University of California - San Diego presentation

Based upon the suggestion of a follower of this blog, Mary Wickline, I was invited to speak about Regina Andrews at the University of California - San Diego Libraries for Black History Month. Despite the snowstorm covering most of the nation, I arrived without incident on Tuesday, February 1st and unfortunately my departure was not delayed at all and I had to return to Wisconsin on Wednesday, February 2nd, despite my objections. The event was wonderful, we had a good turnout and lots of questions. People came from different departments at the university. I'm pictured with the coordinator of the program, Marlayna Christensen (we worked together at Yale University Libraries more than a decade ago). My talk was: "I am American": Regina Andrews and the Harlem Renaissance.

Re: A Royal Harlem Renaissance Wedding

This week there was a review in the New York Times about a play, Knock Me a Kiss, portraying the unsuccessful marriage between W. E. B. Du Bois' daughter, Yolande, and the poet Countee Cullen. The wedding was the major event in Harlem in 1928. Over 3,000 people attended the wedding with another 3,000 people lined up outside the church. The marriage was short-lived. Gossip suggested that the bridegroom was gay. Cullen spent most of his post-wedding time in Paris with the best man, actor Harold Jackman, who co-founded the Harlem Experimental Theatre with Regina and Dorothy Peterson.

Regina most likely attended this wedding. Cullen was the most frequent visitor to the literary salon that Regina hosted and she was a friend of W. E. B. Du Bois. Regina's husband was an assistant usher at the wedding and Regina's former roommate, Ethel Ray Nance, was invited to the wedding. Nance had a copy of the wedding invitation and the exclusive invite to the reception in her collection at the University of California - Berkeley's Bancroft Library.

Paris, France

I just found out that I will be presenting my research on Regina Andrews at a conference, The Collegium of African American Research (CAAR), in April 2011 in Paris. I will be on a panel, Dust Tracks on the Translantic Road: Self-Portraits of African American Women Abroad. My talk is called "The evening under the stars": The Cold War Adventures of an African American Librarian.

Center for Research on Gender and Women

Yesterday I discussed my work on the Regina Andrews' project in a talk, "Checking out Regina Andrews: The Journey of a Black Feminist Biographer," at the University of Wisconsin - Madison's Center for Research on Gender and Women. Last year I was awarded a Feminist Scholar's Fellowship from the program that allowed me to spend a semester working on the project. I was so glad to see so many master's and a few Ph.D. students from my own department attending the presentation.

I included two pictures posted here in my presentation when describing the root of my interest in Regina Andrew's story as a fellow African American librarian. One picture is of me on the day I received my Master's of Library Service in 1993 from Rutgers University and the other is a picture of my I.D. from Yale from my first library job from 1997 -1999.

Book Proposals

Last week I attended the 2010 Conference of Ford Fellows sponsored by the Ford Foundation in Newport Beach, California. I had the opportunity to speak with potential publishers about my book manuscript, Harlem Renaissance Librarian: Regina Andrews. I received a very good response to my pitch and I plan to send out multiple book proposals in the next few weeks. I'm currently revising my proposal and sample chapters to submit for review. I can't wait to receive feedback and hopefully, eventually a book contract!

A digital story about Regina Andrews

I completed a digital story about an incident in the life of Regina Andrews last week at the Center for Digital Storytelling. I intend to make a full-length documentary about Regina. I had a wonderful and productive experience at the Center and I would highly recommend the program. All eight of the participants completed a digital story in just three days.

Berkeley, California

Last week I was in Berkeley, California, staying at the Bancroft Hotel and taking a course at the Center for Digital Storytelling. I also had the opportunity to search the archives of Regina's Harlem Renaissance roommate, Ethel Ray Nance at the University of California - Berkeley's Bancroft Library. Numerous letters in Nance's papers indicated that she had a very close friendship with W.E.B. Du Bois. They used pet names, Marielle and Andre, in much of their correspondence. Nance also offered some insight into the third woman who lived with them, the little-known Louella Tucker. Ethel said, "My third roommate was a good time girl, but we needed her for the rent." Tucker also worked, as a typist, at the offices of Opportunity (the house organ for the National Urban League) with Nance.

The picture shows Nance (far right), then Ethel Ray, in 1922, before moving to New York City in 1923 or 1924. She's from Duluth, Minnesota and was the offspring of a Swedish immigrant woman and an African American man from North Carolina.