Shuffle Along
-
Wild about Florence
When Shuffle Along opened at the 63rd Street Music Hall on May 23, 1921, it marked the return of all-black musical shows to Broadway after nearly a decade-long silence. The last successful musical wholly written and performed by African Americans to be performed south of Harlem had been the George Walker–Bert Williams vehicle Bandanna Land in 1908. When Walker…
-
Black Theaters in NYC, an almost forgotten history
Lincoln Theatre 58 W. 135th Street, New York, NY 10037 The Lincoln Theatre was a theater located on 135th Street near Lenox Avenue in Harlem, New York City. One early performer, around 1903, was Baby Florence, the child singer and dancer who grew up to be Florence Mills, the Broadway and London star.It opened in…
-
NOMINATING HARLEM’S LITTLE BLACKBIRD
American singer and dancer, a leading performer during the Jazz Age and the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s Florence Mills, known as the “Queen of Happiness” was one of the most successful entertainers of the 1920s. Many spoke about her enchanting qualities, but it was her singing that was most spellbinding. James Weldon Johnson’s assessment…
Alhambra Theatre, cabaret, Eubie Blake, Florence Mills, Florence Winfrey, Harlem, Harlem Jazz Queen, Harlem Renaissance, I’m a little blackbird looking for a bluebird, Jazz Age, Langston Hughes, Lew Leslie, Mills Sisters, Mt. Zion AME church, Noble Sissle, Plantation Club, Plantation Company, Plantation Revue, Queen of Happiness, Savona Bailey-McClain curator + artistic director, She Built NYC, show business, Shuffle Along, vaudeville, West Harlem Art Fund, Ziegfield Follies
West Harlem Art Fund 