"In 1972, the filmmaker William Greaves invited just about every surviving figure from the Harlem Renaissance to a cocktail party at Duke Ellington's home to discuss the history and legacy of that period. With three cameras, Greaves filmed the entire event, hoping to use it in a Harlem Renaissance documentary whose shape he did not fully have in mind yet."
"Many of these people haven't seen each other in decades, and they're all senior citizens, but they're clearly animated by the subject of the Harlem Renaissance, in part because its legacy is so open to interpretation. Ida Mae Cullen, widow of the poet Countee Cullen, observes that people at the time often misdated the Renaissance to the 1930s, but that it in fact began in the 1920s."
William Greaves filmed a 1972 cocktail gathering of nearly every surviving Harlem Renaissance figure at Duke Ellington's home, recording the event with three cameras for a future documentary. He worked intermittently on the footage for decades, screening excerpts, and the unfinished project gained legendary status. Greaves died in 2014; his son David Greaves, who had helped film the event, completed the picture. The assembled elders engage vigorously, debating dates, scope, and legacy. Ida Mae Cullen notes the Renaissance began in the 1920s rather than the 1930s. Arna Bontemps describes the period as a prism reflecting the Black experience across time.
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