Writers of the Black Chicago Renaissance comprehensively explores the contours and content of the Black Chicago Renaissance, a creative movement that emerged from the crucible of rigid segregation in Chicago's "Black Belt" from the 1930s through the 1960s. Heavily influenced by the Harlem Renaissance and the Chicago Renaissance of white writers, its participants were invested in political activism and social change as much as literature, art, and aesthetics. The revolutionary writing of this era produced some of the first great accolades for African American literature and set up much of the important writing that came to fruition in the Black Arts Movement.

The volume covers a vast collection of subjects, including many important writers such as Richard Wright, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Lorraine Hansberry as well as cultural products such as black newspapers, music, and theater. The book includes individual entries by experts on each subject; a discography and filmography that highlight important writers, musicians, films, and cultural presentations; and an introduction that relates the Harlem Renaissance, the White Chicago Renaissance, the Black Chicago Renaissance, and the Black Arts Movement.

Contributors are Robert Butler, Robert H. Cataliotti, Maryemma Graham, James C. Hall, James L. Hill, Michael Hill, Lovalerie King, Lawrence Jackson, Angelene Jamison-Hall, Keith Leonard, Lisbeth Lipari, Bill V. Mullen, Patrick Naick, William R. Nash, Charlene Regester, Kimberly Ruffin, Elizabeth Schultz, Joyce Hope Scott, James Smethurst, Kimberly M. Stanley, Kathryn Waddell Takara, Steven C. Tracy, Zoe Trodd, Alan Wald, Jamal Eric Watson, Donyel Hobbs Williams, Stephen Caldwell Wright, and Richard Yarborough.

| Cover Title Page Copyright Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Steven C. Tracy Robert S. Abbott Charlene Regester William A. Attaway Richard Yarborough Claude A. Barnett Bill V. Mullen Henry Lowington Blakely II Lovalerie King Alden Bland Joyce Hope Scott Edward Bland Lawrence Jackson Marita Bonner (Occomy) Kimberly N. Ruffin Gwendolyn Brooks Stephen Caldwell Wright Frank London Brown Michael D. Hill Alice C. Browning Bill V. Mullen Dan Burley Kimberly Stanley Margaret Esse Danner Keith D. Leonard Frank Marshall Davis Kathryn Waddell Takara Richard Durham Patrick Naick Lorraine Hansberry Lisbeth Lipari Fenton Johnson James C. Hall John H. Johnson Jamal Eric Watson "Mattie" Marian Minus Donyel Hobbs Williams Willard Motley Alan M. Wald Gordon Parks Elizabeth Schultz John Sengstacke Jamal Eric Watson Margaret Walker Maryemma Graham Theodore Ward Alan M. Wald Richard Wright Robert Butler Frank Garvin Yerby James L. Hill Black Writers and the Federal Theatre Project Angelene Jamison-Hall African American Music in Chicago during the Chicago Renaissance Robert H. Cataliotti The Black Press and the Black Chicago Renaissance Zoe Trodd The Chicago School of Sociology and the Black Chicago Renaissance William R. Nash John Reed Clubs/League of American Writers James Smethurst Materials for Further Study Steven C. Tracy Contributors Index | "A nicely crafted book that makes an important contribution to both the historiography of the Illinois Territory and the War of 1812."—Journal of Illinois History
"An important reference work that will stimulate further research on this fascinating and influential literary movement."—Journal of the Illinois Historical Society
"Required reading for anyone seeking to understand the wide diversity of the black Chicago Renaissance. . . . Highly recommended."—Choice
|Steven C. Tracy is a professor of Afro-American studies at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and a Chu...