My Bookshelf

I am currently reading On the Shoulders of Giants, by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The book is a fascinating and informative account of his journey through the Harlem Renaissance.

Jabbar recounts how a racial slur by his high school coach (his coach claims it was used to motivate Jabbar) inspired him to research the Harlem Renaissance. His summer’s 1964 trek to Harlem from his all white Manhattan neighborhood became Jabbar’s awakening. He discovered one of the greatest political, cultural, literary, and artistic movements of our history.

Kareem does not portray the Harlem Renaissance (1920s and 1930s) through rose color lenses. No, he unwaveringly details the mythological Harlem and the gritty day to day Harlem without diminishing the cultural contributions by the giants of that era. He describes the two identities as Oz Harlem and Daily Harlem:

First, there was the idealized Harlem that white people imagined because of its portrayal in white films and in white literature. In Oz Harlem, whites were welcome, … in high class nightclubs such as the Cotton Club, which featured black jazz performers, black dancing girls, and a deferential black staff – but only allowed white patrons. In Oz Harlem, blacks entertained and serve, but didn't mingle with whites. …white visited this Harlem weekly, seeing only what they wanted to see. Like people visited a zoo who marvel at the animals but ignore the cages.

…behind the velvet curtain of Oz Harlem was the other Harlem … the on that black people wrote about, sang about, painted and sculpted. The one where black people actually lived, worked, cooked, went to church … This was the Harlem where they raised families, raised the rent, and, on occasion, raised the roof.

Kareem also explains how the confluence of geopolitical, social, and cultural events sparked the Harlem Renaissance. These events include, The Great Migration of blacks from the south to the north; WWI service of African-Americans - the returning soldiers had experienced rights and freedoms in Europe and demanded the same from their home country; and, the immigration to Harlem by blacks from the West Indies such as Marcus Garvey.

Finally, Kareem shares profiles of the giants of the era including W.E.B. Dubois, Marcus Garvey, Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, Aaron Douglass, William H. Johnson, Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong,to name a few. These profiles are connected to the continuum of black progress and Pan-Africanism.

This is a must read!