• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Ransom Center Magazine

  • Sections
    • Art
    • Books + Manuscripts
    • Conservation
    • Exhibitions + Events
    • Film
    • Literature
    • Photography
    • Research + Teaching
    • Theatre + Performing Arts
  • Archive
  • Print Edition

On the Record: Black Creators and the Jazz Age

March 8, 2023 - Alyssa Morris

On the Record: Black Creators and the Jazz Age

Exhibition organized by Harry Ransom Center graduate research assistants sheds light on black creators from the collections whose work exemplifies the spirit and history of jazz.

The music of saxophonist Charlie “Bird” Parker, photographs of jazz and swing singer Billie Holiday and saxophonist Dexter Gordon, a jazz-inspired essay by Langston Hughes, and a novel by writer Claude McKay are some of the works spotlighted in a display organized for Black History Month 2023.

We connected the dots between several disparate collections and brought together materials whose relationships are often hard to document in descriptive language or hierarchical order, which in turn makes discovering those relationships hard. This is especially true when we are focusing on Black creators in the Ransom Center’s collections.
—KAYLEIGH VOSS

Focused on the creative output of Black performers, the display showcases the cultural influence of jazz across art forms and the improvisational nature of the creative process, pulling materials from many different collections housed at the Center.

Carl Van Vechten photograph of Billie Holiday
Carl Van Vechten (American, 1880–1964) Billie Holiday, 1949 Used with permission of the Carl Van Vechten Trust

Kayleigh Voss, one of the organizers, says, “We hope that the display is an example of a critical (in both senses of the word) kind of archival research. We connected the dots between several disparate collections and brought together materials whose relationships are often hard to document in descriptive language or hierarchical order, which in turn makes discovering those relationships hard. This is especially true when we are focusing on Black creators in the Ransom Center’s collections.”

Indeed, the organizers were themselves inspired by jazz as they put together the display. In their introductory statement, they say, “Like research, jazz is both an individual art form as well as a collaborative process. It is iterative; it requires improvisation. Researchers and archival staff must work together to make the lives and experiences of people of color in the archive more legible and available for research.”

Volume 6, Charlie Parker box set (Burbank, CA: Warner Brothers, 1977)Ross Russell Papers D 0215
Volume 6, Charlie Parker box set (Burbank, CA: Warner Brothers, 1977) Ross Russell Papers D 0215

Organized by Melissa Aslo de la Torre, Maggie Mitts, Adrienne Sockwell, Kayleigh Voss, and Courtney Welu, “On the Record: Black Creators and the Jazz Age” is displayed on the second floor of the Ransom Center, just outside the Reading and Viewing Room through March 17, 2023.

 

Filed Under: Featured1 Tagged With: African American Creators, Black History Month, exhibition, Jazz, Music, Research

Primary Sidebar

Archive

Tags

acquisition Alice's Adventures in Wonderland archive archives Art Books Cataloging Conservation Council on Library and Information Resources David Foster Wallace David O. Selznick digitization exhibition Exhibitions Fellows Find Fellowships Film Frank Reaugh Frank Reaugh: Landscapes of Texas and the American West Gabriel Garcia Marquez Gabriel Garcia Marquez archive Gone with the Wind I have seen the Future: Norman Bel Geddes Designs America Lewis Carroll literature Magnum Photos Manuscripts Meet the Staff Nobel Prize Norman Bel Geddes Norman Mailer Performing Arts Photography poetry preservation Publishing Research Robert De Niro Shakespeare theater The King James Bible: Its History and Influence The Making of Gone With The Wind Undergraduate What is Research? World War I

Recent Posts

  • Fellowships Awarded to 52 Scholars
  • Winners Announced for 2023 Schuchard Prize
  • BOOK EXCERPT: Designs on Film
  • Lois Kim Appointed Chief Development Officer for the Harry Ransom Center
  • The Knickerbocker Theatre Collapse

Before Footer

Sign up for eNews

Our monthly newsletter highlights news, exhibitions, and programs.

Connect With Us

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

About

Ransom Center Magazine is an online and print publication sharing stories and news about the Harry Ransom Center, its collections, and the creative community surrounding it.

Copyright © 2023 Harry Ransom Center

Web Accessibility · Web Privacy