Hi my name is Tania Price and I am a fan of the Harlem Renaissance and the many artists that came out of that era, such as; Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, Zora Neale Hurston, Dizzy Gillespie (boy the way he blew those cheeks to infinity and beyond was amazing) and especially Cab Calloway. The Color barriers that Mr. Calloway decimated, in the face of tense racial times, was truly exemeplary as well as inspirational. Not only was Mr. Calloway an energetic and dazzling entertainer, I, as a Black American, always felt that there were elements of ancestral African dance moves conscripted into his stage shows. So whether Mr. Calloway was giving a slight nod to his pre-colonized lineage, or if the soulful rhythmic girations were an innate part of his being, I always felt like I was watching a strong proud, Black American of African ancestry, who was sharing some slick moves our ancestors probably originated.
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I am a fan of any group - marginalized, downtrodden, held captive from their human rights - to be and own their glorious selves. The Harlem Renaissance was an amazing explosion of people as art (they MADE new music, for gosh sakes, has that happened since?), the sound of freedom, done waiting, claimed not given, squeezed through trumpets and sweat glands - this is liberation.
ReplyDeleteI dare say the white folk were/are jealous, that fate did not deal them the hand that held this soul steel, that inflicting pain does not make possible the same beauty as enduring it, as overcoming it, does.
Perhaps this is romanticized (the particulars are certainly more dense than I have allowed here), but what is more romantic than Harlem in the 20s???