What have we been reading and chatting about at Story Cafe? Pauline shares her thoughts..
Special thanks to Fi for all her wonderful research – it was such a memorable session.
Black History Month is focusing this year on on the often overlooked achievements of black women who
fought for social justice and equality. So it seems particularly fitting that we were celebrating some truly incredible women from the Harlem Renaissance.
Introduced by Wendy, this Story Cafe was led by Fi, volunteer at GWL and fellow Librarian! Fi has been researching the Harlem Renaissance, a flowering of African American writers, poets, musicians, artists and activists in the 1920s and 1930s. Fi was inspired by the brilliant article, Fugitive Libraries, which
explored the history of Black libraries and Black Librarians in both the US and beyond. Fi started exploring the ‘web of connections’ between some of the women and was amazed at what she found out.
We heard about Librarians such Regina Andrews Anderson, who worked at Harlem Library, was the first African American woman to lead a New York Public Library branch, and whose flat became a literary salon. Librarians like Regina were pivotal in the Harlem Renaissance, spreading out and inspiring
African Americans right across the USA, as well as often being talented writers and activists themselves. They influenced future generations of writers such as Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison and Audre Lorde, who was also a librarian.
Wendy read from Zami by Audre Lorde, where she describes being taught to read by librarian Augusta Rose. A life-changing moment! Fi read from the novella Passing by Librarian Nella Larsen – an intriguing, ambiguous passage where one of the main characters, Clare,, meets someone from her past.
During our break we chatted and listened to some of the singers of the period, including my own favourite, Billie Holliday. Here’s the link to Fi’s Spotify playlist, if you want to have a listen!
We finished with poetry. Two poems by poet, teacher and activist Anne Spencer who lived in Virginia and whose home provided a refuge for visiting writers, Translation and Lady, Lady, and two by Georgia Douglas Johnston, who never lived in Harlem but is considered the Harlem Renaissance’s foremost poet, The Heart of a Woman (the title of Maya Angelou’s fourth autobiography) and Your World.
This was such a rich Story Cafe. Fi’s amazing, detailed research and presentation makes it difficult to do it justice in a short blog but was greatly appreciated and enjoyed by all those present. We all learned a lot as well!
Thank you Fi!
If you’re interested in reading books by writers from, or inspired by, the Harlem Renaissance, we do have some books in the Library that might be up your street, including:
Their eyes were watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
An imitation of things distant: the collected fiction of Nella Larsen
Zami: a new spelling of my name by Audre Lorde
A burst of light by Audre Lorde
The heart of a woman by Maya Angelou (we have the series of Maya Angelou’s autobiographies)
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