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A good review, which we'd expect from Nelson George--but a book about women authored by a woman "written in workmanlike prose"--OUCH! On 9/22/13, Louis Proyect <l...@panix.com> wrote: > ====================================================================== > Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > ====================================================================== > > > NY Sunday Times Book Review September 20, 2013 > Red and Black > By NELSON GEORGE > > HARLEM NOCTURNE > Women Artists and Progressive Politics During World War II > By Farah Jasmine Griffin > Illustrated. 242 pp. Basic Civitas. $26.99. > > In the national consciousness, Harlem has usually been defined by two > eras: the artistic and cultural explosion of the 1920s, known as the > Harlem Renaissance, and the drug-fueled devastation that began in the > 1950s and peaked in the late ’80s. The Harlem Renaissance has been well > documented by its poets, novelists and essayists, as well as by a legion > of scholars in the decades since. The long, depressing ghetto years were > recounted most eloquently by James Baldwin, and by lesser mortals like > sociologists, memoirists, politicians, Hollywood screenwriters and > rappers. Today’s whiter Harlem of multimillion-dollar brownstones and > flashy eateries is already the subject of books, blogs and innumerable > magazine travel articles. > > In her book “Harlem Nocturne: Women Artists and Progressive Politics > During World War II,” Farah Jasmine Griffin, a professor at Columbia > University, delves into a largely underexplored aspect of Harlem’s rich > history: the years just before, during and immediately after World War > II, a period of optimism, creativity and turmoil. Moreover, Griffin uses > the lives of three female artists — the choreographer and dancer Pearl > Primus, the writer Ann Petry and the composer and pianist Mary Lou > Williams — as signposts through an era, in a work that paints the > “greatest generation” in a much less flattering light than do the usual > jingoistic accounts. > > Griffin’s narrative encompasses the war and the second great migration > of blacks to the North from the South. She also highlights two movements > that will be less familiar to contemporary readers: the Double V, or > Double Victory, campaign, in which “black Americans fought . . . > overseas for their country but also to be recognized as citizens at > home”; and the Popular Front initiative, conceived by the Communist > Party in response to “the economic crisis of the Great Depression and > the rise of fascism.” > > “For black people,” Griffin writes of Double V, “the war provided an > opportunity to accelerate their demands for equality. . . . Black > Americans highlighted the distance between this ideal of America and the > reality of ongoing racial inequality, often through the black press and > civil rights organizations.” > > The Popular Front, meanwhile, “focused on culture as an especially > important forum for educating and mobilizing audiences in support of an > antifascist agenda.” Although by 1939 its official end had come, the > idea of it “would continue throughout the war years. Without Popular > Front venues like Café Society, or publications such as PM, a leftist > newspaper, it is doubtful that Petry, Primus and Williams could have met > with such success.” > > Griffin argues that her three main subjects “consistently confronted the > darkness of our nation’s soul. They were critical of white supremacy and > the excess of American capitalism. Yet, their art and their activism > also denoted a firm belief in the transformative nature of social change.” > > None of these women were native New Yorkers. Primus was born in Trinidad > and, as a child, relocated with her family to the city, where she was > exposed to Afro-Caribbean dance, the innovations of Martha Graham and > the sweaty swing style popular at the Savoy Ballroom. > > As an adult, Primus fused these movements with her own impressive > physicality. Her ability to leap majestically high made her popular, and > John Martin, the New York Times dance critic, praised her “tremendous > inward power,” “fine dramatic sense” and “superb technique.” Of the > three women in Griffin’s narrative, Primus was the most progressive > politically, joining the Communist Party when it was still one of the > few organized white movements to challenge Jim Crow and the violence > that fed it. The F.B.I. opened a file on her in 1944. > > Petry was never a Communist but was published in Popular Front > periodicals and served as “women’s editor,” columnist and features > editor at the Harlem newspaper The People’s Voice, a left-leaning > enterprise published by Adam Clayton Powell, the pastor and New York > City councilman. Born and raised in Connecticut by an established > middle-class New England family, the bookish Petry moved to Harlem with > her husband, George, in 1938. With George inducted into the Army in > 1943, Petry spent most of the war years on her own, writing, organizing, > walking through Harlem and contemplating the constrained world of > working-class black women. This reflection resulted in the 1946 novel > “The Street,” about a single woman’s struggle to raise her son in > Harlem. It sold more than 1.5 million copies, a first for a black woman. > (Petry went on to publish two additional novels.) > > The most complex of Griffin’s subjects is Mary Lou Williams, whose life > was filled with music, mentoring, lovers, gambling, politics and > religious questing. A prodigy born in the Jim Crow South, Williams was a > seasoned musician when she moved to Harlem’s Sugar Hill section in 1943, > an area home to W. E. B. Du Bois, Duke Ellington and other luminaries. > Her apartment quickly became a salon where integrated groups gathered to > talk politics, listen to music and gamble (her taste for cards dented > her bank account). > > Williams became one of the rare older jazz musicians to embrace the > emerging bebop generation, counting Dizzy Gillespie, Tadd Dameron, Hank > Jones and Bud Powell among her friends. She was a regular at Minton’s > Playhouse, Harlem’s late-night bebop laboratory. And she both nurtured > bebop’s young players and was inspired by their ambition. Her extended > composition “The Zodiac Suite,” an answer to Ellington’s “Black, Brown > and Beige,” merging classical and jazz idioms, debuted at Town Hall on > Dec. 31, 1945. > > Both Williams and Primus performed regularly at Café Society, and its > owner, Barney Josephson, is an important supporting character in “Harlem > Nocturne” — his club was a place of both political agitation and > employment. Another figure who factors prominently is Benjamin J. Davis > Jr., the Communist activist who succeeded Powell as Harlem’s city > councilman, in 1943, only to be convicted, six years later, of > conspiring to overthrow the United States government (under the Smith > Act, a dubious tool of those determined to cleanse the country of “red > infiltration”). > > Though solidly researched and full of fascinating information, “Harlem > Nocturne” is written in workmanlike prose that serves the narrative but > doesn’t elevate the material. Griffin sometimes strains to connect her > three subjects to larger historical forces. Yet the book is a valuable > study of a neighborhood whose evolution still offers a window into the > black experience in America. It is also a heartfelt tribute to three > remarkable artists who “were not willing to forget or wholly forgive > America’s historical transgressions,” but who were devoted, Griffin > writes, paraphrasing James Baldwin, “to helping this nation ‘achieve’ > itself.” > > Nelson George’s latest book, a history of television’s “Soul Train,” > will be published next year. > > > > ________________________________________________ > Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu > Set your options at: > http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/gulfmann%40gmail.com > ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
