Women of the Harlem Renaissance

WORD-WONDERS... Marita Bonner was a prolific writer of short stories, essays, and plays. With a lyrical, imaginative, and sometimes experimental writing style, she addressed themes of racism, gender bias, and economic hardship.

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WORDWEAVER: Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson (1875-1935) was a prolific writer, a diligent activist, and an essential contributor to the Harlem Renaissance.

(See Essential Short Stories by Women of the Harlem Renaissance: Vol 1.)

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I 💙 Jasmine.....

Happy Birthday to Harlem Renaissance artist Laura Wheeler Waring (May 26, 1887-Feb 3, 1948). Her drawing for the April 1926 cover of The Crisis, a periodical founded by W.E.B. Du Bois, won honorable mention in a 1925 art and literature contest.
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Look for the Halesite Press booth, offering distinctive Harlem Renaissance anthologies and magazine reproductions. Long Island, NY ❤️
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Anne Spencer was a widely anthologized Harlem Renaissance poet and activist. In 1973, she became one of the first African American women poets featured in the Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry.
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Harlem Renaissance poet Anne Spencer wedding photo

Anne Spencer is a celebrated Harlem Renaissance poet and activist. Her home in Lynchburg VA, the hub of her diligent activism and Harlem Renaissance literary salons, is now the Anne Spencer House & Garden Museum.
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Essential Short Stories by Women of the Harlem Renaissance

Jessie Redmon Fauset's passport photo superimposed on a world map, labeled Border Crossings.

Jessie Fauset, a 1921 Pan-African Congress delegate, was nearly denied a passport. The government had to be convinced, by references & interviews, that the female editor of one of the first Black periodicals was “a worthy citizen.”

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The Black Finger, a poem by Angelina Weld Grimké
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A portrait of Angelina Weld Grimke at 16

A passionate and prolific writer, Angelina Grimké’s impressive body of poetry focuses on love and longing. Her short stories and her ground-breaking play, Rachel, were strong indictments of racial injustice.
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Lucy Ariel Williams (later using her married name, Ariel Williams Halloway) was an accomplished poet and pianist. One of her early poems, “Northboun’,” shared first and second prize with “No Images” by Waring Cuney in Opportunity’s 1926 literary contest.

In national Harlem Renaissance literary contests, NEARLY HALF of the award-winning poems were by WOMEN. This first-place poem by Lucy Ariel Williams is distinct because Williams did what women weren't expected to do—use dialect.

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On Dec 3, 1927, W.E.B. Du Bois gathered writers and editors at the Civic Club in NYC to celebrate the winners of the 1927 national literary contest. The women stole the show in the category of Literary Art and Expression. Three of the winners were Marita Bonner, Brenda Moryck, and Eulalie Spence.