Seminar Series: Carla Kaplan on “Miss Anne in Harlem: The White Women of the Black Renaissance”

"Miss Anne in Harlem," April 9

Carla Kaplan, Davis Distinguished Professor of American Literature

Professor Kaplan's newest book is Miss Anne in Harlem: The White Women of the Black Renaissance. Little could be more unusual in the 1920s than for white, upper-class women to seek to become, in effect, honorary blacks. Miss Anne in Harlem is the first book to tell the story of a number of spirited white women who did just that, crossing race lines viewed as impenetrable to play seminal roles in the great black cultural movement of the early twentieth century that came to be called the Harlem Renaissance. Often viewed with suspicion by people on both sides of the color line, these women were patrons and participants, friends and sometimes lovers—and frequently lightning rods for controversy as their motives for embracing blackness were misinterpreted, misrepresented, and derided. Kaplan's engrossing group biography gives these women their due, exploring the intentions, contributions, and lasting significance of six iconoclasts who left their mark on an emerging black cultural shift.

Carla Kaplan