ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


656 / C&RL News ■  October 1998

A Cultural Awakening: 
The Harlem Renaissance revisited

Due to the lack o f diver­
sity at the University of 
V erm on t (U V ) and its 
community, I wanted to 
broaden experiences by 
bringing a sampling o f 
the African American ex­
perience via the Harlem 
R e n a is s a n c e  to th e s e  
communities.

I wrote, received, and 
administered a grant in 
the spring o f 1998 to de­
v e lo p  a t h r e e - c r e d i t  
course, “The Harlem Re­
naissance Revisited.” The M a rily n  Nelson,
course, offered through th e  University o f
the Division o f Continu­ Howe Library's (

s ig n a tu r e  p a ining Education, was aug­
"P o rtra it o f th e

mented by a number of M ilto n  Derr. N
university-wide events: Instructional Inc

January 15-March 15, t h e  p r o v o s t 
19 9 8 , “T h e  L egacy  o f a d m in is te re d , 

ta u g h t "The Ha
Arthur S c h o m b u rg ,” a 

Revisited."
traveling d isplay, was 
hung in the Bailey/ H o w e L ib rary ’s H. 
Lawrence McCrorey Gallery o f Multicultural 
Art at UV. Schomburg’s collections o f the 
black experience in books, manuscripts, and 
art form the core o f the New York Public 
Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in 
Black Culture. Professor Mary Jane Dickerson 
opened our “Spring Calendar o f Events” with 
a discussion of Ann Douglas’s Terrible Hon­
esty: Mongrel New York in the 1920s.

February offered a compelling lecture and 
slide presentation, “The Face and Heart of 
the Black Renaissance,” by Edmund Barry 
Gaither, director o f the Museum o f the Na­
tional Center o f Afro-American Artists in 
Boston, and “Aspects o f the Harlem Renais­
sance,” a faculty panel and open discussion 
led by UV’s Professor Donald Grinde with 
professors from Dartmouth, Middlebury, and 
Bennington colleges. UV alumnus William
O. Boyd, who as a boy w orked for Langston 
Hughes, w as ou r sp e cial guest. Bailey/ 
H ow e’s February Film Festival included

 
 V
M

t
 
el
e
a n
d
rl

“F ro m  T h e s e  R o o t s ,” 
“T w o  D o lla r s  a n d  a 
Dream,” “Black Artist of 
the USA," and “Harlem 
R e n a is s a n c e  and  B e ­
yond.”

In March, “Tw o Cre­
ative Women in the Har­
lem Renaissance Ethos: 
The 1920s Anne Spencer 
and the 1990s D olores 
S a n d o v a l,” w as in tro ­
duced with a brief biog­
raphy on Spencer. The 
1920s iconoclast was a 
w r ite r  a n d  lib r a r ia n  seen here w ith  

erm ont's Bailey/ w hose Lynchburg, Vir­
cCrorey Gallery) ginia, ho m e b e ca m e a 
in g ,  t h e  1975 haven for many o f the 
Black M a n ," by 

1920s black intelligentsia. son n e tte d  an 
ntive g ra n t from  Sadly, two legendary li­
d  o rg a n iz e d , brarians, Augusta Baker 

e v e lo p e d , and a n d  J e a n  B la c k w e ll 
em Renaissance 

Hutson, died in February 
as their contributions to 

the Schomburg hung in the Bailey/Howe Li­
brary.

O ur clo sin g  sp e aker, Linda P erkins, 
Hunter College, lectured from her newly pub­
lished essay, “The African American Female 
Elite: The Early History o f African American 
W omen in the Seven Sister Colleges, 1 8 8 0 - 
1960.” The finale in April featured “Music o f 
th e  H a rlem  R e n a i s s a n c e ,” b y  Larry 
McCrorey’s “Just Jazz.” The mixtures of sights, 
sounds, and colors at each event recalled 
the am bience o f a Harlem Renaissance soi­
ree.

T he reawakening was deem ed a success 
and best summed up by a staff member who 
said, “I was unaware o f the Harlem Renais­
s a n c e , e x c e p t fo r th e  m u sic o f  D u k e 
Ellington. During this cultural awakening I 
becam e aware of Black American history, 
art, and literature.” My objective exactly!—  
Marilyn Nelson, library assistant professor, 
Bailey/Howe Library, University o f Vermont, 
e-mail: mxnelson@zoo.uvm.eduM