Synopses & Reviews
Modern Library Harlem Renaissance
It's 1920s Harlem, and man, the joint is jumpin'. Folks are coming and going and everything's copacetic as long as the gin keeps flowing. This is the scene Stephen Jorgenson dives into when he arrives from Canada for the first time. He is taken to "The Niggerati Manor," an apartment building in Harlem inhabited by aspiring artists whose true talents lie in living, and where everything's black and white--with a lot of grayness in between. Counterbalancing Stephen's embrace of these folks is Raymond Taylor, a writer who is the only truly talented artist in the manor. Raymond's cynical take on the "new Negro artist" is the tightrope he walks between the love and hatred of himself and his people. Characters representing Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Alain Locke all appear, and part of the fun of this book is figuring out who's who.
Synopsis
It's 1920s Harlem, and, man, the joint is jumpin'. Folks are coming and going and everything's copasetic as long as the gin's flowing. This is the scene Stephen Jorgenson dives into when he arrives from Canada and is taken uptown to "The Niggarati Manor", where everything's black and white (and lots of grayness in between). Counterbalancing Stephen's embrace of these folks is Paul, the manor's true artist-in-residence. Paul's cynical take on the "new Negro artist" is the tightrope he walks between love and hatred of himself and his people. Characters representing Langston Hughes. Zora Neale Hurston (who gave the building its name), and Alain Locke all appear, and part of the fun of this book is figuring out who's who.
About the Author
Wallace Thurman, author of The Blacker the Berry and the hit Broadway play Harlem, was a dark-skinned bisexual alcoholic who never thought he was accepted by his peers. Raised in Salt Lake City, he died destitute in New York in 1934. Infants of the Spring was his last laugh. E. Lynn Harris is the bestselling author of Invisible Life, And This Too Shall Pass, and If This World Were Mine.
The fertile artistic period now known as the Harlem Renaissance (1920-1930) gave birth to many of the world-renowned masters of black literature and is the model for today's renaissance of black writers.