Patrick Bade
Harlem Renaissance

Patrick Bade - Harlem Renaissance

- I’m going to start off by taking you back to New York in the 1920s with a very beautiful jazz record. I’ve played a little, just an excerpt from it, before, but I’d like to play you more of it now. This is Creole Love Song by Duke Ellington. It’s the Duke Ellington Band. And the vocal, the wordless vocal, is Adelaide Hall. And I think I mentioned before how this came about. She was listening to the band rehearsing, and she improvised the vocal line over the top. And Duke Ellington liked it so much, he incorporated it in the recording. Yeah, amazingly, Adelaide Hall was still singing that nearly 70 years later. And I heard her sing it twice actually, in London. Once at Pizza On The Park and once at the Festival Hall on her 90th birthday. This is Harlem, and I’m sure you all know it’s a district of New York. And it’s immediately above Central Park. and it’s bounded by the Hudson River on the west and the East River on the east. And 155th Street is the top end of Harlem. And it’s a part of New York that has seen many population shifts. Different ethnic communities have lived there at different times. And it’s had its ups and downs. In some ways, it’s rather like Spitalfields in London, in the way that different waves of immigrants have come. First of all, of course, it was the Dutch, and in the 18th century, it was just a small village some distance from New York that was burned down by the British during the American War of Independence. And it was in the mid 19… In the 1860s, in a boom period of expansion for New York, that it was urbanised. And these very handsome red stone terraces were constructed, suggesting that it was a reasonably prosperous area in the middle of the 19th century. But towards the end of the century, Italians came, Italian immigrants, and Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe.

And then in the early 1900s, they began to be replaced by blacks coming from the south. They were looking for work, of course, in the big cities. They came to other big cities, Chicago, in the 1920s. And they were fleeing from racial persecution. Of course, the term “pogrom,” which is very familiar to all of us, was coined for massacres and persecutions of Jews in Eastern Europe, but it’s not a phenomenon that was just confined to Jews in Eastern Europe. And there were programmes in the southern part of the United States. Notoriously, a whole section of the city of Tulsa was attacked and burned down, and a couple of hundred people were slaughtered in 1921. And there were, of course, the so-called Jim Crow Laws that really affected people’s lives. So institutionalised racial persecution, and the horrid, horrible phenomenon of lynching, with this carrying on right up until the Second World War, of people being accused of crime, sometimes perfectly innocent people, and lynched. So there was a lot of motivation for black Americans to travel north to New York. But this is the black… The Afro-American section of Tulsa after the 1921 attacks. And this is a protest in New York in 1917 against similar attacks that took place in East St. Louis. And this horrific image, of course, of a lynching, which, as I said, was a fact of life in the southern states. So in the 20s, 20s was, I would say, a happy time for Harlem. It was a prosperous period leading up to, of course, to the Wall Street crash that changes everything in the 1930s.

But so by the 1930s, in fact, 70% of the population of Harlem was Afro-American. And a picture like this, I think, from the clothes here, this must be the very beginning of the 1930s. So… In fact, probably just before the effects of the Great Depression really kicked in. So Harlem had developed this vibrant street life, vibrant cultural life, that attracted people from all over the world. Here are two Europeans who came to Harlem in the 20s and were very inspired by it. On the right is the French composer, Darius Milhaud. He came to America in 1922 and he visited the jazz clubs of Harlem and that directly inspired his masterpiece, the ballet “La Création du monde,” which uses idioms borrowed from Black American jazz composers. And on the left, the British painter, Edward… Burra, Edward Burra, who went and made a whole… Actually, they’re probably his most famous works; A whole series of wonderful images of the street life and the nightlife of Harlem around about 1930. This man is called Du Bois. He is the… He was the very first Afro-American… WEB Du Bois, born in 1868. He was… See, what a very beautiful man he was as a young man, very handsome face. And he came from… I’m not sure if the word “assimilated” really applies here, but it was a black family who was certainly integrated into the community and highly cultured, and he was the first black graduate of Harvard University. And so he was a philosopher, sociologist, and you could say he was an activist. And a great inspiration to this cultural flowering that I’m going to be talking about tonight that is associated with Harlem. He was a founder member of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People right at the beginning of the century.

And he’s also a founder member of something called the Niagara Movement. Here, you see members of the Niagara Movement with very much the same idea. So he’s very keen on promoting consciousness of, and pride, in black culture. And he was also keen to encourage people, black Americans, to explore their African roots and origins. Now, the real inspiration for this talk is a book that actually my mother found in a junk shop in Deal, and this would’ve been in the 1970s. And she was attracted by the beautiful art deco graphics, and she gave me this book because I’m a passionate fan of art deco. So that was the initial interest for me in the book, was its visual appearance. But it is… And I’m very, very thrilled to have this book. And it now is, of course, a great collector’s item. If you have an original copy, it’s actually worth quite a lot of money. And it… It is almost like the Bible of the so-called Harlem Renaissance. Came out in 1925. It was edited by a writer and intellectual called Alain Locke. And it was illustrated by an artist called Winold Reiss. I’ll talk a little bit more about him in a minute. But that is actually… Now, I mean, I suppose everything in America to do with race is incredibly fraught at the moment, and I probably will put my foot in it repeatedly in this lecture. And there’ll probably be lots of comments at the end about dreadful things that I’ve said, or words that I’ve used that people don’t approve of. What can I do? I’m an old person and not necessarily up to speed on all the latest PC ideas, although I’d like to be.

But one of the controversies about this book… As I said, it’s become a great classic. It’s been reissued. And some of the reissues actually have got rid of the colour illustrations by Winold Reiss. I think that’s a great pity ‘cause I think there are some Afro-Americans who feel they’d… This is such an important book, and they don’t like the fact that these very, very beautiful illustrations are not by a black artist, 'cause Winold Reiss was actually born in Germany and came to America as a young man, and I’ll tell you a little bit more about him in a minute. Here is Alain Locke, and he’s a generation younger than Du Bois, but followed in his footsteps and also graduated from Harvard University. Very versatile writer. And really, he is the great prophet, you could say, of the Harlem Renaissance. Here are two portraits of him, one by a Winold Reiss on the left hand side. And so another person who figures largely in the Harlem Renaissance, and in the book “The New Negro,” because straight away I can see that that title, for some people, may be problematic. I think we’ve got ourselves tied up in so many knots, really, about language and vocabulary. And as I said, I don’t feel very, very sure of myself in navigating these dangerous waters. But this is Langston Hughes, and he was, I suppose, the leading Afro-American poet of his generation. Also a playwright, also a novelist. A man who was descended both from slaves. Well, I suppose every single person I’m talking about in this lecture was descended from slaves, some more recently than others. But he… It’s two or three generations back with him. But he was a descendant both of slaves and of course of slave owners. And he found his way as a poet in a very odd way, in a way that he felt slightly resentful about. He describes how in his school, it was a white school. There were only two black kids in his class. And he had an English language teacher who was very interested in poetry, and very preoccupied with the idea of rhythm in poetry.

And so he delegated Langston Hughes to be the class poet because he was black. Well, it turned out to be a good thing for him. But he said, of course, it was really a cliche, the idea that black people got rhythm. And he pointed out that. He said, “We are not necessarily aware of it ourselves, "but that’s what people say about us.” Again, a very beautiful art deco, slightly cubist… The background anyway, in a sort of decorative way by Winold Reiss on the right hand side. And another important black poet of this time, Countee Cullen, who was a protege of Alain Locke. Both of them had big, big problems, not just with their race and the colour of their skin. They had to… More profoundly in a way, I suppose, that both were homosexual, and in some… And that was a real dumb whammy, I suppose, at this time in the 1920s. To have a dark skin and to be homosexual was to be doubly an outsider. As I said, the book is absolutely gorgeous. I took this photograph from my own copy of the book, and you can see these lovely woodcut designs in the book. Here is Winold Reiss. He arrived, as I said, as a young man in America. And this is a very characteristic drawing by him. So you could say, I suppose, his style is a very European style. Although he was German, I can see a connection here. I think he must have been very aware of Vienna Secession. It’s got a… The decorative quality is not a million miles from Klimt and Viennese artists. When he first arrived, he became very involved with Native Americans. He was obviously somebody who was interested in different cultures. And these are characteristic works by him. But then, he becomes directly involved with the Black American community and with the Harlem Renaissance.

Here is his portrait of Du Bois on the right hand side. And on the left, another great activist and warrior, you could say, on the behalf of Civil Rights, the singer, Paul Robe… And actor, Paul Robeson, on the left hand side. So Winold Reiss became very directly involved with the cultural scene, and he encouraged Black American artists to develop their own style. And he was a mentor to, I suppose, the best known of the artists associated with the Harlem Renaissance, which is Aaron Douglas. Here he is in old age. And he is particularly known for his murals, again, with a… Very, very decorative. This, of course, great period between the wars of… Mural painting, often with a political agenda. And of course, there were the great Mexican muralists and so on, like Diego Rivera, who had a very big influence on all of this. And his murals that he painted for public buildings trace the history of black Americans, you can see here an image of slavery, and also celebrate Afro-American cultural achievements. You can see the man here in the centre, holding up a saxophone. And also, as encouraged by Du Bois and Alain Locke, going back to his African origins is another… The big scale mural paintings by Aaron Douglas. And these are woodcut illustrations he made for the… The play, “Emperor Jones,” which of course was an important vehicle for Paul Robeson. And so, there are other artists, younger artists, again, in turn, encouraged by Aaron Douglas, who celebrate the street life, and the nightlife, and the spiritual life of Afro-Americans in Harlem. This is an artist called Allan Crite, dates 1910 to 2007. And another painting by Allan Crite, again, showing the street life of Harlem. This is an artist called Archibald Motley. This is a self… Rather impressive self portrait. His dates are 1891 to 1981. When I was putting together this lecture, I was very impressed by the longevity, extraordinary longevity, of so many of the writers and artists associated with Harlem. I mean, this is all very, very speculative, but I have talked about this before in other contexts, how certain art movements have greater life… The artists or people involved with them seem to have greater or lesser lifespans.

Obviously, Romantics dying young mostly, and Impressionists dying old. And I think there must be some explanation, but as I said, it’s all very, very speculative. This is Archibald Motley, lively, noisy street life of Harlem, and the religious life. Christianity is so important for many Afro-Americans. It’s always… I may be really setting off a few debates here, but to me, it is actually slightly puzzling why so many Afro-Americans and Afro-Brits of Jamaican origin are so strongly attached to Christianity. I mean, of course, in London and in Paris, if you go into a church on Sunday and you look at the congregation, a very, very high proportion of the congregation will be people with dark skins. I say I’m surprised 'cause, in some ways, you could argue also that… Well, I think Christianity has been a very double-edged thing as far as people of African origin are concerned. People found justifications for slavery in the Bible, and the Christianity was often used… Really, it was weaponized. And missionaries and so on. I mean, of course, there were missionaries who did wonderful things and good things, but they were often also, I would say, an instrument of oppression. This is another one of the artists strongly associated with the Harlem Renaissance. This is Lois Mailou Jones. And you can see, she’s another artist who is keen to reconnect with African origins. Now, I suppose, for most of us, the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, what it conjures up is nightlife, cabarets, speakeasies. 'Cause remember, from 1919 to 1933, you’ve got prohibition.

And this had very, very profound effects on American society. And Harlem was a place where you could go to get… You could go to many places and get illicit booze, and you could, at the same time, listen to jazz. It’s the real birth… Not exactly, no, 'cause New Orleans and Chicago are really the birthplaces of jazz. But this was where jazz really flowered in the 1920s. And above all, at the legendary Cotton Club. This was a club that was opened in 1923 and it lasted until 1940. And it became a showcase for Africa… Afro-American musical talent. Everybody who was anybody appeared. You can see here, the poster advertising Bill Bojangles Robinson and Cab Callaway. It had the greatest jazz bands of the period were the house bands. Duke Ellington on the left, Count Basie on the right hand side. This is… Oh God, what’s his name? I’m losing it again. The great jazz trumpeter, Louis Armstrong, yeah, yes. Before everybody dashes to their computers to tell me. Cad Calloway on the left hand side, Ethel Waters, they were regular… Put in regular appearances at the Cotton Club. The Adelaide Hall, who you heard, and Billie Holiday, who I’m going to be talking about in a week or so. They also appeared there. The Mills Brothers. The wonderful Nicholas Brothers, they made their first appearances there before going on to star in Hollywood films. And so, Cotton Club. Here, you see those yellow american taxis… Well, it’s black and white, but you can imagine. Yellow taxis all arriving, bringing wealthy, sophisticated people from downtown up to, I suppose, in a way, slum it at the Cotton Club, get their booze, and get some fantastic musical entertainment.

But it was white people. I mean, initially the Cotton Club, it was black people on the stage and white people in the audience, and very strict segregation. Black people could not go to performances at the Cotton Club. And this is an image of, as you can see, of… Well, there is a black person in that image, but he’s a waiter there. There are the two. All the clients there, as you can see, are white, and well-heeled, and elegant. And on stage, the girls. There were beautiful girls but they were categorised as black, but in fact they were mostly quite paled skinned because that was the kind of beauty that appealed to the white audiences. And here again, chorus girls at the Cotton Club. Scantily dressed. Not quite as scantily dressed as they would’ve been in Paris, of course, at the same time. And so, Cab Callaway, he’s an absolute key figure in all of this. Very, very influential. And developed this kind of patois, special Harlem language, that he uses in his performances. So here is a recording of Cab Calloway.

♪ It was up at Mike’s the other night ♪ ♪ That was really quite a sight ♪ ♪ Gather around folks ♪ ♪ While I give you all the lowdown ♪ ♪ It’s a mess too ♪ ♪ Tables were filled with bloody frails ♪ ♪ Chewing on their fingernails ♪ ♪ They were waiting for the man from Harlem ♪ ♪ Drinks were served six bits a throw ♪ ♪ Things were moving kind of slow ♪ ♪ Everybody’s nerves were getting jumpy ♪ ♪ All at once the room was still ♪ ♪ Men forgot all about their bill ♪ ♪ Who should enter but the man from Harlem ♪ ♪ Everybody rolled their eyes ♪ ♪ Women starting heaving sighs ♪ ♪ Someone hollered, Music, lights and gin ♪ ♪ Everybody cleared a space ♪ ♪ They had big, broad smiles on every face ♪ ♪ How they all loved to see the man from Harlem ♪ ♪ When he started in to step ♪ ♪ He filled everyone with plenty pep ♪ ♪ He twitched and squirmed; it just was a dirty shame ♪ ♪ Everyone was in a daze ♪ ♪ Women watched him with amaze ♪ ♪ Each one said she’d have the man from Harlem ♪ ♪ He looked over in the corner ♪ ♪ And saw a couple of frails ♪ ♪ And they sure did look kind of low ♪ ♪ Another cat walked up, and said to the man from Harlem ♪ ♪ Go over there and see what’s the matter with them girls ♪ ♪ And they said, I’m kind of low ♪ ♪ And he said, I’ve got just what you need ♪ ♪ Come on, sisters, light up on these weeds and get high ♪ ♪ And forget about everything ♪

• And we move on to another club. Ethel Waters, who also went on to have… Well, like Cab Callaway to have cameo roles in Hollywood movies, so she might be familiar to you through those, as well as through her records. And she’s going to sing now the Cole Porter hit, “Miss Otis Regrets.” The story about that is that Cole Porter was… Is sitting in an elegant downtown restaurant, and he was having a discussion with somebody at the dinner table about whether you can make a song out of anything. And a waiter came in and paged with a message, “Ms. Porter…” Not Ms. Porter. “Miss Otis regrets that she’s unable "to lunch today.” And so his table companion said, “Well, can you turn that into a song?” And he did. And it’s a song… We don’t really know what Ms. Otis looked like. We don’t dunno whether she was a black or white. But of course, it’s an ironic and bitter song about a lynching, as she’s lynched at the end of the song, you’ll hear.

Miss Otis regrets she’s unable to lunch today, ♪ Miss Otis regrets ♪ ♪ She’s unable to lunch today ♪ ♪ Madam, Miss Otis regrets ♪ ♪ She’s unable to lunch today ♪ ♪ She’s sorry to be delayed ♪ ♪ But last evening down in lovers lane she strayed ♪ ♪ Madam, Miss Otis regrets ♪ ♪ She’s unable to lunch today. ♪ ♪ When she woke up and found ♪ ♪ That her dream of love was gone ♪ ♪ Madam ♪ ♪ She ran to the man ♪ ♪ Who had led her so far astray ♪ ♪ And from under her velvet gown ♪ ♪ She drew a gun and shot her lover down ♪ ♪ Madam ♪ ♪ Miss Otis regrets ♪ ♪ She’s unable to lunch to day. ♪ ♪ When the Mob came and got her ♪ ♪ And dragged her from the jail ♪ ♪ Madam ♪ ♪ They strung her ♪ ♪ To the willow across the way ♪ ♪ And the moment before she died ♪ ♪ She lifted up her lovely head and cried ♪ ♪ Madam ♪ ♪ Miss Otis regrets ♪ ♪ She’s unable to lunch today. ♪ ♪ Miss Otis regrets ♪ ♪ She’s unable to lunch today ♪

• Well, when I get to Billie Holiday, I’ll be playing you a very different song about a lynching, “Strange Fruit.” Another star who emerged from the Cotton Club, appeared there at a very, very young age, was Lena Horne. And I’m going to play you Lena Horne in the song that became most associated with her. I think it was Ethel Waters who sang it to begin with, but it became very associated with Lena.

♪ Don’t know why ♪ ♪ There’s no sun up in the sky ♪ ♪ Stormy weather ♪ ♪ Since my man and I ain’t together ♪ ♪ Keeps rainin’ all the time ♪ ♪ Life is bare ♪ ♪ Gloom and misery everywhere ♪ ♪ Stormy weather ♪ ♪ Just can’t get my poor self together ♪ ♪ I’m weary all the time ♪ ♪ The time ♪ ♪ So weary all the time ♪ ♪ When he went away ♪ ♪ The blues walked in and met me ♪ ♪ If he stays away ♪ ♪ Old rocking chair will get me ♪ ♪ All I do is pray ♪ ♪ The Lord above will let me ♪ ♪ Walk in the sun once more ♪ ♪ Can’t go on ♪ ♪ All I have in life is gone ♪ ♪ Stormy weather ♪ ♪ Since my man and I ain’t together ♪ ♪ Keeps rainin’ all the time ♪ ♪ Keeps rainin’ all the time ♪ ♪ I walk around heavy hearted and sad ♪ ♪ Night comes around ♪ ♪ And I’m still feelin’ bad ♪ ♪ Rain pourin’ down ♪ ♪ Blindin’ every hope I had ♪ ♪ This pitterin’, patterin’ ♪ ♪ Beatin’ and spatterin’ drives me mad ♪ ♪ Love, love, love, love ♪ ♪ This misery is just too much for me ♪ ♪ Can’t go on ♪ ♪ Everything I had is gone ♪ ♪ Stormy weather ♪ ♪ Since my man and I ain’t together ♪ ♪ Keeps rainin’ all the time ♪ ♪ Keeps rainin’ all the time ♪

• Now, the… was down in 1940, but we’re lucky in having two films that were made in 1943 that used much of the talent that was developed at The Cotton Club. “The Cabin In The Sky” and “Stormy Weather.” These two films made by MGM in 1943 were really a blatant attempt to appeal to Black American audiences, who’d been pretty well ignored, you could say, by Hollywood up to this time. But now, America was in the Second World War and people in authority wanted to motivate black Americans to really participate in the war effort. And you can imagine that many Afro-Americans must have taken quite a sceptical attitude to the Second World War. This was a war that was supposed to be fought in the name of freedom, liberty, decency. They were defeating the Nazis, racist Nazis. But Black Americans would’ve said, “Well, yes, what about us?” “What about our freedom? "What about our civil rights? "What about our liberty?” And so, the… As I said, these films, I think, they had a definitely a motivation to try involve… To please black audiences and to make them feel that they were American, and needed to be part of this great national effort.

You can see “Cabin In The Sky,” you can see from the poster, you’ve got Ethel Waters, Lena Horne, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and his Orchestra. And the other film, “Stormy Weather,” which was a very fictional, really, version of the life of Bill Bojangles Robinson, who actually appears in the movie and it stars Lena Horne. And also, I mean, I do urge you to… You can go on YouTube, you can probably see the whole film, but you can certainly see many excerpts from both of them. Many of these great performers from the Cotton Club do… For instance, the Nicholas Brothers sequences in “Stormy Weather” are absolutely jaw-dropping. They are some of the most spectacular dance sequences ever filmed, I would say, in a Hollywood film. And you also get wonderful Fats Waller, and Cab Calloway, and so on. So I want to finish this evening, this is an experiment and I’m hope I’m going to be able to carry on with this in my next lecture when I’m talking about Hollywood movies and how they depict Europe. I mean this is… You know what a technophobe I am, so this is all… I’m a bit nervous about this, but Jess is going to help me out.

♪ No one to talk with ♪ ♪ All by myself ♪ ♪ No one to walk with ♪ ♪ but I’m happy on the shelf ♪ ♪ Ain’t misbehavin’ ♪ ♪ I’m savin’ my love for you ♪ ♪ For you, for you, for you ♪ ♪ I know for certain ♪ ♪ The one I love ♪ ♪ I’m through with flirtin’ ♪ ♪ It’s just you I’m thinkin’ of ♪ ♪ Ain’t misbehavin’ ♪ ♪ Savin’ my love for you ♪ ♪ Like Jack Horner in the corner ♪ ♪ Don’t go nowhere, what do I care? ♪ ♪ Your kisses are worth waitin’ for ♪ ♪ Believe me ♪ ♪ I don’t stay out late ♪ ♪ No place to go ♪ ♪ I’m home about eight ♪ ♪ Just me and my radio ♪ ♪ Ain’t misbehavin’ ♪ ♪ Savin’ all of my love for you ♪

• Well, I’m sorry about that. The sound quality doesn’t seem to be very good. But you can… As I said, you can see it for yourself if you go onto YouTube. So I think what I’ll do is to go into your questions and comments.

Q&A and Comments:

Yes, that is a famous quote of Duke Ellington, that it’s not jazz, but real American music. Adelaide Hall. Adelaide Hall is the singer for Love Song. Lynchings. “Eight suspected lynchings have taken place "in Mississippi since 2000s.” Terrible thought that it still exists. And she’s given a link to America’s Black Holocaust Museum. Thank you very much, Rita. That’s very helpful.

“It’s pronounced Du Boyce, not Du Bwa.” Thank you.

Q: “Where can you see works by Winold Reiss?”

A: Well, he’s largely a graphic artist, so they’re… Making posters, and prints, and so on. I’m not sure where you get to see them in a museum.

Thank you, Sally.

Q: “Black Church very important to survival. "Is that the same as Christianity?”

A: Well, it is Christianity, isn’t it? It may be a particular… Maybe… Obviously, it’s a sect. We’re talking about sects of Christianity.

Thank you for correcting my pronunciation.

And this is Hillel saying he remembers… ‘Cause he was very left wing. He was a member of the Communist Party and very much a political activist. Where do we go?

“Met Museum has upcoming Harlem Renaissance exhibit.” Well, I’m sure there’ll be lots of Winold Reiss in that for you to see. Thank you very much, Patricia.

“Zora Neale Hurston, Nellie Larsen, Jess…” There are so many… Obviously, this was a very superficial lecture, a very brief one. And I haven’t covered… There’s a lot more to explore and a lot more to cover than I was able to give you tonight. Thank you about the pronunciation.

Q: Do I have a reason why Jewish American painters did not, as a rule, gain fame, while writers…

A: Well they did, didn’t they? When you think of… I mean, there are a number of New York school artists in the 40s who gained fame. But I mean, that’s a… Francine, that is of course a big question in the… I’d say it’s a general question in Western culture in the 19th century, why there were so many great Jewish musicians and writers in every aspects of the art, but not so many great visual artists, just Pissaro and Liebermann. But then, certainly, in the early 20th century, there are many more important Jewish artists, like Modigliani, and Chagall, and so on. But it’s an interesting question and people have suggested that it has to do with the ban on imagery in Orthodox Judaism. Certainly, it seemed to take… Well, of course, the other very interesting question is with early modern art, why it was that the collectors, the dealers, and the critics were very largely Jewish, but not usually the artists themselves. And once again, I’d refer you to a book I’ve talked about many times, The wonderful book by Charles Dellheim, called “Belonging and Betrayal,” which is looking at all the early stages of modern art, and the role that Jews played in promoting modern art, if not always creating it.

“Thank you again for the Harlem Renaissance. "Almost tempt me to come across "the Atlantic to see it. "I’d love to see it.” You were expecting “Minnie The Moocher” from Cab Callaway, yes. “Kudos to the person at LU "who research, maintained…”

Well, Rita, I have to tell you, apart from… They kindly downloaded the clip at the end but everything comes from my library, actually, or my research.

“Cab Callaway had a cameo appearance "in Sesame Street that as recently "as 35 years ago.” Hannah saw the fabulous Lena Horne in London at Hippodrome in the good old days. I missed her, unfortunately, but I’m very glad to have got Adelaide Hall.

And this is Gita, who saw her at Carnegie Hall. “Everyone screamed for "Stormy Weather.” “She had to lean against the chair "but she was still great.”

Thank you very much, Rhonda. And that’s nice personal memory for you, that your first date with your husband was to see Lena Horne.

Ron has heard that Miss Otis Regrets was a favourite song of Queen Elizabeth II. I do also find that extremely strange 'cause it is a rather macabre song.

“And people will say we’re in love.” I can understand that a bit better, I suppose. I love “Miss Otis Regrets.” And it can be done in so many different ways. And there’s a very strange version in German by Marlene Dietrich, which rather alters the plot of the song. And actually, probably, my favourite version of it is in French, with Jean Sablon as “Miss Otis Regrets,” .

Ron. “I understand that she identified "with "People will say we’re in love” “when she was being courted by Philip.” But yes, it’s very odd that she liked “Miss Otis Regrets,” except maybe it just shows that she had good taste 'cause it is a wonderful song, and it’s a masterpiece.

Thank you very much, Nicki. I appreciate that 'cause I do feel, with a lecture like this, I am sort of on thin ice and a little bit outside my comfort zone, even though it’s something that interests me very, very much indeed.

Thank you so much, Hannah. I do intend… Do I intend to mention the Benny Goodman anti-segre… There are so many of these stories, actually. And what I find very interesting is in this period, of course, how many Jewish Americans so strongly identified with the Black American cause; Rodgers of Rodgers and Hammerstein. So many of them actually were really shoulder to shoulder with the people struggling for civil rights. I don’t know enough to tell you to do a follow up about Romare Bearden and Jacob Lawrence.

Thank you, Roberta, and yes, I’m hoping I’ve solved the problem by getting an ethernet connection. I’m sure that Du Bois, as I now know, would be worthy of a lecture but it wouldn’t be me that could do it. It would have to be somebody else.

Q: And this is Rita saying, “Presumably you are talking about Winold Reiss?”

A: Oh yes, thank you very much.

So kind of you, Rita, to do all of this. James Baldwin would be very interest… That’s another story of course, really, isn’t it? And it’s later. And in a way, James Baldwin, it would be interesting to do a lecture possibly on Black Americans in Paris and how liberating it was for them to escape from all the prejudice in America and go to Paris. Thank you all.

“How extraordinary, Congress didn’t outlaw lynching,” but surely, surely, it is… It’s murder and murder is against the law. I need to know more about that. A few 20th century American come to mind. Yes, thank you.

Mark Rothko, Sol LeWitt. Once you get to that period… Of course, the other interesting thing is that those are mainly… Well, not Roy Liechtenstein, but they’re mainly abstract artists. Is that something that needs to be taken into consideration? And does that also connect with the traditional ban on figuration? Thank you Ron.

And this is somebody called “Zoom user” who says their friend went to Radcliffe with Lena Horne’s daughter. “She phoned each Sunday to see "how her girl was doing.” That’s nice to know. Thank you all very, very much indeed. And I’ll be with you again on Sunday. And thank you, Jess, for helping me out.