In
the midst of vast cultural and political shifts in the early
twentieth century, politicians and cultural observers variously
hailed and decried the rise of the "New Negro." This
phenomenon was most clearly manifest in the United States through the
outpouring of Black arts and letters and social commentary known as
the Harlem Renaissance. What is less known is how far afield of
Harlem that renaissance flourished--how much the New Negro movement
was actually just one part of a collective explosion of political
protest, cultural expression, and intellectual debate all over the
world.
In
this volume, the Harlem Renaissance "escapes from New York"
into its proper global context. These essays recover the broader New
Negro experience as social movements, popular cultures, and public
behavior spanned the globe from New York to New Orleans, from Paris
to the Philippines and beyond. Escape
from New York
does not so much map the many sites of this early twentieth-century
Black internationalism as it draws attention to how New Negroes and
their global allies already lived. Resituating the Harlem
Renaissance, the book stresses the need for scholarship to catch up
with the historical reality of the New Negro experience. This more
comprehensive vision serves as a lens through which to better
understand capitalist developments, imperial expansions, and the
formation of brave new worlds in the early twentieth century.
Contributors:
Anastasia Curwood, Vanderbilt U; Frank A. Guridy, U of Texas at
Austin; Claudrena Harold, U of Virginia; Jeannette Eileen Jones, U of
Nebraska-Lincoln; Andrew W. Kahrl, Marquette U; Shannon King, College
of Wooster; Charlie Lester; Thabiti Lewis, Washington State U,
Vancouver; Treva Lindsey, U of Missouri-Columbia; David Luis-Brown,
Claremont Graduate U; Emily Lutenski, Saint Louis U; Mark Anthony
Neal, Duke U; Yuichiro Onishi, U of Minnesota, Twin Cities; Theresa
Runstedtler, U at Buffalo (SUNY); T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting,
Vanderbilt U; Michelle Stephens, Rutgers U, New Brunswick; Jennifer
M. Wilks, U of Texas at Austin; Chad Williams, Brandeis U.