The Lawnside Historical Society will celebrate its first Jessie Redmon Fauset Literary Series thanks to a grant from the New Jersey Council for the Humanities. Two days of lectures, music and poetry will start on April 29 with a talk by Dr. Diane Turner, director of the Blockson Afro-American Collection at Temple University on Miss Fauset's struggle for social Justice. The Fourth Spirit of the Renaissance Poetry Competition for fifth through twelfth graders from Camden, Burlington and Gloucester counties.
The deadline for submissions is April 11. Read and print the rules of the competition and the entry form. Helpful links are also listed on the entry form.
The competition is designed to encourage youth to write original poetry in the vein of the Harlem Renaissance, an intellectually vibrant period for Black America. The theme is social justice, the aim of Miss Fauset's work with the NAACP and her writing.
Winning poems will be read by the writers on April 30 starting at 2 p.m. in the Lawnside Public School, 426 E. Charleston Avenue.The program will feature Dr. Cord Whitaker, a professor of English at the University of New Hampshire and Napalm, spoken word artist.
Miss Fauset was literary editor of the NAACP's Crisis magazine for seven years during the 1920s, the height of the Harlem Renaissance. She was a novelist, poet and short story writer like her contemporaries Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen and Zora Neale Hurston. She was born in Lawnside while her father was pastor of Mount Pisgah African Methodist Episcopal Church on April 26, 1882.
Miss Fauset received her education in Philadelphia, a graduate of Girls High School. She was a 1905 graduate of Cornell University and earned a master's degree in French from the University of Pennsylvania.
Langston Hughes, Harlem's poet laureate, called Miss Fauset the mid-wife of the Harlem Renaissance for nurturing him and others by providing an outlet for their voices and published work. She eventually married, returned to high school teaching and died in 1961 in New Jersey.
Here is a list of helpful sites for researching the Harlem Renaissance and Jessie Redmon Fauset.
About Jessie Redmon Fauset
Famous Black Poets: Jessie Redmon Fauset
A Guide to Harlem Renaissance Materials
Poetry of the Harlem Renaissance
Harlem 1900-1940: An African-American Community
Harlem: Mecca for the New Negro
For tickets call, 856-546-8850 or send email to lhs@petermotthouse.org. Click here to print an Literary Series flier.
Jessie Redmon Fauset Literary Series is funded by the New Jersey Council for the Humanities.The views, recommendations or comments expressed in this series do not necessarily reflect those of the New Jersey Council for the Humanities or the National Council for the Humanities. The Spirit of the Renaissance Poetry competition receives funding from t by the Camden County Cultural and Heritage Commission through the New Jersey Council for the Arts Local Regrant program/Department of State, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.
The Lawnside Historical Society operates the Peter Mott House Underground Railroad Museum at 26 Kings Court. The museum is open every Saturday from noon to 3 p.m., admission is $5 for adults, $2 for students. Group tours can be arranged by appointment. The Society, a tax-exempt, membership organization, meets on the second Thursday of each month at the Lawnside Public School.
The Society is a qualified organization of the New Jersey Cultural Trust. It is the recipient of a general operating support grant from the New Jersey Historical Commission.
