Finding The Renaissance In You: An Insider's Guide

This is a lecture I give on the Harlem Renaissance. Because I had an insider's view, I try and look at the Renaissance from the perspective of the engineer or producer. Thus, within the 40 minutes of the talk, I create and give you the experience of Renaissance or revival through music. The idea is to help people appreciate and research the concept of rediscovery or reinvention. There are visuals that accompany this which are not available here.

Transcript

So,

Suppose you were just kidnapped,

All of a sudden out of the blue,

You're just hanging out with your friends,

A couple of guys show up,

They overpower you,

And you're never seen ever again,

Gone.

Just like that.

And supposing,

Just hypothetically,

That you were transported all the way across the world,

The other side of the world,

Men,

Women,

And children in the basement of a boat,

There for months,

Suffering from all kinds of diseases.

And suppose you end up in a foreign country like North Korea,

Where you have no idea what is going on,

Or what people are doing,

And why they're doing it,

And everything familiar to you is gone.

You don't understand the language,

You don't understand the culture,

The people,

The food,

The look,

The geography,

The climate,

And you're forced to work as a servant or a slave.

And this happens for multiple generations,

Hundreds of years,

You are considered a second class citizen.

So the question is,

After all that,

And that's all you've known from the time you were a citizen,

How do you go from this to this in just 50 years?

Here the Duke Ellington Orchestra,

Which is composed of African Americans,

Photographed in the 1920s in Harlem.

How do you go from this,

Being sold and treated like property,

To this?

Their British shipping heiress,

Nancy Coonard,

With John Banting,

A painter,

And Taylor Gordon in Harlem,

New York.

How do you go from this,

Where slaves were forbidden to learn,

To read,

Or write,

And were whipped forever thinking that they were equal to their masters,

To something like this?

The answer,

Of course,

And where all these pictures have come from,

Is the Harlem Renaissance.

You have a Renaissance,

You reinvent yourself.

And so it's one thing if you as a person can do that,

But how do you get a group,

A generation,

An entire cohort,

A nation of people to reinvent themselves in that way?

That's what we learn about when we study the Harlem Renaissance,

And that's what we're going to talk about today.

That is how I want to approach it,

Going from the specific to the general,

And looking at it from the perspective of what are some things that you might do if kidnapped,

And then looking at those in the context of the Harlem Renaissance in order to validate it,

To show you the importance of it,

And to look at how we can approach history.

So if you personally were kidnapped or I were kidnapped,

One of the first things I might do is pray.

I might turn to a higher power creator and ask for some type of assistance or meaning or relief from my current predicament.

And in a larger society,

That's the function of religion.

You might try to negotiate with your captors.

You would try to speak with them.

You would try to find out why they chose you,

What it was they wanted or expected.

You might try even to assist them in some way in order to get your release.

You might try to get free by trying to escape,

And this is the equivalent of civil rights,

Like trying to free yourself from whatever is holding you back,

However they have you restrained,

Is the equivalent of what civil rights does in society.

It tries to free people from that which is restraining them,

And these are restraints that others don't have to encounter.

You might call for help.

You may tell people what's going on.

You might try to make a phone call,

Help,

I've been kidnapped.

There's a way of blinking your eyes to let people know that you're in trouble,

And we'll look at how those things play out.

And finally,

Because you're there for a long time or what have you,

You may sing a song or find some kind of positive distraction,

And this is in the creation of art and music and things like that,

That try to take away whatever suffering we have or to provide us a positive distraction,

Something else to think about.

And so from looking at these five behaviors,

We'll look at them in a general sense,

And hopefully you'll feel and learn the secrets of the Harlem Renaissance.

And again,

What we're talking about here is a massive evolution,

A cultural explosion that is both economic and political,

Happening all at once and encouraging the participation of people from all over the world.

That's one way of looking at the concept of Renaissance and certainly the Harlem Renaissance.

And so I'm going to argue that the Harlem Renaissance is the single most important cultural,

Purely cultural event in American history.

Living on the moon is an enormous cultural event,

Yes,

But it is also a scientific event.

And so the Revolutionary War is a military event,

And I'm going to call this just an event of art and literature and economics and politics,

An acceleration all in a short period of time within a specific geographic location,

The Harlem Renaissance.

That's from about the 1920s until the late 1930s.

The person who articulated the name the Harlem Renaissance was a philosopher named Alain Locke.

Alain Locke is considered the father of the Harlem Renaissance.

He is the very first African-American road scholar ever.

And he faced enormous racism and humiliation as a result of that.

In fact,

The Southern delegation refused to accept the scholarship,

The prestige,

The experience of being a road scholar because an African-American would be in their cohort.

And there were similar instances in the United Kingdom as well.

But we want to answer the question,

How do you have a Renaissance?

How do you reinvent yourself?

How do you change your personal narrative?

Because this is what they did.

All right.

And we want to learn how they did that so we can do it different points in our lives.

Finally,

I'm going to tell you from my perspective as an insider,

My grandfather who participated in the Harlem Renaissance.

I think in order to have a Harlem Renaissance,

You really need a person like this man.

Marcus Messiah Garvey,

Born in Jamaica.

Marcus Garvey,

I am going to argue,

Really kicked off the Harlem Renaissance when he brought 35,

000 African-Americans,

Negroes,

Former slaves to Madison Square Garden to kick off the Universal Negro Improvement Association's conference.

This was and had to have been an unprecedented spectacle,

All planned and organized by this man.

The Universal Negro Improvement Association conference was not only the forerunner of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights some 20 years later,

30 years later,

They never gave Garvey the credit for his achievement.

But it also was an enormous international movement,

Drawing people from Panama,

West Africa,

Of course,

Jamaica,

And all parts of the United States who participated in the Universal Negro Improvement Association.

And Garvey also represents the religious aspect because it was Garvey who in a role not unlike John the Baptist with Jesus had foretold of the great coming of Haile Selassie,

The emperor of Ethiopia.

Garvey is the architect,

If you will,

Of the Back to Africa movement and his confidence,

Demeanor,

Words,

Ability,

Everything about him began to show African-American people,

Former slaves,

That they had a history beyond slavery and that history was Africa.

And this kicked off an entire religious movement,

Which is at its center of the Rastafarian movement,

But at its borders is everything within the diaspora where people are proud of or looking back to or acknowledging their African heritage.

Kind of starts with Garvey.

Garvey is the person who tells you to look back in pride with that.

And so this is,

I believe,

I would say from my perspective,

The foundation,

The kickoff,

The tip off,

The key ingredient to spark a renaissance.

It is looking back into your heritage and finding that which you can build upon and bringing it to the present.

And this is what Garvey was really speaking about.

And you know,

The Rastafarian movement as a religious movement sought to avoid slavery and domination and anything suspected of that for all human beings,

Irregardless of race or gender or anything.

It was seeking that sort of indigenous freedom that pre-contact societies had enjoyed and in which people like him ultimately flourished.

Garvey you can't say despite owning two ships,

You know,

Garvey was taken down by racism pretty much.

And so the Rastafarian movement is very anti-racist.

You know what I mean?

It's a reaction to the slavery and the diaspora.

And so it makes it a kind of a post-colonial,

One of the first post-colonial religions.

So going back over Garvey founded the Rastafarian religion,

Really kicked off the Harlem Renaissance,

An amazing organizer and a true visionary for the Back to Africa movement.

And the secret is that all of these things really start with Marcus Garvey.

So the next thing you might do is try to negotiate with your captors.

You might try to speak,

Guys,

Why do you have me kidnapped?

Now this image shows a British shipping heiress who was responsible for publishing an 880 page Britannica type encyclopedia of the Negro,

As she called it.

And here she's photographed with a painter and a writer also from the Harlem Renaissance.

And so the negotiation led to what was called the Miss Annie,

Or Miss Anne,

Who was the white woman who supported or financially tried to cross over,

If you will,

To do something.

And it was out of a sort of a moral disposition for the African American people,

But in their own way,

That was how the African Americans were trying to communicate to their captors.

And so these white women had become the go-betweens.

And so their role was really important.

But it was really through the music.

And here you see Duke Ellington and my grandfather,

Cab Calloway.

These guys were the first African Americans really to get on the mass media type of scale.

And using things like radio,

Magazines,

Advertisements,

As you see here,

They really got into people's households and this was really the crossover again or the introduction.

They paved the way for the African American culture to come.

And they did it through,

As you can see in the picture,

Enormous cooperation with all kinds of people.

Duke Ellington helped Cab's career.

So did Louis Armstrong.

Cab turned around and prided himself in helping other people from Michael Jackson to Nat King Cole,

Pearl Bailey,

A whole list of people who they all cooperated together to nurture each other and others to come.

They were their very first audience,

If you will.

And so by collaborating and cooperating,

The African Americans created this important,

Purely cultural event in American history.

Again,

Langston Hughes cooperating with and helping Zora Neale Hurston,

Et cetera.

And as a result of all of these people working together across gender and across race and across class and across nations,

The woman was from England,

Traditions such as fashion,

Politics,

Religion,

Music,

Literature,

And poetry that continue to this day,

Such as the Back to Africa movement.

And the secret is the fact that it was the music which was the bridge that bound them together.

The music was really the first integrator.

It was the first truly civilization-wide acceptable avenue and platform and way of saying that these are people.

These are not animals or objects or things to be owned.

They are human beings.

And the fact that music,

Even though people like Benjamin Banneker had tried through mathematics,

In fact,

It was music that captured the popular imagination.

So what are some other things you might do if kidnapped?

You might try to get free.

And as we said,

Every time you see a we're proud to be Black movement,

It really stemmed from the Harlem Renaissance.

That's when all of this stuff began to become organized and communicated,

Condensed.

And so by looking back to Africa,

The Black Americans,

Including Marcus Garvey,

Gained the confidence and the self-esteem to view themselves as human beings and equal to others.

And in seeing themselves as equal,

They began to see themselves as unique and through things like the Rastafarian movement developed a love for diversity.

And so most of the successful practitioners of the Harlem Renaissance,

Ironically,

Like my grandfather,

Came from families of organizers or what I would call organized families.

So my great-great grandfather,

Andrew Reed,

Was practicing civil rights and organizing prior to my grandfather and my grand aunt who saw them performing in this role.

And naturally,

I believe,

Used that as role models to pick up the levels of organization that they would need in order to construct bands and have a successful 70-year career in the music industry.

And so another thing you might do is call for help.

You might try to tell people what is going on with you.

And in this instance,

What I'd like to look at is the stand-up comics,

If you will.

And I believe Langston Hughes of the Harlem Renaissance,

With a number of stories called the Just Be Simple stories,

Is really the first one to begin to look at the situation as dark as it is from a perspective of humor.

And he talks about his own people and white people in ways that are forbidden and looked down upon and frowned upon,

But he's able to get away with it through his wit.

And the same thing comes along with Dick Gregory,

And these two really built upon each other.

They enjoyed each other.

I don't know that Dick Gregory and Langston Hughes were great friends,

But Dick Gregory and Malcolm X were great friends.

But Dick Gregory does the same thing.

He talks about people,

Especially his own people,

In ways that were forbidden or potentially frowned down upon in this sort of no-holds-barred,

I'm going to tell you the absolute truth thing without the kind of subtlety and stuff of Langston Hughes.

And then finally,

You have Malcolm X,

Who builds upon both of these guys and begins to articulate this,

Again,

No-holds-barred,

The bullet or the ballot,

This type of language which is forbidden,

And yet they are able to turn it into a form of humor.

And what happens is it becomes a lot more aggressive as time goes on.

I think that's something really interesting to look at and to build upon in future research as we see how the communication style changes with different platforms and mediums and stuff.

Each of these guys coming from different perspectives,

Langston Hughes,

A pure artist,

Dick Gregory,

A stand-up comic,

And then Malcolm X,

A religious leader.

So you've got this cooperation happening across different facets of society as well in the Harlem Renaissance.

And each of these guys telling people the truth,

But by disguising their true feelings through song and through poetry and the spoken word,

In this way,

The Black Americans of the Harlem Renaissance universalized their struggle.

They did not share their true feelings like Malcolm X did.

They disguised them.

And so in creating this newfound understanding,

A buzz was created that popularized the movement.

There was a lot of depth and people were pleased because it was like a puzzle they had to figure out,

If you will.

And so it helped people to understand the struggle through art as opposed to lashing out through violence or pure naked anger or what have you.

By creating through art,

It mitigates that tendency in some way.

And so,

Yeah,

Each of these are just as the modern hip-hop movement trying to tell people what is going on in the Black community.

And finally,

To sing a song like a positive distraction to create art.

So I'm going to play for you the Stunt Song by my grandfather,

Cab Calloway.

And it's hard to tell what this song is about.

So just take a look at it and we'll talk about it afterwards.

The little red fox and the three little pigs are really famous fellas.

Yes,

All our friends are big shots now.

It's the one that would yell us.

Oh,

Nobody loves us.

We hang our heads in shame.

Nobody loves us.

We're oh so nice and tame.

Say nobody loves us.

It really is a bump.

Nobody loves us because we're just for skunks.

Big bad wolf with his pig appetite.

A greedy guy,

Now isn't he?

All he does is brag about the dough he made with Disney.

Oh,

Nobody loves me.

My spirit sure is low.

Oh,

Nobody loves me for the reasons you all know.

Nobody loves me.

My best friend said I stunk.

Nobody loves me.

Only got them.

Almost got them.

Oh,

Felix the cat is wealthy and fat.

Yes,

He was.

He moved into the city.

When did he move?

He said,

I'm sure,

Young man,

That you're the other kind of a kitty.

Oh,

Nobody loves me.

I have no self respect.

Nobody loves me.

My life's a total wreck.

Yes,

You are.

Now,

Nobody loves me.

My pride has shrunk and shrunk.

Yes,

It has.

Nobody loves me.

Wait a minute.

On a card,

You ain't nothing but a skunk.

Now he has a new car,

That Mickey the mouse.

It has a powerful motor.

He passed me by and yelled,

Hey,

Guy,

You have a powerful odor.

Hey,

Nobody loves you.

I don't mean to offend.

Hey,

Nobody loves you.

But you haven't got a friend.

No,

Nobody loves me.

I guess I've lost my sparkle.

Nobody loves me.

On a card,

I ain't nothing but a skunk.

I guess I ain't nothing but a skunk.

Wow,

So an amazing performance.

And this taking place,

This is about 1947,

1948,

But it still is a throwback to the Harlem Renaissance in the way that the lyrics really are referencing cartoon figures.

And yet the person is saying nobody loves them.

It seems like an odd combination or what have you,

But it's a way of disguising what is the true meaning of the song,

Which I'm going to argue that this is a song about being a mixed blood person,

Being both black and white,

Because it has references of being disregarded.

It has references of not being their kind,

Which speaks to race.

And it has this thing about odor,

Which people do drive by.

If you're an other,

People will drive by the street and scream at you for whatever reason.

But that is a common experience.

Among people that look like Cab Calloway and the rest of his orchestra.

And so what I want to do now is show a recent interpretation of the song by a band in the Netherlands.

The little red fox and the three little pigs are really famous fellas.

Yes,

All our friends are big shots now.

It's no wonder that we're jealous.

Oh,

Nobody loves us.

We hang on.

Nobody loves us.

We're also nice and tame.

Say,

Nobody loves us.

It really is a fun.

Nobody loves us because we're just poor snots.

We're the big bad wolf with his big appetite.

Squeak,

I say.

All he does is brag about the dough he made with dinner.

For nobody loves me.

My spirit sure is low.

Nobody loves me for the reasons you all know.

Nobody loves me.

My best friend said I stunk.

Nobody loves me on the gat that I'm a skunk.

Oh Felix the cat is wealthy and fat.

He moved into the city.

That's right.

He said I'm sure young man that you're the other kind of a kitty.

Oh no.

Nobody loves me.

Uh huh.

I have no self-respect.

Sure is.

Nobody loves me.

My life's a total wreck.

Yes you are.

Nobody loves me.

My pride has shrunk and shrunk.

Uh huh it is.

Nobody loves me.

Now wait a minute on the common.

You're a skunk.

Now he has a new car that make you the mouse.

It has a powerful motor.

He passes the car.

He's got a new car.

He's got a new car.

He's got a new car.

He's got a new car.

He's got a new car.

He's got a new car.

He's got a new car.

He's got a new car.

He passes me by and yells hey guy.

You have a powerful motor.

Hey nobody loves you.

I don't mean to offend.

Hey nobody loves you.

And I haven't got a friend.

No nobody loves me.

I guess I lost my spark.

Nobody loves me.

On the count I am nothing but a skunk.

So you know a really good interpretation of the song as it is.

But I don't get the impression that they understand the meaning of the song.

And go back to the first version of Callaway where he understands the meaning of the song but he is not going to give you the impression that you should in any way feel uncomfortable or uh you know what I mean.

Disengaged from uh feeling good you know what I mean and happy and stuff like that.

And so it's uh very interesting and then you take an entirely third interpretation which I'm about to do in which I am con you know that sort of aggressive style.

A conscious of the lyrics and their meaning and expressing it in a modern style.

Hey the little red fox and the three little pigs are really famous fellas.

Yes all our friends are big shots now.

It's a wonder that we're jealous.

Nobody loves us.

We hang our heads in shame.

Nobody loves us.

We're oh so nice and tame.

Nobody loves us.

It really is a bummer.

Nobody loves us because we're just poor scones.

Hey the big bad wolf with his big appetite.

A greedy guy that is him.

All he does is brag about the dough he made with this thing.

Yeah nobody loves me.

My spirit sure is love.

Nobody loves me for the reasons you all know.

Nobody loves me.

Best friend said a star.

Nobody loves me.

On account I ain't nothing but a skunk.

Yeah you have a new car.

Nobody loves me.

My life's a total wreck.

Nobody loves me.

And I have no self-respect.

Nobody loves me.

My pride is shrunk and shrunk.

Nobody loves me.

On account I ain't nothing but a skunk.

Yeah you have a new car.

Nobody loves me.

Best friend said a star.

Nobody loves me.

Nobody loves me.

I ain't nothing but a skunk.

Yeah you have a new car.

That Mickey Mouse it has a powerful motor.

He passed me by and yelled,

Hey guy you have a powerful odor.

Nobody loves me.

I don't need to obey.

Nobody loves me.

And I haven't got a friend.

Nobody loves me.

I guess I lost my spine.

Nobody loves me.

On account I ain't nothing but a skunk.

I guess I ain't nothing but a skunk.

So hopefully you see three different interpretations.

How they take place,

You know,

Over time.

How the Harlem Renaissance still relevant today.

These things have aged well.

I mean they're still important topics.

And so it's still really relevant that if you take things from the past and bring them into the present and find new meaning and context,

You're building on the platform of those that have gone on before.

And so that makes it easier on yourself.

You don't have to reinvent the wheel.

And you pay homage to your ancestors who are ultimately the ones who placed you here.

You know,

When my father would ever begin a speech,

He would always ask,

Why are you here?

And the answer he would say is because your ancestors placed you here.

And that,

You know,

Really makes sense.

And hopefully you learned,

You know,

How you might respond in a kidnap situation,

But also from just trauma in general.

Any kind of difficult situation in your life,

How some things you might apply to mitigate the experience that you're having when you're going through a tough time.

And finally,

I hope that you experienced the Harlem Renaissance firsthand.

You know,

Not a lot of the people who participated in the Harlem Renaissance had children.

And so I'm kind of a relic or a throwback to that period and consider myself thus an ambassador or a envoy of the Renaissance.

And so I am going to encourage you to research,

Place it in context and find your place within the Harlem Renaissance,

This ongoing evolution of American culture.

And you know,

There's a lot more information about it.

You can find it,

You know,

Through my QR code.

And I just really want to thank you for your time and attention and hope that you'll want to learn more as a result.

All right.

This has been A