Harlem Stomp!: A Cultural History of the Harlem Renaissance by Laban Carrick Hill

Harlem Stomp!: A Cultural History of the Harlem Renaissance Reviews

• 
  Cynda

  This book fills out information I have read about The Great Migration and about Harlem. Moreover, I see how the joy of having escaped the Jim Crow South and having found each other in more freedom provided and encouraged a period of creativity, some joy, and some empowerment. How much was gained by meeting, greeting, sharing ideas, developing ideas, and sharing all the above. Our black citizenry found their collective voice and have continued to use it.
  
  I now have increased a list of reading possiblities. The lovely challenge of a reader.
• 
  Vannessa Anderson

  Harlem Stomp was a great condensed read on American History.
  
  Harlem Stomp celebrates a people who were kidnapped, raped, and ravished. Nikki Giovanni’s foreword was a great lead-in to the story. We learn the word Negro mean to some whites ignorant, unskilled, rural … inferior. ―A Black Woman Speaks, 1902
  
  I am a colored woman, wife and mother. I have lived all my life in the South, and have often thought what a peculiar fact it is that the more ignorant the Southern whites are of us the more vehement they are in their denunciation of us. They boast that they have little intercourse with us, never see us in our homes, churches or places of amusement, but still they know us thoroughly ―Anonymous New York’s Independent
  
  The pictures were great and made the story relatable. Harlem Stomp is a great resource for readers of all ages. Harlem Stomp was a phenomenal read!
  
• 
  Ebookwormy1

  A "Stomp!" is a raucous dance party, and by titling this overview of the Harlem Renaissance, "Harlem Stomp!" Laban Carrick Hill makes it clear he wants the reader to connect with the explosive creativity that emerged from the golden age of New York City's uptown Manhatten. However, the book covers much more ground then these highlights.
  
  "In the 1920's, Harlem was hot! The streets were crowded. The nightclubs were hoppin'. The theaters were packed to the rafters. And the poems and stories crackled with racial pride. Without a doubt Harlem was the center of the universe if you were black or just a white hepcat from downtown who knew where the action was. Nineteen twenties Harlem represented the coming of age for African Americans." page 5
  
  Early chapters detail horrendous lynchings, Jim Crow laws, and numerous exclusions that prevented blacks from taking their rightful place in an integrated America. We see the experience told from a black perspective, and it is ominous. Glimmers of hope are accounted in migration from the south to the north, the victory of the real estate war in establishing a black stronghold in Harlem, and exemplary service of black Americans in WWI.
  
  But it's the thrum of the STOMP! that draws so many to this time period and it's the STOMP! that makes it sing. It's hot and solid through the middle of the book. Poetry, visual arts, and dog mah cats! - the MUSIC and dance are puttin' on the DOG, not telling, but showing us the bardacious achievements of the coming of age black minority. We are drawn in the diddy-wah-diddy, feeling the beat, looking up music on the internet and longing for a good dance hall.
  
  The blues are singin' as we hear the cry of a people who long to be valued and integrated. Pride rises and creativity flashes light into the dark struggle like the door of a speakeasy flipping through the night hours. But dampening the brilliance is a darkness, some of which the author seeks to illuminate and some of which he cloaks. There are reminders that the pain runs deep, the racism persists and that like most people groups, this minority is not homogenous. The louder the demands of expression "About us... By us... For us... (and) Near us..." one starts to notice more 'gaps' in the accounting and give the narrative and it's author a smoking over.
  
  I don't want to be snooty, and I'm hoping people won't jump salty over an honest review, but while the book has some strong points, this buckra finds it lacking. When one takes a bump the bump round this dance floor, we notice that several themes emerge:
  
  1) In order to 'come into their own,' the black community wants to be telling it's own, multi-faceted story. There is a sense in which negrotarians, however well-intentioned, represent the dominate culture imposing on the minority and forming it into stereotypes that an outside voice cannot avoid. This is particularly curious when one notices that there is no picture of Mr. Laban Carrick Hill on the book jacket, and even more so when one searches on the internet to notice his white face. This brings the mud! Granted, this is history and he's using all sorts of primary sources, but he's not one of the blood. What's a non-black to do? Judge based on the merit of Mr. Hill's work or his lacking the expected black american credentials - regardless of the fact that he's apparently spent the larger part of his adult life studying the phenomena? (A fact that seems to be supported by the considerable bibliography printed at the end, something that is always appreciated.)
  
  2) It's difficult for the minority to capture the cacophony of voices that make up their own experience. Even worthy artistic expression in poetry, novel, stage or lyric is often found wanting by black minority insiders for failure to present the panorama of perspectives that would suck the oxygen right out. Hill captures this in the tension between the Talented Tenth who has been successful in conservatively approaching the dominate culture with their superior merit, and the masses who demand a radical recognition of their equality among men given to them by the Creator, and withheld by the government of the people by the people.
  
  3) I've noticed in this presentation a pattern I hadn't seen before, and for that I am grateful. It seems there is a need in minority identity formation to "go back to the beginning." Particularly the chapter on visual arts takes pains to emphasize the incorporation of African themes in visual presentation as a means of american blacks developing their own style. Although not emphasized as much by the author, I think a case can be made for music and dance as well, the exception being the written word which, apart from negro dialect, seems to have found more mainstream structures (with themes and subject matter more in touch with black uniqueness). This can be seen in other minority populations, such as immigrant families, interracial adoptees, etc.
  
  4) The narrative takes pains to articulate stereotypes of Jim Crow (the barbarian needing shepherding) and Jim Dandy (the high fashion, low substance fop), but doesn't address either the political tension, religious confusion, or criminal element that shaped both Harlem and the outside world's perception of it by BOTH blacks and whites.
  
  Nods are made to communist ideology undermining the legacy of certain individuals, crazy theology of various religious movements, rent parties and their violence and profit, speakeasies as a source of prohibition era alcohol, criminal connections of club owners (lookin' at you Owney Madden owning the whites only Cotton Club of Harlem), and one has to wonder: is this a whitewashing? And if so, is it to benefit the black community or to shelter the young adult from the more complex issues of the time? And as such, is the value of this account undermined?
  
  5) Great care is taken in documenting the rise of Harlem (chapters 1-3), the Renaissance at it's peak (chapters 4-9) with all it's accomplishments and inadequacies as viewed by both the minority and majority, and yet one scant Chapter 10 on it's collapse. Within 5 years, the Depression, schisms within the community, migration out of the hotspot, and the rescinding of Prohibition have brought down the entire community.
  
  One wonders if the darker elements were eroding the community from within even as the Twenties roared. Was there a lot of violence in Harlem compared to NYC/ Manhattan? Were there paths to an honorable living open to Harlem dwellers or was the pull to criminal enterprise a strong temptation? Were families living in Harlem? When did they come/ go? What were the black perceptions (beyond grief for a lost age) about what happened in Harlem? Did everyone mourn it's destruction or were their some that found greater freedom outside it's density? Did the Talented Tenth act as a damper on the rage of the masses that broke out into riots when they left? What role did politics play in it's demise? What happened to the criminal element that profited from Prohibition? What was done by the formerly thriving community to try to stall or prevent it's complete disintegration?
  
  If the student wants to dig it and avoid being an Oscar, he cannot just boogie-woogie through the clubs, no matter how captivating the jive.
  
  So, to bring it down to the bricks, I liked this book. I learned a lot and found the visual arts/ graphics, poetry and music particularly refreshing, like a good visit with a deeply appreciated friend. I think if Hill had limited the work to extolling the accomplishments of the Harlem Renaissance, he'd have an excellent and complete work. But in trying to go 'for more,' the book falls short. I find myself wondering what I don't know and inspired to read more to fill out my knowledge, rendering it a valuable, but incomplete resource (the constant inability of minority perspectives to be complete, I know).
  
  (sidebars on pages 76-88 provide a glossary of "Harlem Jive" from The Harlem Renaissance: A Historical Dictionary for the Era)
• 
  Becky Skillin

  Showcasing the historical and sociological causes and aspects of the Harlem Renaissance, this book has an intriguing layout, authentic art, and thoughtful content that held my interest the whole way throughout the 150 pages.
  
  Honestly speaking, I had only intended to skim it, but with fonts, authentic memorabilia—Langston Hughes’s hand-written poem “I’ve Known Rivers” is the final page—and fascinating people (unknown and new to me) this book is a real page turner.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Katie

  A beautiful book with gorgeous artwork, photos, poems, and quotes. I would rate it a lot higher as an independent read. However, as a read-aloud, it definitely had some flow issues, and a lot of very repetitive sections.
• 
  (Lectrice Vorace)

  Very informative. Explores the Harlem Renaissance and discusses the lives and work of notable figures of the era. Excellent resource for research or if you are just interested in reading up on the Harlem Renaissance.
• 
  Andi

  Starting in 1900 and stretching over the next 35 years, this volume highlights the struggles, innovations, celebrations and achievements of Black Americans in and around Harlem, New York. The opening section documents the violent and oppressive climate in America at the turn of the last century, setting the stage for northern migration and the rise of Black creative energy. In music, literature, visual arts, movies, social life and political organization these communities broke through to a new arena.
  
  This book is a delight for middle school and high school students and adults who've heard the names of these great Americans and are interested in seeing where they came from, what they accomplished and how they emerged. Supported with time lines, background information, news articles, playbills, photographs and quotes from the major players. It is colorful, engaging and fascinating to read. This book should be at hand for browsing, shared reading, reference and enjoyment.
• 
  Beth

  I have recently become fascinated with the Harlem Renaissance. When I think of all of the elements of our collective culture that came from that era, I think of how even more of an injustice it was the way African Americans were treated in our country.
  
  This book was an excellent look into all of those elements of Black culture during that time that helped shape our country. I loved how reading felt like looking through a scrapbook of memories - good and bad.
  
  The only reason I gave it 3 stars instead of 4 or 5 is because it did get a bit dry and difficult to follow at times. I honestly think my town's library should not have put this book in the children's section, but in the young adult section instead. I don't think a 9 year old kid is going to be able to appreciate the beauty and complexity of this time period.
• 
  Brenda Lambert

  This book made me realize just how terrible racism is and can be and makes me glad that I live in the time era I do now rather than back in the early 1900's where racism was a lot worse. While NOT being a person who dislikes those of another race (not racists towards non-whites), I particularly found it really upsetting just how bad whites treated blacks and how at the time of the Harlem Renaissance whites couldn't even deal with living in the same neighborhood as a black person or persons. I fully supported the blacks buying out homes to move into so they could live a better life in the North and thought it was incredible how much they contributed to the art, music, literature and history of Harlem.
• 
  Alicia

  I'm sure its purposes for historical information makes it easier to see the value than reading it for pleasure. I didn't necessarily enjoy the content or the busy-ness of each page chock full of Harlem Renaissance tidbits. I thought it would be lighter and more prose-like like Twelve Rounds to Glory that I read on Friday-- it would have made it more enjoyable.
• 
  Jennie

  Harlem Stomp! is a truly stunning book. The photographs, handwritten notes, playbills and other scrapbook memorabilia make this book unique and beautiful to read. The text is accurate and informative and provides an excellent introduction to the Harlem Renaissance.
• 
  Kerrie McCormick

  This book was fascinating! I learned so much about the Harlem Renaissance. It helped me prepare a high school unit plan on the topic. It had great photos and illustrations to depict this time period in our country! I would love to own a copy.
• 
  Zoe

  A beautiful book that combines visual art and historical information to give an overview of the Harlem Renaissance. This book is a keeper, suitable for anyone 10 and over, and a great intro to African American history and the arts.
• 
  Krista the Krazy Kataloguer

  I learned a lot from this book!
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  Rachel

  This book is definitely a good one; I just prefer fiction. Harlem Stomp! Is super educational and good at explaining terms in a non-condescending way kids (and adults) may not know.
• 
  Aurora Dimitre

  |Read for African-American Lit: Harlem Renaissance|