November 2019 News

Fourteenth Annual Harlem Renaissance Party

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

On Monday, November 11, Stephanie Nagelkirk’s African-American Literature class hosted its fourteenth annual Harlem Renaissance Party. The party is the culmination of a research project where students choose a figure from this pivotal time in history and portray that person for the evening.

A class-only dinner was followed by a public show, featuring students portraying such artists as Jelly Roll Morton, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Zora Neale Hurston, Duke Ellington, Jessie Redmon Fauset, and others. Performances ranged from vocal solos and instrumental pieces to dramatic readings and speech excerpts.

Ms. Nagelkirk uses the Harlem Renaissance party and performances as a novel way to engage students with a part of history and culture with which most traditional literature classes would be unfamiliar.