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Munachi Onyiuke and Olivia Greenaway, Columbia University MPH candidate, get their books signed. ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/IMG_0168.jpeg\")
Fern June Kahn holds up her new memoir, \u201cThrough Jamaican Lenses.\u201d ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/IMG_0166-1.jpeg\")
Historian David Levering Lewis, who wrote \u201cWhen Harlem was in Vogue\u201d about the Harlem Renaissance 40 years ago, greets Pamela Newkirk and Judith Byrd and was acknowledged by A\u2019Lelia Bundles at program\u2019s start.<\/p>\nDaughter of millionaire beauty-care manufacturer Madam C.J. Walker, A\u2019Lelia Walker was dubbed by poet Langston Hughes the \u201cjoy goddess of Harlem\u2019s 1920s.\u201d Glamorous but down-to-earth, Walker was the author\u2019s great-grandmother and namesake. Captivating public notice due to her unique position as America\u2019s first high-profile heiress of African descent, she emerged as a convener of Black artists and prominent white patrons of the arts, on festive occasions and especially at parties. These erstwhile mere social events were as legendary for their sophistication and uproarious fun as they were for their purposeful intent: to encourage and fund Black creative genius. <\/p>\n
Speaking with Washington, Bundles explained how her mission was to reveal the forgotten complexity of her great-grandmother, someone she said sometimes previously,= had been caricatured as a frivolous party girl. <\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough Madame Walker was born after emancipation, her story was often reduced to a tale of from slavery and rags, to millions. It was: \u2018Madame Walker made the money and A\u2019Lelia Walker spent it,\u2019\u201d Bundles said. \u201cHer legacy is far, far greater. By helping to identify, [and] entertaining, engaging, and assisting people who became her era\u2019s social and intellectual luminaries, like Zora Neale Hurston (writer), Paul Robeson (baritone), Florence Mills (star Broadway singer), Justin Sandridge (concert pianist), or Richmond Barthe (sculptor), she helped define the Harlem Renaissance,\u201d Bundles told Washington.<\/p>\n
I asked why, after Vertner Tandy\u2019s saved the Walker women so much money by remodeling two existing houses on 136th Street into their elegant new townhouse, she refrained from mentioning the early Black architect\u2019s effort to do the same thing, by renovating \u201cBishops Court\u201d in Flushing, Queens, as their country house. I was glad for Bundles\u2019s answer: \u201cI covered that earlier in my biography of Madame Walker. Here, I wanted to emphasize A\u2019Lelia.\u201d <\/p>\n
The crucial response to the night\u2019s most cogent question held even greater satisfaction. Washington asked, \u201cWhat would the Walker women have to say today, about efforts to diminish Black contributions to America\u2019s greatness?\u201d Their very lives, Bundles suggested, starting from nothing, overcoming foul play and obstacles to obtain success, would be their response: \u201cTheir example is the very definition of accomplishing American greatness!\u201d <\/p>\n
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