Hughes, Langston. The Negro Mother, and Other Dra-
matic Recitations, with decorations by Prentiss Taylor.
1931; reprint, Salem, N.H.: Ayer, 1990.
Rampersad, Arnold. The Life of Langston Hughes: I, Too,
Sing America.Vol. 1, 1902–1941.New York: Oxford
University Press, 1986.
Negro Musicians and Their Music
Maude Cuney Hare(1936)
A comprehensive collection of works by musicians
of African descent published by MAUDE CUNEY
HARE. Hare, a folklorist, music historian, teacher,
playwright, and founder of the Allied Arts Center
in BOSTON, gathered materials for the book during
her travels throughout the Caribbean, Mexico, and
the United States. The volume included works
from Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Cuba, Mex-
ico, and the United States.
The volume was Hare’s last work and was
published in 1936, the year of her death.
Bibliography
Hales, Douglas. A Southern Family in White and Black:
The Cuneys of Texas.College Station: Texas A&M
University Press, 2003.
Maude Cuney Hare Papers, Atlanta University Center
Archives.
Negro Poetry and Drama Sterling Brown
(1937)
An influential work of literary criticism by STERLING
BROWN,a PHIBETAKAPPAgraduate of WILLIAMS
COLLEGE, published poet, and HOWARDUNIVER-
SITYEnglish professor.
Brown published the work with the Associates
in Negro Folk Education, the WASHINGTON, D.C.,
organization with which fellow Howard University
colleague ALAINLOCKEwas affiliated.
The volume appeared in the same year as
Brown’s shorter monograph THENEGRO INAMERI-
CANFICTION.This work was part of the Bronze
Booklet series for which Locke was editor. As he
did in the Bronze Booklet volume, Brown gener-
ated discussion questions and a secondary-source
reading list at the end of each chapter in Negro Po-
etry and Drama.
Brown used Negro Poetry and Dramato discuss
issues pertinent to the Harlem Renaissance. He in-
cluded such chapters as “Contemporary Negro Po-
etry,” in which he considered the works and styles
of “The New Negro” poets, individuals whom he
believed “shared in the [Harlem Renaissance]
movements reaction against sentimentality, didacti-
cism, optimism, and romantic escape.” Writers such
as FENTONJOHNSON,GEORGIADOUGLASJOHN-
SON,ALICEDUNBAR-NELSON,CARRIECLIFFORD,
and JAMESWELDONJOHNSONshaped what Brown
touted as the invaluable literary aspects of “New
Negro Renaissance”: “(1) a discovery of Africa as a
source for race pride (2) a use of Negro heroes and
heroic episodes from American history (3) propa-
ganda of protest (4) a treatment of the Negro
masses (frequently of the folk, less often of the
workers) with more understanding and less apology
and (5) franker and deeper self revelation.”
Brown’s pioneering articulation and review of
the African-American literary tradition engaged
with scholars such as W. E. B. DUBOISand Alain
Locke who, with other writers such as LANGSTON
HUGHES,COUNTEECULLEN,JESSIEFAUSET, and
ZORANEALEHURSTON, debated about the uses of
African-American writing and art and the politics
explicit in contemporary representation of African-
American experiences.Bibliography
Brown, Sterling. Negro Poetry and Drama.1937, reprint,
New York: Arno Press, 1969.
Gabbin, Joanne. Sterling A. Brown: Building the Black
Aesthetic Tradition. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood
Press, 1985.Negro Poets and Their PoemsRobert T. Kerlin
(1923)
An invaluable literary and historical resource writ-
ten by ROBERTT. KERLINand published in 1923.
It includes works by at least 60 poets, many of
whom achieved prominence during and after the
Harlem Renaissance and also excelled in addi-
tional professions.
The volume opens with a heartfelt dedica-
tion “To the Black and Unknown Bards who gave
to the world the priceless treasure of those ‘canti-
cles of love and woe,’ the camp-meeting Spiritu-
als; more particularly, to those untaught singers of
the old plantations of the South, whose melodi-
ous lullabies to the babes of both races enteredNegro Poets and Their Poems 377