Harlem

Hello from the Harlem Renaissance. Nella Larsen wrote about me in the middle of my glory days, which the second edition of the International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences dates as 1918-1935. She–or her protagonist Helga Crane–ran a little hot and cold on me. A year in, “she had had that strange transforming experience, this time not so fleetingly, that magic sense of having come home. Harlem, teeming black Harlem, had welcomed her and lulled her into something that was, she was certain, peace and contentment.” Okay, “teeming” isn’t exactly the dreamiest description, and being “lulled” into “peace and contentment” doesn’t exactly evoke what George Hutchinson refers to in the International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences as “a symbolic capital of the cultural awakening, a dynamic crucible of cultural cross-fertilization, and a highly popular nightlife destination.” I was dynamic! She felt herself apart from me, did not feel herself to be part of the “monster.” Monster?!? Copenhagen can have her.

Image Detail: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division, The New York Public Library. “The Famous Cotton Club presents Dan Healy’s Cotton Club on Parade with Cab Calloway and his famous Cotton Club Orchestra.” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1925. 

“Harlem Renaissance.” International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, edited by William A. Darity, Jr., 2nd ed., vol. 3, Macmillan Reference USA, 2008, pp. 424-426. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Accessed 3 Nov. 2018.