Harlem Nocturne: Women Artists and Progressive Politics During World War II
Scholar Griffin portrays three groundbreaking, once celebrated, subsequently overlooked African American women artists who were inspired by 1940s Harlem, where creative ferment confronted social injustice. Pearl Primus was a premed student turned soaring dancer and innovative choreographer, who earned her PhD in dance education. Combining “athleticism and grace” to profound effect, Primus drew on African and Caribbean traditions “to represent the dignity and strength of black people and to express their longing for freedom.” Ann Petry, a fourth-generation New Englander, became an editor and columnist for the radical Harlem newspaper, People’s Voice, and channeled her concerns about gender, race, and class inequities into her novel, The Street (1946), “the first book by a black woman to sell a million copies.” Deeply spiritual, highly influential jazz pianist and composer Mary Lou Williams “saw black music as . . . a gift to all humankind because it provided a way through pain and suffering to beauty and joy.” Griffin’s straight-ahead accounts of the remarkable lives of these clarion and valiant artists illuminate their exceptional vision, talent, and resoluteness in overcoming formidable barriers. --Donna Seaman