Florence Mills

This biography reveals the lost history of the life of the 1920s Black female international superstar. Mills was lionized by the crowned heads in Europe and opened doors for generations of Black female stars from Lena Horne to Diana Ross. Although her career and shows changed the nature of Black entertainment, and thereby the wider American popular culture, she was largely forgotten in later years. Anyone who wants to understand the history of Black entertainment from Bert Williams to Michael Jackson and, by implication, the history of American popular culture, needs to understand the ways in which Florence Mills changed the rules forever.

From Caldecott Honor winner Christian Robinson and acclaimed author Renee Watson, comes the inspiring true story of Florence Mills. Born to parents who were both former slaves, Florence Mills knew at an early age that she loved to sing, and that her sweet, bird-like voice, resonated with those who heard her. Performing catapulted her all the way to the stages of 1920s Broadway where she inspired everyone from songwriters to playwrights. Yet with all her success, she knew firsthand how prejudice shaped her world and the world of those around her. As a result, Florence chose to support and promote works by her fellow black performers while heralding a call for their civil rights. Featuring a moving text and colorful illustrations, Harlem's Little Blackbird is a timeless story about justice, equality, and the importance of following one's heart and dreams. A CARTER G. WOODSON ELEMENTARY HONOR BOOK (awarded by the National Council for the Social Studies, 2013)

Pint-sized dynamo 'Baby Florence' Mills was singing and dancing just about as soon as she could talk and walk. Flo's mama and daddy knew they had a budding entertainer in the family, so they entered Florence in a talent contest. Baby Flo went on to become an international superstar during the Harlem Renaissance - but first she had to overcome a case of stage fright and discover that winning wasn't everything.

"Presents a history of the influence of Black musicians on the Beatles, exploring musical and storytelling legacies full of rich but contested symbolism and the transatlantic circulation of diaspora African arts, tropes, and symbols"--

The official journal of the Mid-America Theatre Conference Theatre History Studies is the official journal of the Mid-America Theatre Conference, Inc. (MATC). The conference is dedicated to the growth and improvement of all forms of theatre throughout a twelve-state region that includes the states of Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. Its purposes are to unite people and organizations within this region and elsewhere who have an interest in theatre and to promote the growth and development of all forms of theatre. Published annually since 1981, Theatre History Studies provides critical, analytical, and descriptive essays on all aspects of theatre history and is devoted to disseminating the highest quality peer-review scholarship in the field. CONTRIBUTORS Angela K. Ahlgren / Samer Al-Saber / Kelly I. Aliano / Gordon Alley-Young / Melissa Blanco Borelli / Trevor Boffone / Jay Buchanan / Matthieu Chapman / Joanna Dee Das / Ryan J. Douglas / Victoria Fortuna / Christiana Molldrem Harkulich / Alani Hicks-Bartlett / Jeanmarie Higgins / Lisa Jackson-Schebetta / Erin Rachel Kaplan / Heather Kelley / Patrick Maley / Karin Maresh / Lisa Milner / Courtney Elkin Mohler / Heather S. Nathans / Heidi L. Nees / Sebastian Samur / Michael Schweikardt / Teresa Simone / Dennis Sloan / Guilia Taddeo / Kyle A. Thomas / Alex Vermillion / Bethany Wood

Tells the fascinating story of African American women who traveled to France to seek freedom of expression. During the Jazz Age, France became a place where an African American woman could realize personal freedom and creativity, in narrative or in performance, in clay or on canvas, in life and in love. These women were participants in the life of the American expatriate colony, which included F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, and Cole Porter, and they commingled with bohemian avant-garde writers and artists like Picasso, Breton, Colette, and Matisse. Bricktop’s Paris introduces the reader to twenty-five of these women and the city they encountered. Following this nonfiction account, T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting provides a fictionalized autobiography of Ada “Bricktop” Smith, which brings the players from the world of nonfiction into a Paris whose elegance masks a thriving underworld. “Bricktop’s Paris vibrantly recreates and reimagines the fascinating world of Jazz Age Paris by placing black women at the center of the story. T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting gives us a valuable new perspective on Ada “Bricktop” Smith, giving her the prominence usually attributed to Josephine Baker. She also provides detailed portraits of other singers, musicians, writers, and artists who left America for the French capital. Written with enthusiasm and insight, Bricktop’s Paris underscores the importance of women to transatlantic black modernity.” — Tyler Stovall, author of Paris Noir: African Americans in the City of Light “Bricktop’s Paris is a remarkable feat. Sharpley-Whiting’s book is a woman’s story about dreaming and making dreams happen. It is a political story, a story about migration, and re-creation. It is a dazzling account of bold women reshaping their lives as New Women/Modern Women and black women in Europe. A woman’s place is not only viewed in the sphere of domesticity through Sharpley-Whiting’s writing, she also reimagines the complexity of life far away from home and on stage, in the studio, and in the nightclub. She captures their spirit and desires and walks us through this history arm and arm, singing, writing, dancing, and making art. I fell in love with these women as I empathized with their struggles, some of them I knew through other writings but through Sharpley-Whiting I felt as if I knew them intimately as they made their lives count some fifty years after Reconstruction. She restores their voices and their bodies and makes them present for the contemporary reader. Brilliant!” — Deborah Willis, author of Posing Beauty: African American Images from the 1890s to the Present “Bricktop’s Paris is a marvelous book that further consolidates Sharpley-Whiting’s record of pioneering research, a meticulous archeological excavation of the artistic, cultural, political, and social contributions made by African American women in Paris during the interwar years. This was a period that increasingly linked racial advocacy with colonial emancipation and during which African American women achieved unprecedented levels of creative and personal freedom while shaping broader conversations on identity and race. Bricktop’s Paris promises to inspire a new generation of researchers and will become an incontrovertible point of reference in assessing the intellectual history of the era.” — Dominic Thomas, Madeleine L. Letessier Professor of French and Francophone Studies, University of California, Los Angeles

The multidisciplinary essays in Configuring History describe how teachers can use virtual reality technology to teach the Harlem Renaissance. Describing in detail the construction of Virtual Harlem, Bronzeville, and Montmartre - all important sites in African American cultural history - the essays delineate the technologies employed in the construction of these cityscapes and the learning theory - configuring history - that informs the project. The book provides a model of a collaborative learning network, linking classrooms at universities in the United States and in Europe, and demonstrates the importance of collaboration between the sciences and the humanities for the future development of instructional technologies.

Colored Flames includes 5 original, dramatic plays by Florence J. Mills. The plays deal with issues concerning the human condition. This collection of plays has something for everyone. They draw on the human experience and make you laugh and cry.