African Americans
3 Harlem Renaissance Novels Deliver An Ingenious Take On Race
Book critic Maureen Corrigan has been reading some newly reprinted novels from the Harlem Renaissance. She says these novels about American racism hardly feel dated at all.
New Chester Himes Biography Reveals A Life As Wild As Any Detective Story
Maureen Corrigan reviews a new biography of Chester Himes, who published his first novel in the 1940s and was hailed as a worthy member of an elite company of black intellectuals and writers like Ralph Ellison and Richard Wright. Now his literary legacy is largely forgotten. This new biography hopes to change that.
Horace Tapscott's Giant Re-Awakened In A Reissue
Horace Tapscott led a big band in 1969, but his debut was for a quintet drawn from its ranks. Fresh Air jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews a reissue of The Giant is Awakened.
New Compilation Features Fifty Years Of Gospel
Fresh Air music critic Milo Miles reviews Classic African American Gospel, a Smithsonian Folkways "Classic" that spans over a half century of recordings. Featuring Reverend Gary Davis, Sonny Terry and others, the compilation illustrates a truly American musical tradition.
Two Republished Pulps Provide More Sociological Insights than Pleasure
Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews two novels from the series,"Old School Books": "The Angry Ones" by John A. Williams and "The Scene" by Clarence Cooper, Jr. "Old School Books" is a reprint series of black pulp novels originally published between the mid 1950s and the 1970s.
An Interracial Relationship Stirs Controversy in Dorothy West's New Novel
Commentator Maureen Corrigan reviews "The Wedding," by Dorothy West, one of the last surviving members of the Harlem Renaissance.
African Americans Get Their Due in the New Western "Posse"
Jazz Critic Kevin Whitehead fills in for our regular film reviewer Stephen Schiff. Whitehead reviews "Posse," a new Western by Mario Van Peebles.
Spike Lee's Malcolm X Biopic is "Smart and Even-Tempered"
Film critic Stephen Schiff reviews Spike Lee's new movie, starring Denzel Washington. Schiff praises the film for how it gives each phase in X's life equal weight.
"Mo' Money" Written, Produced, and Starring Daman Wayans
Film critic Stephen Schiff reviews Wayan's new comedy film. While Schiff admires his ambition, he says the movie is short on humor and offers fraught messages about women, race, and class.
Fleshing Out the History of Frederick Douglass
Critic Maureen Corrigan reviews a new biography of the former slave, writer, and abolitionist by Pulitzer Prize-winning author William McFeely. The book fills in the many gaps and silences in all three of Douglass's autobiographies.