned. It constantly reminds us of a group of gifted artists who had their backs against the wall within the borders of their own country, and how their genius took flight."
The Columbus Museum of Art deserves kudos for its exhibition and book. It gives a view of a sometimes underappreciated source of America's vibrant cultural life.
Robin Friedman
From October 19, 2018 -- January 20, 2019, the Columbus Museum of Art presented a large exhibition "I Too Sing America" in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Harlem Renaissance. The precise dating and nature of the Harlem Renaissance is subject to debate, but it is generally thought to run from the end of WW I to the early 1930s. The exhibition has been combined with other activities in the City of Columbus celebrating the Harlem Renaissance. The commemoration of the flourishing of the arts in Harlem is a worthy project for any city to undertake. In Columbus, the project was the result of a collaboration which began in 2015 between the Museum of Art and Will Haygood who was born in Columbus. Haygood has written well-received biographies of several figures associated with Harlem, including Thurgood Marshall, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Sugar Ray Robinson, and Sammy Davis, Jr. As a native son, Haygood worked closely with the museum staff and curators on the content of the exhibition.
Although I didn't travel to Columbus to see the exhibition, I was able to do the next-best thing by finding this new book based on the exhibition "I Too Sing America: The Harlem Renaissance at 100." The book includes many paintings, photos, sculptures, and artifacts shown at the exhibition and includes as well many items not part of the exhibition. The book also includes lengthy textual material. Haygood wrote the historical sections giving an overview of the Harlem Renaissance and its major figures. Scholars and curators at the Columbus Museum of Art wrote the sections involving the many artists whose works are featured in the book.
Langston Hughes' famous 1926 poem "I, Too, Sing America" is presented at the beginning of the volume and gives the book and exhibition their theme. The book shows an extraordinary output of feeling and thought about the United States, Harlem, African American life, and the spirit of individual creativity. It shows the great cultural achievements resulting in part from the return of African American soldiers from the War and from the Great Migration to northern cities from the South. Many people will be familiar with some of the major figures, but most people will have their understanding of the Harlem Renaissance broadened and deepened by this book.
Figures such as Langston Hughes, Adam Clayton Powell (father and son), Zora Neal Hurston, and W.E.B. DuBois receive substantial attention. But for me the heart of the volume was the images of the artwork. The book features many paintings by artists including Archibald Motley, Aaron Douglas, Allan Rohan Crite, Jacob Lawrence, and others. The reader meets gifted sculptors including Augusta Savage and Richmond Barthe. James Van Der Zee became a renowned photographer of the people and places of Harlem, and his work receives a great deal of deserved attention in this book together with a collection of African American vernacular photography taken mostly by amateurs. The illustrations show the gamut of life in Harlem from the streets and from the poor people to the buildings, frequent parades, tenements, and jazz clubs. The book shows a Harlem teeming with promise and with intellectual and artistic life. It is moving and inspiring. I learned a great deal about the Harlem Renaissance and wanted to learn more about many of the figures in this book that hadn't been familiar to me.
In Haygood's words concluding this book, the Harlem Renaissance continues to sing. He writes.
"So the Harlem Renaissance lives. It sings. It continues to do its part to explain America to itself, and also to the world. Hardly a racially charged political moment has gone by since the 1960s when a poem or a quote from the renaissance hasn't been summoned. It constantly reminds us of a group of gifted artists who had their backs against the wall within the borders of their own country, and how their genius took flight."
The Columbus Museum of Art deserves kudos for its exhibition and book. It gives a view of a sometimes underappreciated source of America's vibrant cultural life.
Robin Friedman
July 21, 2021
I own a small collection of art exhibition books, and this is a good as any of them. So many brilliant at pieces included here. Please look for this, especially if you teach any aspect of the Harlem Renaissance.
September 7, 2022
Excellent. I was captivated by this book. I wish I could transport myself back in time, not as a participant, as i am not worthy to be among such spectacular artistic talent, but as a spectator from a distance to see this immense talent and the struggles they endured just to simply “be” and be accepted first and foremost as humans on equal footing with humanity, and second as artists.
I think words from the last paragraph of the book sum up a lot: “So the Harlem Renaissance lives. It sings. It constantly reminds us of a group of artists who had their backs against the wall within the borders of their own country, and how their genius took flight.”
Amen.
I think words from the last paragraph of the book sum up a lot: “So the Harlem Renaissance lives. It sings. It constantly reminds us of a group of artists who had their backs against the wall within the borders of their own country, and how their genius took flight.”
Amen.
March 26, 2019
If you are looking for one book about the Harlem Renaissance, choose this one. The text is compelling and the artwork and photographs weave a complex picture of this beautiful and chaotic era.
September 14, 2019
i need this book
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews