Douglas, Aaron (1899–1979)
Aaron Douglas was an African American artist and educator often referred to as the father of “Black Art.” He was a leading figure of the…
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Foxtrot
The foxtrot emerged circa 1914, most likely within African American practices, as a variation on the older duple meter one step popular with dancers since…
Harlem Nightclubs
In the 1920s and 1930s, Harlem became a major hub of New York City nightlife and a prolific space for African American artistic creation. It…
Lawrence, Jacob (1917–2000)
Jacob Lawrence was an artist and educator, as well as the first African American artist of the 20th century to achieve critical acclaim and sustained…
Spiral
Spiral was a collective of African American artists that briefly formed in New York City between 1963 and 1966. Romare Bearden and Norman Lewis were…
Jook House
The jook house (also juke joint), an African American institution found mainly in semiurban areas in the Southern United States, is an important cultural phenomenon…
Black Bottom
The Black Bottom dance began as an early twentieth-century African American social dance in the Southern United States. It later entered the American mainstream via…
Modern Negro Art
Modern Negro Art by James A. Porter (1905–1970) is a ground-breaking historical study of African American art from slavery to the early 20th century. The…
Woodruff, Hale A. (1900–1980)
Hale A. Woodruff was an African American painter and educator associated with the Negro Renaissance and later with the New York Abstract Expressionists. Woodruff studied…
The Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance was a flourishing of artistic, intellectual, musical, and literary accomplishments by African Americans between the World Wars. The movement took its name…
Jazz Dancing
Jazz dancing is an important modern art form that developed in tandem with jazz music between the 1910s and 1940s in America. Emanating from African-American…
Guy, Edna (1907–1983)
Edna Guy was a major figure in establishing African-American modern dance in the 1930s. Grounded in the technique of her mentor Ruth St. Denis, Guy…
Walker, Aida Overton (1880–1914)
Aida Overton Walker (born Ada Wilmore Overton) was one of the first female African-American stars of vaudeville, and perhaps the first to be recognized as…
Grimké, Angelina Weld (1880–1958)
African American poet, fiction writer, and playwright Angelina Weld Grimké was born in Boston in 1880, the daughter of Sarah Stanley, who was White, and…
Free Jazz
Free Jazz emerged in the late 1950s out of the ongoing negotiation of the American jazz tradition. By the mid-twentieth century, this African-American musical tradition…
Dance
Historically, modern dance scholarship has followed the contours of the field as defined by John Martin, the revered dance critic for The New York Times,…
Modernism in Canada and The United States
In Canada and the United States modernism emerges from transnational engagements with global intellectual movements while also grappling with local intellectual, cultural, and political developments…
Collins, Janet (1917–2003)
Magical on stage, elusive off stage, Janet Collins was an enigmatic and complex presence in twentieth-century dance. As the first full-time African American ballerina at…
Dehn, Mura (1903–1987)
Mura Dehn was a dancer, choreographer, writer and filmmaker whose work focussed on African-American vernacular jazz dance. Her greatest contribution to Modernism and jazz discourses…
McKayle, Donald (1930–)
In the mid-twentieth century, Donald McKayle became known for creating powerful modern dance works dealing with contemporary African-American experiences. He also helped break down color…
Washington, Booker T. (1856–1915)
Born into slavery in Virginia, Booker Taliaferro Washington was the most prominent spokesman for Black Americans at the end of the 19th century. After attending…
Page, Ruth (1899–1991)
Ruth Page was a Chicago-based dancer, choreographer, and director of ballet companies whose experimentalism, disregard for genre boundaries, and affinity for collaboration led her in…
Van Vechten, Carl (1880–1964)
Carl Van Vechten (b. 17 June 1880, Cedar Rapids, Iowa; d. 21 December 1964, New York City) was an American writer who wrote about music,…
Hughes, Langston (1902–1967)
Langston Hughes was one of the most accomplished, influential writers of the 20th century. Influenced by the inclusive ‘I’ of Walt Whitman and the musical…
One Step
In the years before the entry of the United States into World War I, the One Step replaced the Two Step as the common popular…