Tag: Harlem Renaissance

Poetic Traditions of Compassion and Creative Maladjustment (Part 3): Gwendolyn Brooks

October 9, 2021

Welcome to the third segment of Poetic Traditions of Compassion and Creative Maladjustment: June 7, 2017, marked the centennial of the birth of Gwendolyn Brooks, (she died December 2000), who in 1950 became the first African American–and at the time the youngest American–to win a Pulitzer Prize for poetry. Her literary career spanned the latter … More Poetic Traditions of Compassion and Creative Maladjustment (Part 3): Gwendolyn Brooks

Red Summer: Text and meaning in Claude McKay’s “If We Must Die” (part 1 of 4)

June 4, 2015

The summer of 2015 marks the 96th anniversary of the publication of Harlem Renaissance poet Claude McKay’s masterful poem, “If We Must Die.” This essay is presented in commemoration of that literary milestone and in remembrance of the extraordinary Red Summer of 1919 that inspired it. There were many good reasons to believe America had … More Red Summer: Text and meaning in Claude McKay’s “If We Must Die” (part 1 of 4)

Citizens of Newark Honor City and Historian Clement Alexander Price

November 20, 2014

                      Clement Alexander Price (photo by Nick Romanenko and Rutgers Magazine) The celebration held at Bethany Baptist Church in Newark, NJ, on November 14, 2014, honored the city itself as much as it did the life of historian Clement Alexander Price, who passed on November 5. “Everything he touched he made better,” said fellow historian … More Citizens of Newark Honor City and Historian Clement Alexander Price