A Jamaican girl, Bita Plant, who was adopted and sent to be educated in England by white missionary benefactors, returns to her native village of Banana Bottom and finds her black heritage at war with her newly acquired culture.
Claude McKay Livres
Claude McKay s'est imposé comme une voix essentielle de la Renaissance de Harlem, explorant en profondeur les complexités de la vie et de l'identité noires. Sa production littéraire, englobant poésie et romans, abordait souvent des thèmes tels que la race, le déracinement et la quête d'appartenance. L'écriture de McKay se distingue par sa puissance lyrique et son commentaire social pointu, offrant un aperçu profond de l'expérience afro-américaine. Il demeure célébré pour avoir capturé l'esprit de son époque tout en abordant des préoccupations humaines durables.
McKay's account of his long odyssey from Jamaica to Harlem and then on to France, Britain, North Africa, Russia, and finally back to America. As well as depicting his own experiences, the author describes his encounters with such notable personalities as Charlie Chaplin, George Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells, Leon Trotsky, W. E. B. Du Bois, Isadora Duncan, Paul Robeson, and Sinclair Lewis.
Harlem Shadows
- 112pages
- 4 heures de lecture
A harbinger of the Harlem Renaissance first published in 1922, this collection of poignant, lyrical poems explores Claude McKay’s yearning for his Jamaican homeland and the bitter plight of Black and African Caribbean people in America—now with an introduction by Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Jericho Brown. ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2022—Vulture With pure heart, passion, and honesty, Claude McKay offers an acute reflection on the complex nature of racial identity in the Caribbean diaspora, encompassing issues such as nationalism, freedom of expression, class, gender, and sex. The collection’s eponymous poem, “Harlem Shadows,” portrays the struggle of sex workers in 1920s Harlem. In “If We Must Die,” McKay calls for justice and retribution for Black people in the face of racist abuse. Juxtaposing the cacophony of New York City with the serene beauty of Jamaica, McKay urges us to reckon with the oppression that plagues a “long-suffering race,” who he argues has no home in a white man’s world. Poems of Blackness, queerness, desire, performance, and love are infused with a radical message of resistance in this sonorous cry for universal human rights. Simultaneously a love letter to the spirit of New York City and an indictment of its harsh cruelty, Harlem Shadows is a stunning collection that remains all too relevant one hundred years after its original publication.
Jake Brown, a Black American soldier and a World War I deserter, returns to Harlem and struggles to find his place in a vibrant working-class community that's rife with poverty, crime, and racism.
Romance in Marseille
- 224pages
- 8 heures de lecture
"Buried in the archive for almost ninety years, Claude McKay's 'Romance in Marseille' traces the adventures of a rowdy troupe of dockworkers, prostitutes, and political organizers - collectively straight and queer, disabled and able-bodied, African, European, Caribbean, and American. Set largely in the culture-blending Vieux Port of Marseille at the height of the Jazz Age, the novel takes flight along with Lafala, an acutely disabled but abruptly wealthy West African sailor."-- Provided by publisher
Lincoln Agrippa Daily, known on the 1920s Marseilles waterfront as “Banjo,” prowls the rough waterfront bistros with his drifter friends, drinking, looking for women, playing music, fighting, loving, and talking--about their homes in Africa, the West Indies, or the American South and about being Black.