Rhapsodies in Black: Art of the Harlem Renaissance

Rating:
Summary: expanding the scope of a central moment in modern art
Review: This book provides those who are more likely to have believed the Harlem Renaissance to be entirely literary and entirely Harlem-centered with evidence of the all-encompassing scope and international import of this crucial, modern, blackened artistic surge. The exploration of black identity and construction of black nationality called the Harlem Renaissance is insightfully revisited through the social and artistic problems enacted in the works, within the voices, and upon the bodies of protagonists: Josephine Baker, Paul Robeson, and surprisingly, Orson Welles. This book is a fine complement to books which focus on literary-hitsorical aspects (such as David L. Lewis' _When Harlem was in Vogue_) and those which focus on music such as Angela Davis' _Blues Legacies and Black Feminism_ and Albert Murray's _Stomping the Blues_). It is a a fabulous expansion of the artistic territory encompassed in black art. Maya Angleou has said: "I am human, and therefore nothing h! uman can escape my grasp." I believe that black art has languished too long in the storage bin where fads and fanices go to die. _Black Rhapsodies_ rescues the Renaissance from this fate by positing black art as a philosphical stance, therefore attainable in varied ways throughout the post WWI world--not as the exotic and undisciplined, irregular expressions of primitive black jungle souls on the drum-pulsing streets of 20s Harlem. I couldn't agree more, and I hope that the idea that black art is both a real category and a complex one full of contadictions is adopted in the teaching of the Renaissance.

My one complaint is minor and may stem from my own unfamiliarity with the indexing system of books on art. I found it difficult to locate quickly the visual art being described in certain passages. If there were a more convenient way on idexing the art or of expaining the system to the novice reader, it would be appreciated.