April Showers bring…our next HONEY Culture Club pick!
This month, we’re digging into Harlem Rhapsody by Victoria Christopher Murray.
Here’s the synopsis scoop:
In 1919, a high school teacher from Washington, D.C arrives in Harlem excited to realize her lifelong dream. Jessie Redmon Fauset has been named the literary editor of The Crisis. The first Black woman to hold this position at a preeminent Negro magazine, Jessie is poised to achieve literary greatness. But she holds a secret that jeopardizes it all.
W. E. B. Du Bois, the founder of The Crisis, is not only Jessie’s boss, he’s her lover. And neither his wife, nor their fourteen-year-age difference can keep the two apart. Amidst rumors of their tumultuous affair, Jessie is determined to prove herself. She attacks the challenge of discovering young writers with fervor, finding sixteen-year-old Countee Cullen, seventeen-year-old Langston Hughes, and Nella Larsen, who becomes one of her best friends. Under Jessie’s leadership, The Crisis thrives…every African American writer in the country wants their work published there.
When her first novel is released to great acclaim, it’s clear that Jessie is at the heart of a renaissance in Black music, theater, and the arts. She has shaped a generation of literary legends, but as she strives to preserve her legacy, she’ll discover the high cost of her unparalleled success.
“It humanizes her,” Head Honey Felicia Pride notes about the protagonist Jessie, in the above announcement video. “Here’s a woman with desires, some mess, and dreams, and I love that so much about this project.”
Desires? Dreams? Mess? YES… HONEY!
Let’s read about it all this month—together. Plus, if you aren’t already, we highly recommend you subscribe to YES, HONEY because subscribers will be the first to know the date/time of the upcoming chat featuring Felicia and Victoria. Stay tuned…
You can cop Harlem Rhapsody on Amazon, Bookshop, or wherever you get your books.
TALKBACK
So, has anyone read Harlem Rhapsody yet? Have you read any of Victoria’s other books? Let’s chat about this April HONEY Culture Club pick in the comments!
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