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Join us for a symposium on the life and legacy of Harlem Renaissance writer, Jessie Redmon Fauset. This program is presented in partnership with the Literary Society, organized by Harlemite, Lana Turner. Panelists include Dr. Victoria Chevalier, Dr. Farah Jasmine Griffin, Dr. Zoe L. Henry, and Debra A. James.
On March 21, 1924, Jessie Redmon Fauset (April 27, 1882, Camden County, NJ – April 30, 1961, Philadelphia, PA) joined a coterie of Black intellectuals at the Civic Club in downtown Manhattan. Those in attendance that evening, including Arturo Schomburg, W.E.B. Du Bois, Nella Larsen, among many others, initially convened to celebrate Fauset's debut novel, There Is Confusion (1924). But the organizers of the soiree, philosopher Alain Locke and sociologist Charles S. Johnson imagined the interracial gathering could serve a grander mission: they sought to bring visibility and opportunity to Harlem’s burgeoning artistic and intellectual community. Fauset did not quite get the book party she hoped for in 1924, but today, the dinner is heralded as the birthplace of the Harlem Renaissance. This symposium celebrates the work of the too often overlooked editor, critic, poet, essayist, novelist, educator, and linguist.
As literary editor (1919-1926) of The Crisis, the NAACP’s magazine, Fauset sculpted African-American literature in the 1920's, supporting the careers of writers including Jean Toomer, Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, Nella Larson, Claude McKay among others. Fauset was the first African-American woman to graduate from Cornell University. A prolific writer, Fauset produced four full-length novels in addition to her poems and critical essays.
