Anthologies of African American Writing

Renaissance in Harlem: Lost Voices of an American Community

"A Renaissance in Harlem: Lost Voices of an American Community." Ed. Lionel C. Bascom. New York: Bard, 1999. xi+302 pp.

• Repr. as "A Renaissance in Harlem: Lost Essays of WPA, by Ralph Ellison, Dorothy West, and Other Voices of a Generation". New York: Amistad, 2001. xi+302 pp.

● Lionel C. Bascom / Introduction: History from the Ground Up

Part 1 / Two Harlems
● Lionel C. Bascom / Minstrel Show
● Levi Hurbert / Whites Invade Harlem

Part 2 / Lost Manuscripts
● Lionel C. Bascom / Visible Men
● Ralph Ellison / Eddie’s Bar
● Ralph Ellison / Colonial Park
● Ralph Ellison / Sweet the Monkey
● Ralph Ellison / The Street
● Ralph Ellison and Clarence Weinstock / My People
● Dorothy West / Pluto
● Frank Byrd / Rent Parties
● Frank Byrd / Buffet Flat
● Frank Byrd / Slick Reynolds
● Vivian Morris / Laundry Workers
● Vivian Morris / Negro Laundry Workers

Part 3 / Pushcarts, Thursday Girls, and Other Workers
● Frank Byrd / Afternoon in a Pushcart Peddlers’ Colony
● Frank Byrd and Terry Roth / Street Cries and Criers
● Frank Byrd / Homey the Vegetable Man
● Marion Charles Hatch / Kingfish
● Frank Byrd / Life in the Harlem Markets
● Frank Byrd / The Harlem Market
● Frank Byrd / Fatso the Slickster, Pullman Porters’, and Dining Car Folklore
● Frank Byrd / Fatso’s Mistake
● Frank Byrd / Chef Watkins’s Alibi
● Frank Byrd / Chef Sampson’s Icebox
● Ellis Williams / West Indies
● Vivian Morris / Worker’s Alliance
● Vivian Morris / Laundry Worker’s Choir
● Vivian Morris / Thursday Girls
● Vivian Morris / Slave Market
● Vivian Morris / Domestic Workers Union
● Vivian Morris / Domestic Price Wars
● Frank Byrd / Private Life of Big Bess
● Frank Byrd / Betty
● Vivian Morris / Commercial Enterprise
● Vivian Morris / Dancing Girls
● Vivian Morris / Finger Waves and Nu Life Pomades

Part 4 / Uptown Gods, Kings, and Other Spiritual Entities
● Vivian Morris / God Was Happy
● Frank Byrd / Peace in the Kingdom
● Levi Hurbert / Father Divine Comes to Harlem
● Frank Byrd / Emancipation
● Herman Spector / Divine is Gawd
● Dorothy West / Temple of Grace
● Vivian Morris / Deities and Their Duesenbergs
● Vivian Morris / Holy and Sanctified
● Ellis Williams / Obeah
● Vivian Morris / Conjure Man
● Dorothy West / Ghost Story

Part 5 / People, Places, and Things
● Dorothy West / Amateur Night at the Apollo
● Vivian Morris / Almost Made King
● Dorothy West / Cocktail Party
● Frank Byrd / Cliff Webb and Billie Day
● Theodore Poston / Matt Henson Retires
● Vivian Morris / Race Horse Row
● Vivian Morris / Harlem Hospital
● Theodore Poston / Angelo Herndon
● Vivian Morris / Swing Clubs

"Contains essays written in the years between 1929 and the 1940s by writers employed by the Work Projects Administration who were assigned to gather information about the lives of ordinary men and women living in New York's Harlem" (WorldCat).

• "Booklist" (1999)
• "Kirkus Reviews" (1999)

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