Old and New Harlem

I am in Harlem to do additional research on my biography about Regina Andrews at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and the Stephen Schwartzman Building (formerly known as the 42nd Street & Fifth Avenue Branch currently celebrating their 100th anniversary). I am staying at Harlem's first new hotel in nearly 45 years, Aloft. When various African American intellectuals and artists came to Harlem during the Harlem Renaissance they often found housing in Harlem's YMCA/YWCA for "colored" people which until Aloft, was one of few hotel options still in existence in Harlem. Regina actually resided at the mid-town YWCA when she applied for a job at the 42nd Street Branch Library. Did she know about racial customs? Maybe the proprietors of the mid-town YWCA didn't know she was "colored." However, her New York Public Library interviewer declared that she was colored and sent her to Harlem to work at the 135th Street Branch. Regina hadn't been to Harlem at that point and decided to room with a friend who was moving to New York City.

Presentation in Paris

I just returned from a presentation about Regina Andrews at the Collegium for African American Research (CAAR) Conference on "Black States of Desire: Dispossession, Circulation, Transformation." I was part of a panel, Dust Tracks on the Transatlantic Road: Self Portraits of African American Women Abroad, with Dr. Claire Garcia and my friend Dr. Cherene Sherrard-Johnson who organized the panel. Sherrard-Johnson (pictured with me in Paris) spoke about Dorothy West's travels in Russia and Garcia described Anita Thompson's adventures in Paris and Tangiers. Andrews traveled to Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and briefly to South America in the 1950s and 60s.

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!