Amid the scholars, poets, authors, and artists of the Harlem Renaissance stood an Afro-Puerto Rican man named Arturo Schomburg. His life's passion was to collect books, letters, music, and art from Africa and the African diaspora and bring to light the achievements of people of African descent. When his collection became so large that it threatened to overflow his house, he turned to the New York Public Library.

"Travel back in time to the 1920s and 1930s to the sounds of jazz in nightclubs and the 24-hours-a-day bustle of the famous Black neighborhood of Harlem in uptown Manhattan. It was a dazzling time when there was an outpouring of the arts of African Americans--the poetry of Langston Hughes, the novels of Zora Neale Hurston, the sculptures of Augusta Savage, and that brand-new music called jazz as only Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong could play it....

Brief biographies of twelve African American poets with examples of their best-known works, from Jupiter Hammon of the eighteenth century to today's Arna Bontemps and Gwendolyn Brooks.

Discusses Harlem and the experiences that have shaped the black community.

"Explores the Harlem Renaissance, a reawakening of African-American culture, including literature, the arts, theater, and music, motivated by a goal to achieve equal rights"--Provided by publisher.

A collection of lullabies orally transmitted by African-American slaves revealing their hardships and sorrows as well as soothing notes of well-being and belief in a better time to come.