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Becoming Something The Story Of Canada Lee
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Book Synopsis Becoming Something by : Mona Z. Smith
Download or read book Becoming Something written by Mona Z. Smith and published by Farrar Straus & Giroux. This book was released on 2004 with total page 430 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A former investigative reporter for The Miami Herald reconstructs the largely forgotten life of Canada Lee, a famous black actor, civil rights advocate, and political activist, who was "blacklisted" and buried in the anti-Communist backlash of the McCarthy era.
Book Synopsis Becoming Something: The Story of Canada Lee by : Mona Z. Smith
Download or read book Becoming Something: The Story of Canada Lee written by Mona Z. Smith and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2005-08-22 with total page 660 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first biography of the great black actor, activist, athlete--and tragic victim of the blacklist Imagine an actor as familiar to audiences as Denzel Washington and Morgan Freeman are today--who is then virtually deleted from public memory. Such is the story of Canada Lee. Among the most respected black actors of the forties and a tireless civil rights advocate, Lee was unjustly dishonored, his name reduced to a footnote in the history of the McCarthy era, his death one of a handful directly attributable to the blacklist. Born in Harlem in 1907, Lee was a Renaissance man. A musical prodigy on violin and piano at eleven, by thirteen he had become a successful jockey and by his twenties a champion boxer. After wandering into auditions for the WPA Negro Theater Project, Lee took up acting and soon shot to stardom in Orson Welles's Broadway production of Native Son, later appearing in such classic films as Lifeboat and the original Cry, the Beloved Country. But Lee's meteoric rise to fame was followed by a devastating fall. Labeled a Communist by the FBI and HUAC as early as 1943, Lee was pilloried during the notorious spy trial of Judith Coplon in 1949, then condemned in longtime friend Ed Sullivan's column. He died in 1952, forty-five and penniless, a heartbroken casualty of a dangerous and conflicted time. Now, after nearly a decade of research, Mona Z. Smith revives the legacy of a man who was perhaps the blacklist's most tragic victim.
Book Synopsis Harlem Renaissance Lives from the African American National Biography by : Henry Louis Gates (Jr.)
Download or read book Harlem Renaissance Lives from the African American National Biography written by Henry Louis Gates (Jr.) and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 609 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Harlem Renaissance is the best known and most widely studied cultural movement in African American history. Now, in Harlem Renaissance Lives, esteemed scholars Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham have selected 300 key biographical entries culled from the eight-volume African American National Biography, providing an authoritative who's who of this seminal period. Here readers will find engagingly written and authoritative articles on notable African Americans who made significant contributions to literature, drama, music, visual art, or dance, including such central figures as poet Langston Hughes, novelist Zora Neale Hurston, aviator Bessie Coleman, blues singer Ma Rainey, artist Romare Bearden, dancer Josephine Baker, jazzman Louis Armstrong, and the intellectual giant W. E. B. Du Bois. Also included are biographies of people like the Scottsboro Boys, who were not active within the movement but who nonetheless profoundly affected the artistic and political statements that came from Harlem Renaissance figures. The volume will also feature a preface by the editors, an introductory essay by historian Cary D. Wintz, and 75 illustrations.
Book Synopsis American Biography by : Carl Rollyson
Download or read book American Biography written by Carl Rollyson and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2006-02-22 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of reviews, selected from Rollyson's New York Sun column, is as much about the romance of biography as it is about the American lives. Certain concerns resonate throughout the book: the American left's failure to reckon with Communist subversion, McCarthyism, and Stalinism, the problematic nature of authorized biography, the history of American biography, definitive biographies, literary biography, the differences between autobiography and biography, the importance of interviews in biographies of contemporary figures, the differences between history and biography, comparative biographies, the virtues of short biographies and of biographies for children, the tendency of biographers to fictionalize and of novelists to biographize, psychology and biography, Rollyson's own experience as a biographer, and the way biographers treat one another's work. Too many biographers, he believes, evince no interest in the biographical tradition. Concerned only with possession of their subjects, their proprietorial attitude deforms not only their biographies but also the genre itself. If biography is reviewed badly (receiving hardly more than a summary of the subject's life with a perfunctory nod to the biographer), it is because the biographical tradition has been disregarded or discounted. This book, in other words, has been written on the behalf of biography, a genre that still awaits a full vindication.
Book Synopsis The Civil Rights Theatre Movement in New York, 1939–1966 by : Julie Burrell
Download or read book The Civil Rights Theatre Movement in New York, 1939–1966 written by Julie Burrell and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-03-27 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book argues that African American theatre in the twentieth century represented a cultural front of the civil rights movement. Highlighting the frequently ignored decades of the 1940s and 1950s, Burrell documents a radical cohort of theatre artists who became critical players in the fight for civil rights both onstage and offstage, between the Popular Front and the Black Arts Movement periods. The Civil Rights Theatre Movement recovers knowledge of little-known groups like the Negro Playwrights Company and reconsiders Broadway hits including Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, showing how theatre artists staged radically innovative performances that protested Jim Crow and U.S. imperialism amidst a repressive Cold War atmosphere. By conceiving of class and gender as intertwining aspects of racism, this book reveals how civil rights theatre artists challenged audiences to reimagine the fundamental character of American democracy.
Book Synopsis Becoming Something by : Mona Z. Smith
Download or read book Becoming Something written by Mona Z. Smith and published by Faber & Faber. This book was released on 2005-08-01 with total page 430 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Imagine an actor as familiar to audiences as Denzel Washington and Morgan Freeman are today--who is then virtually deleted from public memory. Such is the story of Canada Lee. Among the most respected black actors of the forties and a tireless civil rights advocate, Lee was unjustly dishonored, his name reduced to a footnote in the history of the McCarthy era, his death one of a handful directly attributable to the blacklist. Born in Harlem in 1907, Lee was a Renaissance man. A musical prodigy on violin and piano at eleven, by thirteen he had become a successful jockey and by his twenties a champion boxer. After wandering into auditions for the WPA Negro Theater Project, Lee took up acting and soon shot to stardom in Orson Welles's Broadway production of "Native Son," later appearing in such classic films as "Lifeboat" and the original "Cry, the Beloved Country." But Lee's meteoric rise to fame was followed by a devastating fall. Labeled a Communist by the FBI and HUAC as early as 1943, Lee was pilloried during the notorious spy trial of Judith Coplon in 1949, then condemned in longtime friend Ed Sullivan's column. He died in 1952, forty-five and penniless, a heartbroken casualty of a dangerous and conflicted time. Now, after nearly a decade of research, Mona Smith revives the legacy of a man who was perhaps the blacklist's most tragic victim. Mona Z. Smith is a former reporter for "The Miami Herald" and an award-winning playwright. Imagine an actor as familiar to audiences as Denzel Washington, Samuel L. Jackson, and Morgan Freeman are today--who is then virtually deleted from cultural history. Such is the story of Canada Lee. Among the most respected black actors of the 1940s and a passionate civil rights activist, Lee was reduced to a footnote in the history of the McCarthy era, and his death was one of a handful directly attributed to the blacklist. Born in Harlem in 1907, Lee was a Depression-era Renaissance man, reinventing himself numerous times during one of our country's darkest periods: a musical prodigy on violin and piano, he made his concert debut at New York's prestigious Aeolian Hall at eleven; by thirteen he had become a successful jockey; in his teens, a pro boxer; and in his twenties, a leading contender for the national welterweight title, until an unlucky blow to the head cost him the sight in one eye and his fighting career. After wandering into auditions for the Federal Theatre Project's Negro Unit, Lee took up acting and shot to stardom in Orson Welles's Broadway production of "Native Son." He later appeared in such films as Alfred Hitchcock's classic Lifeboat and the original "Cry, the Beloved Country" with a young Sidney Poitier. But Lee's meteoric rise to fame was followed by a devastating fall from grace. Labeled a Communist by the FBI and the House Un-American Activities Committee as early as 1943, Lee was pilloried during the notorious spy trial of Judith Coplon in 1949, and his career was ultimately destroyed when his longtime friend Ed Sullivan denounced him in his nationally syndicated column. Lee died in 1952, forty-five and penniless, a heartbroken victim of a dangerous and conflicted time. Now, after nearly a decade of research, Mona Z. Smith revives the legacy of a man who was perhaps the blacklist's most tragic victim. "Armed with extensive research and huge files hoarded by [Lee's] widow, Smith has put together a richly detailed . . . narrative . . . "Becoming Something" does an important [service by making] possible much more discussion and reflection on a life that still has lessons to teach us."--Clyde Taylor, "The Washington Post Book World" "Armed with extensive research and huge files hoarded by [Lee's] widow, Smith has put together a richly detailed . . . narrative . . . "Becoming Something" does an important [service by making] possible much more discussion and reflection on a life that still has lessons to teach us."--Clyde Taylor, "The Washington Post Book World " "Mona Z. Smith has used her considerable gifts as a dramatist and storyteller to illuminate the astonishing odyssey of Canada Lee, a man who challenged racism in every quarter, here and abroad, for thirty years, and usually prevailed. Here at last is a full-length portrait of this forgotten hero."--Daniel Mark Epstein, author of "Lincoln and Whitman" and "Nat King Cole" "A biography of Canada Lee has been long overdue. The story of his dramatic rise and fall is as important as it is moving, and Mona Z. Smith tells it with theatrical flair. This is a first-rate book."--Hazel Rowley, author of "Richard Wright: The Life and Times " "Smith, a former investigative reporter for the Miami Herald who wrote a play about Lee under the same title, completed years of research and interviews to support her premise that Lee was the victim of unjust accusations fueled by the political climate. She makes a convincing case in this groundbreaking biography, providing a thought-provoking example of the tragic impact of a nation's and an art form's paranoia."--"Library Journal" "Smith deftly depicts New York's theater scene, showing how Lee became one of the first African-Americans to gain acceptance in white theater, and thoroughly documents Lee's outspoken support for civil rights. Lee's speechmaking caught the attention of Cold War Red-baiters, and in 1949, he started hearing rumors he'd been blacklisted. While he did work in one final film--1951's "Cry, the Beloved Country"--the strain of not being able to work or support his family may have irritated his hypertension, leading to kidney failure. Smith's admiration for Lee--his artistry, his desegregation campaigns, his generosity toward the needy, his fellowship with other African-American artists--is so overwhelming that Lee emerges as a two-dimensional character. Still, students of African-American, theater and Cold War history will find this a valuable reference."--"Publishers Weekly " "Serviceable biography of the pioneering African-American actor, staunch civil-rights advocate, and blacklist victim. Before he ever walked onstage, Canada Lee (1907-52) had been a classical violinist, a professional jockey, and a prizewinning boxer, and he fought throughout his acting career for roles that reflected the full range of black people's characters and experiences. His biographer, a former reporter for the Miami Herald, adequately outlines Lee's achievements . . . Smith, who had the cooperation of Lee's widow, paints an attractive portrait of a man who loved a good time, always offered a helping hand to his friends, and continued to support the causes he believed in even after he knew what the consequences would be."--"Kirkus Reviews"
Download or read book Black Hollywood written by Kimberly Fain and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2015-06-30 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This thought-provoking work examines the dehumanizing depictions of black males in the movies since 1910, analyzing images that were once imposed on black men and are now appropriated and manipulated by them. Moving through cinematic history decade by decade since 1910, this important volume explores the appropriation, exploitation, and agency of black performers in Hollywood by looking at the black actors, directors, and producers who have shaped the image of African American males in film. To determine how these archetypes differentiate African American males in the public's subconscious, the book asks probing questions—for example, whether these images are a reflection of society's fears or realistic depictions of a pluralistic America. Even as the work acknowledges the controversial history of black representation in film, it also celebrates the success stories of blacks in the industry. It shows how blacks in Hollywood manipulate degrading stereotypes, gain control, advance their careers, and earn money while making social statements or bringing about changes in culture. It discusses how social activist performers—such as Paul Robeson, Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte, and Spike Lee—reflect political and social movements in their movies, and it reviews the interactions between black actors and their white counterparts to analyze how black males express their heritage, individual identity, and social issues through film.
Book Synopsis Brecht at the Opera by : Joy H. Calico
Download or read book Brecht at the Opera written by Joy H. Calico and published by University of California Press. This book was released on 2019-10-22 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From an award-winning author, the first thorough examination of the important influence of opera on Brecht’s writings. Brecht at the Opera looks at the German playwright's lifelong ambivalent engagement with opera. An ardent opera lover in his youth, Brecht later denounced the genre as decadent and irrelevant to modern society even as he continued to work on opera projects throughout his career. He completed three operas and attempted two dozen more with composers such as Kurt Weill, Paul Hindemith, Hanns Eisler, and Paul Dessau. Joy H. Calico argues that Brecht's simultaneous work on opera and Lehrstück in the 1920s generated the new concept of audience experience that would come to define epic theater, and that his revisions to the theory of Gestus in the mid-1930s are reminiscent of nineteenth-century opera performance practices of mimesis.
Book Synopsis A Man from Another Land by : Isaiah Washington
Download or read book A Man from Another Land written by Isaiah Washington and published by Center Street. This book was released on 2011-04-27 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this inspirational memoir, Grey's Anatomy actor Isaiah Washington explains how filling in the gaps of his past led him to discover a new passion: helping those less fortunate. DNA testing revealed that Washington was descended from the Mende people, who today live in Sierra Leone. For many people, the story would end with the results of the search; for Isaiah, it had just begun. Discovering his roots has given him a new purpose, to lead an inspirational life defined by faith and charity. After visiting Sierra Leone, and researching the country and its needs, Washington forged a strong relationship with the Mende people, and was inducted as Chief Gondobay Manga in May 2006. He established The Gondobay Manga Foundation to institute many improvements suggested by the country's people, addressing educational concerns, practical issues (road building, water supply, and electricity), and rehabilitative projects. Dual citizenship has been a dream of African-Americans such as W.E.B. DuBois, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, but Washington became the first to realize that honor in 2008. A twofold milestone, it was also the first time an African president granted citizenship based on DNA.
Book Synopsis Hollywood be Thy Name by : Judith Weisenfeld
Download or read book Hollywood be Thy Name written by Judith Weisenfeld and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This is a ground-breaking book. The text is remarkable in its use of MPAA files and studio archives; Weisenfeld uncovers all sorts of side stories that enrich the larger narrative. The writing is clear and concise, and Weisenfeld makes important theoretical interpretations without indulging in difficult jargon. She incorporates both film theory and race theory in graceful, non-obtrusive ways that deepen understanding. This is an outstanding work."--Colleen McDannell, author of Picturing Faith: Photography and the Great Depression
Book Synopsis James and Esther Cooper Jackson by : Sara Rzeszutek
Download or read book James and Esther Cooper Jackson written by Sara Rzeszutek and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2015-11-06 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: James Jackson and Esther Cooper Jackson grew up understanding that opportunities came differently for blacks and whites, men and women, rich and poor. In turn, they devoted their lives to the fight for equality, serving as career activists throughout the black freedom movement. Having grown up in Virginia during the depths of the Great Depression, the Jacksons also saw a path to racial equality through the Communist Party. This choice in political affiliation would come to shape and define not only their participation in the black freedom movement but also the course of their own marriage as the Cold War years unfolded. In this dual biography, Sara Rzeszutek examines the couple's political involvement as well as the evolution of their personal and public lives in the face of ever-shifting contexts. She documents the Jacksons' significant contributions to the early civil rights movement, discussing their time leading the Southern Negro Youth Congress, which laid the groundwork for youth activists in the 1960s; their numerous published writings in periodicals such as Political Affairs; and their editorial involvement in The Worker and the civil rights magazine Freedomways. Drawing upon a rich collection of correspondence, organizational literature, and interviews with the Jacksons themselves, Haviland follows the couple through the years as they bore witness to economic inequality, war, political oppression, and victory in the face of injustice. Her study reveals a portrait of a remarkable pair who lived during a transformative period of American history and whose story offers a vital narrative of persistence, love, and activism across the long arc of the black freedom movement.
Book Synopsis Jeff Herman's Guide to Book Publishers, Editors & Literary Agents by : Jeff Herman
Download or read book Jeff Herman's Guide to Book Publishers, Editors & Literary Agents written by Jeff Herman and published by New World Library. This book was released on 2014-11-01 with total page 642 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If you want to get published, read this book! Jeff Herman’s Guide unmasks nonsense, clears confusion, and unlocks secret doorways to success for new and veteran writers! This highly respected resource is used by publishing insiders everywhere and has been read by millions all over the world. Jeff Herman’s Guide is the writer’s best friend. It reveals the names, interests, and contact information of thousands of agents and editors. It presents invaluable information about more than 350 publishers and imprints (including Canadian and university presses), lists independent book editors who can help you make your work more publisher-friendly, and helps you spot scams. Jeff Herman’s Guide unseals the truth about how to outsmart the gatekeepers, break through the barriers, and decipher the hidden codes to getting your book published. Countless writers have achieved their highest aspirations by following Herman’s outside-the-box strategies. If you want to reach the top of your game and transform rejections into contracts, you need this book! Jeff Herman’s Guide will educate you, inspire you, and become your virtual entourage at every step along the exhilarating journey to publication. Ask anyone in the book business, and they will refer you to Jeff Herman’s Guide. NEW for 2015: Comprehensive index listing dozens of subjects and categories to help you find the perfect publisher or agent.
Book Synopsis Great North American Stage Directors Volume 1 by : Cheryl Black
Download or read book Great North American Stage Directors Volume 1 written by Cheryl Black and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2024-01-25 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume assesses the contributions of David Belasco, Arthur Hopkins, and Margaret Webster, whose careers shaped the artistic and specialist identity of the Broadway director. Their work spans almost a century and captures the rapidly changing social and cultural landscape of 20th-century America. While their aesthetic styles differed greatly, they were united in their mastery of theatre craft and their impact on theatrical collaboration. The essays in this volume explore how these directors established and exploited Broadway as the epicentre of theatre in the United States, blended the role of producer and director, and managed the tensions between commercial success and artistic ambition. The Great North American Stage Directors series provides an authoritative account of the art of directing in North America by examining the work of twenty-four major practitioners from the late 19th century to the present. Each of the eight volumes examines three directors and offers an overview of their practices, theoretical ideas, and contributions to modern theatre. The studies chart the life and work of each director, placing his or her achievement in the context of other important theatre practitioners and broader social history. Written by a team of leading experts, the series presents the genealogy of directing in North America while simultaneously chronicling crucial trends and championing contemporary interpretation.
Book Synopsis Thunder on the Stage by : Bruce Allen Dick
Download or read book Thunder on the Stage written by Bruce Allen Dick and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2024-03-26 with total page 453 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Richard Wright’s dramatic imagination guided the creation of his masterpieces Native Son and Black Boy and helped shape Wright’s long-overlooked writing for theater and other performative mediums. Drawing on decades of research and interviews with Wright’s family and Wright scholars, Bruce Allen Dick uncovers the theatrical influence on Wright’s oeuvre--from his 1930s boxing journalism to his unpublished one-acts on returning Black GIs in WWII to his unproduced pageant honoring Vladimir Lenin. Wright maintained rewarding associations with playwrights, writers, and actors such as Langston Hughes, Theodore Ward, Paul Robeson, and Lillian Hellman, and took particular inspiration from French literary figures like Jean-Paul Sartre. Dick’s analysis also illuminates Wright’s direct involvement with theater and film, including the performative aspects of his travel writings; the Orson Welles-directed Native Son on Broadway; his acting debut in Native Son’s first film version; and his play “Daddy Goodness,” a satire of religious charlatans like Father Divine, in the 1930s. Bold and original, Thunder on the Stage offers a groundbreaking reinterpretation of a major American writer.
Download or read book James Edwards written by Pamala S. Deane and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2014-10-01 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of Hollywood's most heralded postwar African American movie stars, James Edwards catapulted to stardom following his breakout role in Stanley Kramer's Home of the Brave. In his groundbreaking performance as a U.S. soldier experiencing racial prejudice during combat in the South Pacific, Edwards proved that African American actors could handle serious film roles. Edwards performed on radio, television, and theatre, and appeared in two-dozen or more films, including Stanley Kubrick's breakthrough indie The Killing, John Frankenheimer's The Manchurian Candidate, and Franklin J. Schaffner's Patton. This book tells the story of Edwards' life and career, describing his unlikely climb to fame following a serious wartime injury and detailing how this native of Muncie, Indiana, paved the way for the careers of Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte, and other African American stars to follow.
Book Synopsis In Search of the Black Fantastic by : Richard Iton
Download or read book In Search of the Black Fantastic written by Richard Iton and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Prior to the 1960s, when African Americans had little access to formal political power, black popular culture was commonly seen as a means of forging community and effecting political change. But as Richard Iton shows, despite the changes politics, black artists have continued to play a significant role in the making of critical social spaces.
Book Synopsis Shakespeare on Screen: Othello by : Sarah Hatchuel
Download or read book Shakespeare on Screen: Othello written by Sarah Hatchuel and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015-06-30 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first volume in the re-launched series Shakespeare on Screen is devoted to Othello, offering up-to-date coverage of recent screen versions as well as new critical essays on older, canonical films. An international cast of authors explores not only productions from the USA and UK, but also translations, adaptations and appropriations in Québec, Italy, India, Brazil and Mexico. The volume takes part in the ceaseless cultural investigation of what Othello says about Shakespeare, the past and our present time, supported by an invaluable film-bibliography. Accompanying free online resources include a fuller version of the bibliography and an additional contribution on YouTube versions of Othello. This book will be a valuable resource for students, scholars and teachers of film studies and Shakespeare studies.
