Recent release "Louis Armstrong, Blues Music, and the Artistic, Political, and Philosophical Debate During the Harlem Renaissance" from Page Publishing author Dr. Michael Decuir explores the historical, literary, and political influences of the Harlem Renaissance. Drawing on his experiences growing up in New Orleans, Decuir creates a detailed cultural backdrop for the time period.
ELLENWOOD, Ga., July 8, 2022 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Dr. Michael Decuir, who currently serves as the Interim Chair and Associate Professor of Music at Clark Atlanta University where he teaches various courses including the History of African American music, and the History of Jazz, has completed his new book "Louis Armstrong, Blues Music, and the Artistic, Political, and Philosophical Debate During the Harlem Renaissance": a powerful examination of various cultural aspects and influences of the time.
"I argue in this research that the performing, literary, and visual arts present during the period known as the Harlem Renaissance did not evolve in a vacuum," shares Decuir. "Just as in other documented cultural or historical periods, sources of said artistic inspirations must be traced. Particularly when the historical record thus far has been largely distorted or untold. Therefore, my pleasurable task was to trace the West African influences on the enslaved culture (music, behaviors, mores, etc.) in New Orleans and thus Louis Armstrong's art and subsequently the nuanced discussion of the period considered here. Like Armstrong, I was born and came of age in a region, New Orleans, fraught with vestiges of West African culture promulgated by the descendants of the enslaved. Life in the Southern American apartheid system was confusing at best and painful at worst. Often, the dominant culture welcomes glimpses of Africanisms when we gather or celebrate funerals in the New Orleans-Ewe-Ibo behaviors. However, the early years of New Orleans was a manifestation and perpetuation of Jean Baptiste Bienville's and other early slaveholders' (who were motivated by monetary greed) colonial land-owner aspirations and what historian Gwendolyn Mildo Hall called an 'Anglophone orientation.' The slaveholders and European colonists embraced a persistent myth in the western hemisphere that the descendants of the enslaved Africans and the aboriginal population are intellectually incapable of contributing to European culture beyond an imitative role and consequently the beneficiaries of Western civilization culture taught or assimilated. The myth served as the aquifer for the resistance to efforts to gain constitutional rights denied to people of color, including the primary subject of this research, Louis Armstrong."
Published by Page Publishing, Dr. Michael Decuir's incredibly rich analysis of the Harlem Renaissance will provide readers with detailed research, creating a deep understanding of the various aspects of the cultural movement. Exploring the various artistic voices throughout the time, Decuir creates a tapestry of the various moments that created the Harlem Renaissance and how its effects can still be found in today's art.
Readers who wish to experience this irreverent work can purchase "Louis Armstrong, Blues Music, and the Artistic, Political, and Philosophical Debate During the Harlem Renaissance" at bookstores everywhere, or online at the Apple iTunes Store, Amazon, Google Play, or Barnes and Noble.
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