Overview

Anthony Hill's book, Pages from the Harlem Renaissance, is an historical and critical analysis of the nature and significance of J.A. Jackson's Page in Billboard. Hill explores Jackson's vision of black performance as seen through the Page against the larger framework of national and cultural concerns of the 1920s. The study is a testimony to the major accomplishments of black performers in all phases of black show business. Hill documents the development of the column from its founding in 1920 to its disappearance in 1925, focusing on Jackson as a critic, reporter, spokesman, and booster of black entertainment. The author moves on to assess Jackson's role in shaping black performance relative to the major theatrical critics W.E.B. DuBois, Theophilus Lewis, Sylvester Russell, and Romeo Dougherty. He then discusses key issues that include setting standards, improving conditions on the TOBA touring circuit, and organizing unions.

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9780820428642

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Reviews

« Antony Hill has rendered an important service to the historical and critical record on American theatre - and African American theatre in particular - by focusing upon an all but unknown chapter concerning Black journalist James Albert Jackson and his unique, five-year-long theatrical 'Page' in 'Billboard' during the height of the Harlem Renaissance. Among other achievements, Jackson's Page was instrumental in sparking the creation of the famous musical 'Shuffle Along, ' which in turn generated some of the most important Black writers, composers, and performers of the period. I found it fascinating, highly informative, and substantially useful. Score one for Professor Hill's stellar contribution.

Author Information

The Author: Dr. Anthony D. Hill earned his Ph.D. from New York University in the Department of Performance Studies in 1988. Currently he is an assistant professor in the Department of Theatre at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. He has taught at the University of California at Santa Barbara, Vassar, Queens, and Bellevue Colleges. His work has concentrated extensively on marginalized theatre practices, African American and American History, and Performance theory/criticism. Among his publications are two articles each in Billboard Publications, African American Review (formerly Black American Literature Forum), and Elimu, in addition to a review in The Journal of the Southern Central Modern Language Association.

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