First published 2010
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar takes readers on a personal journey through the Harlem Renaissance, the cultural movement that transformed his birthplace from 1920 to 1940. The NBA's all-time leading scorer examines how this era of artistic and intellectual flowering shaped both American culture and his own identity. Abdul-Jabbar traces the historical currents that converged to create the man he became, starting with the Harlem Rens basketball team and extending through the nightclubs, restaurants, and parties that defined the neighborhood. He introduces readers to the athletes, jazz musicians, comedians, actors, politicians, entrepreneurs, and writers who inspired not just his own rise but an entire nation's awakening. The book reveals how figures like W.E.B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, Aaron Douglas, William H. Johnson, Duke Ellington, and Louis Armstrong gave voice to thoughts and emotions that segregation laws had tried to silence. Abdul-Jabbar shows what brought these innovators to Harlem and how they changed the world through their art, music, and words.
Genres: history, 20th-century, african-american, biography-memoir, cultural-studies, american-history
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: cultural-movement, personal-journey
Setting: Harlem
Period: 1920-1940
288 pages · Paperback · Simon & Schuster