concluded with an exhortation to young writers of
color whom, he declared, “now intend to express
our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or
shame. If white people are pleased, we are glad. If
they are not, it doesn’t matter. We know we are
beautiful. And ugly too. The tom-tom cries and
the tom-tom laughs. If colored people are pleased,
we are glad. If they are not, their displeasure does-
n’t matter either. We build our temples for tomor-
row, strong as we know how, and we stand on top
of the mountain, free within ourselves.” The essay,
which echoed the angst of writers like COUNTEE
CULLENand JEANTOOMER, also reinforced the
ambitions of Hughes’s visionary friends and col-
leagues like ZORANEALEHURSTONand WALLACE
THURMANwith whom he would collaborate on in-
novative creative ventures to produce creative
works or new literary journals such as FIRE!!.
Bibliography
Berry, Faith, ed. Langston Hughes: Before and Beyond
Harlem.Westport, Conn.: Lawrence Hill & Com-
pany, 1983.
Rampersad, Arnold. The Life of Langston Hughes: I, Too,
Sing America.Vol. 1: 1902–1941.New York: Oxford
University Press, 1986.
Negro Art Theatre of Harlem
One of the many theater groups established in re-
sponse to the call for a vibrant black theater for
and about African Americans. The Negro Art
Theatre was established in the historic ABYS-
SINIANBAPTISTCHURCHin NEWYORKCITYin
- It may have staged prize-winning works such
as ZORANEALE HURSTON’s COLORSTRUCK as
early as 1925, but its formal debut appears to have
occurred some four years later in 1929. The
troupe’s first complete production was the show
Wade in the Waterstarring Adam Clayton Powell,
Jr., and LAURABOWMAN.
In a November 1925 letter to Annie Nathan
Meyer, president of BARNARDCOLLEGEand one of
her supporters, Zora Neale Hurston noted that
“The Negro Art Theatre of Harlem is fairly
launched now and the first program will include
my ‘Color Struck.’” Three years later, the Balti-
more Afro-American,which kept its readers ap-
prised of diverse events in African-American arts
and culture circles, published an update on the
troupe. According to a brief August 1928 article,
the “merciless heat proved too much for the sum-
mer activities of the Negro Art Theatre here in
GREENWICHVILLAGE.” The troupe shortened its
advertised 10-week performance schedule to four
weeks.Bibliography
“Heat Defeats Art Theatre.” Baltimore Afro-American,
18 August 1928, 8.
Kaplan, Carla. Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in Letters.New
York: Doubleday, 2002.Negro Authors and Composers of
the United StatesW. C. Handy(1935)
One of five books published by WILLIAM
CHRISTOPHER HANDY, the gifted musician re-
garded as the father of the blues. It was a useful
history of writers and composers that comple-
mented early encyclopedic texts such as Music and
Some Highly Musical People(1881) by James Mon-
roe Trotter and The Negro and His Music(1936) by
ALAINLOCKE.Bibliography
Handy, W. C., and Arna Bontemps, ed. Father of the
Blues: An Autobiography.1941, reprint, New York:
Da Capo Press, 1985.Negro Champion
The official publication of the American Negro
Labor Congress, a short-lived Communist organi-
zation that was founded in CHICAGOin 1925. Its
editor was Lovett Fort-Whiteman, a militant anti-
war activist and Marxist organizer who was instru-
mental in arranging the first conference. The
offices of the newspaper were located in the
Bronzeville section of Chicago.Negro Experimental Theatre
A theater group founded by Dorothy Peterson and
REGINAANDREWSin February 1929 and based in
the 135THStreet Branch (HARLEMBRANCH) of
the NEWYORKPUBLICLIBRARY. The company was
known first as the KRIGWAPLAYERSand evolvedNegro Experimental Theatre 373