Author: Anne Rockwell
Publisher: Carolrhoda Books
ISBN: 0761355650
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 44
Get Book
Book Description
What happened when a former slave took beat-up old instruments and gave them to a bunch of orphans? Thousands of futures got a little brighter and a great American art form was born. In 1891, Reverend Daniel Joseph Jenkins opened his orphanage in Charleston, South Carolina. He soon had hundreds of children and needed a way to support them. Jenkins asked townspeople to donate old band instruments?some of which had last played in the hands of Confederate soldiers in the Civil War. He found teachers to show the kids how to play. Soon the orphanage had a band. And what a band it was. The Jenkins Orphanage Band caused a sensation on the streets of Charleston. People called the band's style of music "rag"?a rhythm inspired by the African-American people who lived on the South Carolina and Georgia coast. The children performed as far away as Paris and London, and they earned enough money to support the orphanage that still exists today. They also helped launch the music we now know as jazz. Hey, Charleston! is the story of the kind man who gave America "some rag" and so much more.
Author: Mark Knowles
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786453605
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 273
Get Book
Book Description
The waltz, perhaps the most beloved social dance of the 19th and early 20th centuries, once provoked outrage from religious leaders and other self-appointed arbiters of social morality. Decrying the corrupting influence of social dancing, they failed to suppress the popularity of the waltz or other dance crazes of the period, including the Charleston, the tango, and "animal dances" such as the Turkey Trot, Grizzly Bear, and Bunny Hug. This book investigates the development of these popular dances, considering in particular how their very existence as "taboo" cultural fads ultimately provided a catalyst for lasting social reform. In addition to examining the impact of the waltz and other scandalous dances on fashion, music, leisure, and social reform, the text describes the opposition to dance and the proliferation of literature on both sides.
Author: Philip N. Racine
Publisher: Univ. of Tennessee Press
ISBN: 1572336161
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 930
Get Book
Book Description
Gentlemen Merchants preserves the correspondence between members of two wealthy slaveholding merchant families, the Gourdins and the Youngs in nineteenth-century Charleston, South Carolina. Because the correspondence lasts over forty years, the letters provide a significant record of historical Southern themes. Plantation-born urban dwellers, the correspondents comment deeply and widely on their own family history, religion in the South, slavery and race, business, secession, Civil War, and Reconstruction. Gentlemen Merchants offers a fresh perspective on the Old South's elite slaveholders from the vantage point of commercial offices, docks, and wharves instead of the rural plantation. These prominent Charleston families grew wealthy through commercial trading of Sea Island and upland cotton, rice, and wine. Charleston emerges as a main character in these letters as the discrepancy between the wealthy upper class and working-class immigrants becomes more pronounced. There are also letters from family members who traveled widely for business and pleasure. They recount travel adventures in England and France, on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius, and at Niagara Falls. The Gourdins and Youngs lived in material comfort for over three decades and fought to preserve their way of life, the basis of which was made possible by slavery. The family was one shaped by privilege and destroyed by war. When the world changed as a result of the Civil War, the family members were left penniless. It is unusual that both sides of this correspondence have survived, making this collection an extraordinary primary source for historical research. Historically minded general readers will also enjoy the perspective on the urban South that these letters provide. Philip N. Racine published numerous articles and books about southern history, including Piedmont Farmer. He is currently the William R. Kenan Professor of History at Wofford College, where he has taught since 1969.
Author: Roger House
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN: 1643150472
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 258
Get Book
Book Description
Chronicles the power of music in Boston's African American community
Author: Belinda Wheeler
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 0271082607
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 271
Get Book
Book Description
Poet, columnist, artist, and fiction writer Gwendolyn Bennett is considered by many to have been one of the youngest leaders of the Harlem Renaissance and a strong advocate for racial pride and the rights of African American women. Heroine of the Harlem Renaissance and Beyond presents key selections of her published and unpublished writings and artwork in one volume. From poems, short stories, and reviews to letters, journal entries, and art, this collection showcases Bennett’s diverse and insightful body of work and rightfully places her alongside her contemporaries in the Harlem Renaissance—figures such as Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, and Countee Cullen. It includes selections from her monthly column “The Ebony Flute,” published in Opportunity, the magazine of the National Urban League, as well as newly uncovered post-1928 work that proves definitively that Bennett continued writing throughout the following two decades. Bennett’s correspondence with canonical figures from the period, her influence on Harlem arts institutions, and her political writings, reviews, and articles show her deep connection to and lasting influence on the movement that shaped her early career. An indispensable introduction to one of the era’s most prolific and passionate minds, this reevaluation of Bennett’s life and work deepens our understanding of the Harlem Renaissance and enriches the world of American letters. It will be of special value to scholars and readers interested in African American literature and art and American history and cultural studies.
Author: Jacqui Malone
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 9780252065088
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 316
Get Book
Book Description
Former dancer Jacqui Malone throws a fresh spotlight on the cultural history of black dance, the Africanisms that have influenced it, and the significant role that vocal harmony groups, black college and university marching bands, and black sorority and fraternity stepping teams have played in the evolution of dance in African American life.
Author: Martha Zschock
Publisher: Commonwealth Editions
ISBN: 9781938700446
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Get Book
Book Description
A Colorful and Fun Tour of Charleston for the Littlest Explorers
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : American wit and humor
Languages : en
Pages : 512
Get Book
Book Description
Author: Langston Hughes
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 9780253201218
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 286
Get Book
Book Description
Five plays representing Hughes' dramatic writing over a period of forty years.
Author: Diane Lindsey Reeves
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1467198927
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 96
Get Book
Book Description
Sometimes the coolest places are right outside your front door. Learning about Charleston's interesting and unique culture has never been so super fun! Did you know that the Patriots won the first big battle of the American Revolution at Fort Sullivan in Charles Towne? Or that the H.L. Hunley was the first submarine ever to sink a warship? What about the fact that the College of Charleston is older than the United States of America itself? From the American Civil War, to delicious shrimp and grits, Super Cities!: Charleston covers it all, and is sure to engage any reader with fun facts about the history, culture, and people who make this city great. Dive into Charleston Harbor, explore the old City Market, and join in the fun at Spoleto Music Festival, all right here. Take a peek inside to learn more about the impressive, unusual, super history of Charleston!
