Joy Goddess
A'Lelia Walker and the Harlem Renaissance
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- 14,99 €
Description de l’éditeur
“Raucously immersive...An intimate portrait of Black opulence in the early 20th century.” —Oprah Daily
A “scintillating, vibrant” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) and deeply researched biography of A’Lelia Walker—daughter of Madam C.J. Walker and herself a central figure of the Harlem Renaissance—written by her great-granddaughter.
Dubbed the “joy goddess of Harlem’s 1920s” by poet Langston Hughes, A’Lelia Walker was a dazzling cultural icon whose legendary parties and Dark Tower salon helped define the Harlem cultural scene.
After inheriting her mother’s pioneering hair care business, A’Lelia became America’s first high-profile Black heiress and a patron of the arts. Joy Goddess takes readers inside her New York homes, where she hosted luminaries including Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Paul Robeson, Florence Mills, James Weldon Johnson, Carl Van Vechten, and W.E.B. Du Bois—figures who shaped African American history and culture during the Roaring Twenties.
Drawing on extensive research and personal correspondence, A’Lelia Bundles presents a nuanced biography of a woman navigating life as a wife, mother, businesswoman, and patron outside the shadow of her famous mother’s legacy.
With vivid detail, Joy Goddess brings to life A’Lelia’s radiant personality, fashion-forward influence, and role as one of the most important cultural icons of Harlem, offering a fresh and unforgettable portrait of the woman who embodied the spirit of a new Black cultural era.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this scintillating account, biographer Bundles (On Her Own Ground) revisits the pioneering glamour and cultural patronage of her own great-grandmother, the hair-care heiress and Harlem Renaissance socialite A'Lelia Walker. Born in 1885, A'Lelia spent her early years in poverty until her mother, washerwoman Sarah Breedlove, refashioned herself as Madam C.J. Walker, purveyor of the Wonderful Hair Grower and first self-made woman millionaire. Bringing A'Lelia out from under her mother's shadow (during her lifetime she faced down unfavorable comparisons to her mother's business acumen, and the two had a contentious "fire and ice" relationship), Bundles argues that the heiress had a "gift" for "creating distinctive events" that "surprised even blasé New York." She hosted landmark soirées at her inherited Westchester County mansion and founded both the Walker Salon, "one of Harlem's most popular venues for private parties," and the Dark Tower, a cultural salon named after a Countee Cullen poem "where her downtown friends joined her uptown friends." Bundles shows how A'Lelia's wide range of guests, from cutting-edge musicians, artists, and poets to high-ranking African Americans in the federal government, created a potent and unprecedented cultural mix. Along the way, she depicts A'Lelia with admiration for her "diva-worthy flamboyance" and, thanks to the familial connection, unmatched intimacy. This brings vibrant life to a luminary described by Langston Hughes as the "joy goddess of Harlem."
