Harlem Nocturne Read Online Free Page A
Author: Farah Jasmine Griffin
Thompson, Gene Ammons, and Dexter Gordon. And then there was the new queen of the blues, queen of the black jukebox, Miss D herselfâDinah Washington, whose Chicago-inflected, Harlem-based sound reflected the national postwar optimism and a newfound African American confidence. Through their art, Ann Petry, Mary Lou Williams, and Pearl Primus documented these times and in so doing helped to shape the history of a city and its people by presenting perspectives that were absent from official records.
New York fed each womanâs art, providing inspiration, material, and venues for performance and publication. However, the city was no utopia; nor was it free of obstacles to black freedom. As late as 1940, 90 percent of New York Stateâs defense plants refused to hire black workers. The nearby Fox Hills Army Camp in Staten Island was a segregated military base.Furthermore, a number of restaurants and bars did not serve black patrons. Though subjected to these laws and customs, none of the women examined in this book lived racially segregated lives. Each claimed black and white friends, and Primus and Williams especially operated in racially integrated milieus. The tension between these restrictions and the sense of possibility with which they lived their own lives made them acutely aware of and committed to fighting against racial injustice. 6
Despite the obstacles they endured in New York, these women were prominent artists. Through major works they also gave back to the city that enabled their art. Pearl Primus danced for soldiers and students. She became a favorite of New York Times dance critic John Martin, who covered all of her performances and, as a respected arbiter of taste, helped to cement her reputation. Among black dancers, only Katherine Dunham rivaled her. Ann Petry sits alongside Richard Wright and before Ralph Ellison and James Baldwin; through her work she presented complex, engaging, working-class black women in American fiction for the first time. She provided one of the first fully imagined portrayals of working-class Harlem in her 1946 novel The Street , which became the first book by a black woman to sell 1 million copies; it was widely reviewed in the black, left, and mainstream press. Mary Lou Williams became a major figure in the birth of bebop and challenged notions that women contributed to jazz only as vocalists. She was not simply the nurturing âgodmotherâ of younger musicians such as Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell. In 1945, she had her own weekly radio broadcast, Mary Lou Williamsâs PianoWorkshop , and premiered her Zodiac Suite to diverse audiences at two of the cityâs most prestigious venues: Town Hall and Carnegie Hall.
All three women volunteered for causes they believed in, organized people and events, and taught younger artists. Their art was driven by a fierce passion for social justice and an insistent drive to create. Petry, Primus, and Williams were also included in anthologies and performances with some of the brightest talents of their generation. Their names frequently appeared in the press, and they were well known to culturally literate New York audiences.
Who were these women? Where did they acquire their confidence and their ambition? As was the case with many other American women, their youth, their marital statuses, and the absence of children gave them the freedom to focus on their careers. Petry and Williams were both in their early thirties during the war years, while Primus was in her early twenties. During this time none of them had children. Both Petry and Primus later became mothers, with one child each, but Williams remained childless throughout her life. Petry was married, but her husband was away at war for most of the time under consideration. Williams was separated from her second husband, the trumpeter Harold Baker, and Primus would not marry until the end of the decade.
Each of these women was highly intellectual and had prepared
New York fed each womanâs art, providing inspiration, material, and venues for performance and publication. However, the city was no utopia; nor was it free of obstacles to black freedom. As late as 1940, 90 percent of New York Stateâs defense plants refused to hire black workers. The nearby Fox Hills Army Camp in Staten Island was a segregated military base.Furthermore, a number of restaurants and bars did not serve black patrons. Though subjected to these laws and customs, none of the women examined in this book lived racially segregated lives. Each claimed black and white friends, and Primus and Williams especially operated in racially integrated milieus. The tension between these restrictions and the sense of possibility with which they lived their own lives made them acutely aware of and committed to fighting against racial injustice. 6
Despite the obstacles they endured in New York, these women were prominent artists. Through major works they also gave back to the city that enabled their art. Pearl Primus danced for soldiers and students. She became a favorite of New York Times dance critic John Martin, who covered all of her performances and, as a respected arbiter of taste, helped to cement her reputation. Among black dancers, only Katherine Dunham rivaled her. Ann Petry sits alongside Richard Wright and before Ralph Ellison and James Baldwin; through her work she presented complex, engaging, working-class black women in American fiction for the first time. She provided one of the first fully imagined portrayals of working-class Harlem in her 1946 novel The Street , which became the first book by a black woman to sell 1 million copies; it was widely reviewed in the black, left, and mainstream press. Mary Lou Williams became a major figure in the birth of bebop and challenged notions that women contributed to jazz only as vocalists. She was not simply the nurturing âgodmotherâ of younger musicians such as Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell. In 1945, she had her own weekly radio broadcast, Mary Lou Williamsâs PianoWorkshop , and premiered her Zodiac Suite to diverse audiences at two of the cityâs most prestigious venues: Town Hall and Carnegie Hall.
All three women volunteered for causes they believed in, organized people and events, and taught younger artists. Their art was driven by a fierce passion for social justice and an insistent drive to create. Petry, Primus, and Williams were also included in anthologies and performances with some of the brightest talents of their generation. Their names frequently appeared in the press, and they were well known to culturally literate New York audiences.
Who were these women? Where did they acquire their confidence and their ambition? As was the case with many other American women, their youth, their marital statuses, and the absence of children gave them the freedom to focus on their careers. Petry and Williams were both in their early thirties during the war years, while Primus was in her early twenties. During this time none of them had children. Both Petry and Primus later became mothers, with one child each, but Williams remained childless throughout her life. Petry was married, but her husband was away at war for most of the time under consideration. Williams was separated from her second husband, the trumpeter Harold Baker, and Primus would not marry until the end of the decade.
Each of these women was highly intellectual and had prepared
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