Adventures in Black and White
ADVENTURES IN BLACK AND WHITE, a memoir-travelogue first published in 1960, is being reissued with a critical introduction, including minor edits and annotations of the original text by scholar Tara Betts. Recognized as a prodigy at an early age, Philippa Duke Schuyler was heralded as America's first internationally-acclaimed mixed race celebrity. Her father, a conservative black journalist, and her mother, a white Texan heiress, dedicated Schuyler's development to the cause of integration with the claim that racial mixing could produce a superior hybrid human, a claim that Schuyler resisted, but would nonetheless hurl her into a destructive identity crisis that consumed her throughout her life. When the transition from child prodigy to concert pianist proved challenging in America, Schuyler, like many black performers before her, went abroad during the 1950s for larger audiences. Schuyler's witnessing first-hand the dissemblage of European colonies in Africa and the Middle East is the focus of ADVENTURES IN BLACK AND WHITE. This narrative connects the Harlem Renaissance to the prelude of the Civil Rights Movement at a time when the public conversation on interracial identity in America was just beginning. As Schuyler writes about Africa—"the homeland of her ancestors"—readers can begin to understand how the young musician would eventually find her way as an author and a journalist, and the books that followed.
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Adventures in Black and White
ADVENTURES IN BLACK AND WHITE, a memoir-travelogue first published in 1960, is being reissued with a critical introduction, including minor edits and annotations of the original text by scholar Tara Betts. Recognized as a prodigy at an early age, Philippa Duke Schuyler was heralded as America's first internationally-acclaimed mixed race celebrity. Her father, a conservative black journalist, and her mother, a white Texan heiress, dedicated Schuyler's development to the cause of integration with the claim that racial mixing could produce a superior hybrid human, a claim that Schuyler resisted, but would nonetheless hurl her into a destructive identity crisis that consumed her throughout her life. When the transition from child prodigy to concert pianist proved challenging in America, Schuyler, like many black performers before her, went abroad during the 1950s for larger audiences. Schuyler's witnessing first-hand the dissemblage of European colonies in Africa and the Middle East is the focus of ADVENTURES IN BLACK AND WHITE. This narrative connects the Harlem Renaissance to the prelude of the Civil Rights Movement at a time when the public conversation on interracial identity in America was just beginning. As Schuyler writes about Africa—"the homeland of her ancestors"—readers can begin to understand how the young musician would eventually find her way as an author and a journalist, and the books that followed.
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Adventures in Black and White

Adventures in Black and White

Adventures in Black and White

Adventures in Black and White

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Overview

ADVENTURES IN BLACK AND WHITE, a memoir-travelogue first published in 1960, is being reissued with a critical introduction, including minor edits and annotations of the original text by scholar Tara Betts. Recognized as a prodigy at an early age, Philippa Duke Schuyler was heralded as America's first internationally-acclaimed mixed race celebrity. Her father, a conservative black journalist, and her mother, a white Texan heiress, dedicated Schuyler's development to the cause of integration with the claim that racial mixing could produce a superior hybrid human, a claim that Schuyler resisted, but would nonetheless hurl her into a destructive identity crisis that consumed her throughout her life. When the transition from child prodigy to concert pianist proved challenging in America, Schuyler, like many black performers before her, went abroad during the 1950s for larger audiences. Schuyler's witnessing first-hand the dissemblage of European colonies in Africa and the Middle East is the focus of ADVENTURES IN BLACK AND WHITE. This narrative connects the Harlem Renaissance to the prelude of the Civil Rights Movement at a time when the public conversation on interracial identity in America was just beginning. As Schuyler writes about Africa—"the homeland of her ancestors"—readers can begin to understand how the young musician would eventually find her way as an author and a journalist, and the books that followed.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781940939773
Publisher: 2Leaf Press
Publication date: 07/03/2018
Edition description: 1
Pages: 324
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

PHILIPPA DUKE SCHUYLER (1931-1967) was a mixed-race American pianist, composer, journalist and author. TARA BETTS is an award-winning poet, author and scholar of African American and white French descent. She holds a Ph.D. in English from Binghamton University, and an MFA in creative writing from New England College. She has taught at Rutgers University, University of Illinois-Chicago, and the MFA program at Chicago State University. She is also one of the co-editors of The Beiging of America: Personal Narratives About Being Mixed Race in the 21st Century (2017) and the Poetry Editor at Another Chicago Magazine. Her poetry has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, she is the author of several poetry collections and chapbooks, including her latest book, Break the Habit (2016). A Cave Canem graduate, she held residencies from the Ragdale Foundation, Centrum and Caldera, and was awarded an Illinois Arts Council Artist fellowship. www.tarabetts.net

Table of Contents

Author's Preface: The Case of the Missing Piano v

Foreword: My Recollection of on Extraordinary Artist by Deems Taylor xi

Introduction: Playing the Notes: A 21st Century Introduction to Philippa Duke Schuyler's Adventures in Block and White by Tara Betts 1

Chapter 1 Black Mass in Mexico 9

Chapter 2 Thieves and Plots in Cuba 15

Chapter 3 Strip-tease in Saint Thomas 29

Chapter 4 Voodoo Music for a President 37

Chapter 5 Scandal and Calypso 49

Chapter 6 With the Djukas in the Jungle 61

Chapter 7 In the Midst of Revolution, A Night in Maracaibo 71

Chapter 8 Mad Love in London 93

Chapter 9 A Curious Race 107

Chapter 10 I Play for Queen Elisabeth 115

Chapter 11 The Land of Death Cathedrals, Snow, and Swedish Officers 131

Chapter 12 Triumph in Paris Hunger in Madrid, An Angry Young Man 141

Chapter 13 Assault at the Pyramids Around Turkey On a Scooter, A Concert for Men Only 155

Chapter 14 Champagne with the Emperor 171

Chapter 15 King Mutesa and I 179

Chapter 16 Royalty and Food Poisoning 191

Chapter 17 The Ants of Usumbura, Birthday in the Congo 213

Chapter 18 Dr. Schweitzer and the Lepers Cannibal Country, The King's Necklace 231

Chapter 19 Hong Kong Days and Nights The Palace in Kuala Lumpur 253

Chapter 20 The Black and the White 275

About Philippa Duke Schuyler 285

About Deems Taylor 289

About Tara Betts 291

Other Books By 2Leaf Press 293

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