Harlem Renaissance in the American West

The Harlem Renaissance, an exciting period in the social and cultural history of the US, has over the past few decades re-established itself as a watershed moment in African American history. However, many of the African American communities outside the urban center of Harlem that participated in the Harlem Renaissance between 1914 and 1940, have been overlooked and neglected as locations of scholarship and research. Harlem Renaissance in the West: The New Negro's Western Experience will change the way students and scholars of the Harlem Renaissance view the efforts of artists, musicians, playwrights, club owners, and various other players in African American communities all over the American West to participate fully in the cultural renaissance that took hold during that time.

"While most treatments of the renaissance period focus on the Eastern Seaboard, the impact of the renaissance on the West and Southwest have been neglected. Editors Glasrud and Wintz and the contributors to this collection do a superb job of filling in this gap...Summing Up: Essential." - C. H. Allen, Shenandoah University, CHOICE"This is an amazing collection of essays that fundamentally reshapes our understanding of an era of creativity and change that is usually seen through the lens of New York by recasting our scholarly sights westward. Not only does this work enhance our understanding of the Renaissance’s impact on urban centers like Los Angeles, Denver and Kansas City but it deftly broadens our gaze to include the impact and contributions of communities as diverse as Seattle, Laramie and Minneapolis. This landmark publication marks a profound shift in the interpretation of what will never again be seen as a simply a Harlem Renaissance." - Lonnie Bunch, Director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, is the author of Black Angelenos: The African American in Los Angeles, 1850-1950"Cary Wintz and Bruce Glasrud have assembled a long overdue and yet remarkably revealing anthology on the Harlem Renaissance in the West. The authors convincingly establish the Renaissance as part of a national literary and artistic movement with roots in places as disparate as Lawrence, Kansas, Silver City, New Mexico, and Boise, Idaho." - Quintard Taylor, Scott and Dorothy Bullitt Professor of American History, University of Washington

Bruce A. Glasrud is Professor Emeritus of History at California State University, East Bay, and retired Dean of the School of arts and Sciences at Sul Ross State University. Cary D. Wintz is Professor of History at Texas Southern University. Together Cary Wintz and Bruce Glasrud are the editors of African Americans and the Presidency (Routledge).