A Lost evening with the Harlem Renaissance: New Documentary Revives a Pivotal Moment
A remarkable new film, Once Upon a Time in Harlem, offers an unprecedented glimpse into a gathering of luminaries from the Harlem Renaissance, the groundbreaking African American cultural movement of the 1920s. Captured in August 1972 by experimental filmmaker William Greaves at Duke Ellington’s Harlem townhouse, the footage lay largely untouched for decades, now meticulously assembled by Greaves’s son, David, into a captivating 100-minute documentary.
The event itself feels suspended in time. The attendees, filmed nearly half a century after the Renaissance’s peak, appear as living artifacts, their faces etched with the memories of a transformative era. The temporal distance mirroring that between the Harlem renaissance and its attendees – each face and gesture represents a bridge to a bygone era, imbued with the weight of decades of history.
The journey from initial recording to finished film was a decades-long, intergenerational effort. Though originally filmed for Greaves’s 1974 film From These Roots, the footage was always intended for a dedicated Harlem Renaissance retrospective. Illness prevented Greaves from completing the project, and it passed to his widow, Louise, upon his death in 2014 at the age of 87. She continued the work until her passing in 2023 at age 90, after which David Greaves, alongside his daughter Liani Greaves as producer, took up the mantle, supported by grants and community funding.
The filmmakers wisely adopted a minimalist approach, adding only nametags and archival photographs to contextualize the discussions. The structure mirrors the natural arc of the party itself, beginning with polite introductions and evolving into passionate debates. These included discussions about the very language used to describe the African American experience – specifically, whether to continue using the historically loaded term “negro” or adopt “Afro-American.” Occasionally, William Greaves can be seen gently prompting more reserved guests, such as when discussing the revolutionary impact of jazz music. “It would be considered a revolution in relation to other music,” explained painter aaron Douglas, “It was not a revolution to us.”
The film features a remarkable roster of figures, including musicians Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle, whose 1921 musical Shuffle Along broke barriers as one of the first all-Black Broadway productions. historians Nathan Huggins and John Henrik Clarke, poets Arna Bontemps and Frank Horne (uncle of Lena Horne), actors Leigh Whipper and Irvin C Miller, photographer James van Der Zee, librarians Regina Anderson and Jean Blackwell Hutson, society page editor Gerri major, and Ida Mae Cullen, the widow of poet Countee Cullen, all contribute to the rich tapestry of perspectives. They reminisce about departed friends like the controversial Pan-Africanist Marcus Garvey and the recently deceased poet Langston Hughes. Notably, some attendees, like the 96-year-old Whipper, carried the direct legacy of slavery, with their artistic pursuits representing a powerful act of liberation.
To witness these individuals grapple with the meaning of the Harlem renaissance – both then and now – is a truly captivating experience. Major asserted that the era marked the first time Black people were widely recognized as creative individuals. Bontemps described it as a “prism” reflecting the totality of the Black experience, while Schuyler viewed it not as a renaissance, but as an “awakening.” Regardless of interpretation, the conversation consistently returned to the question of its enduring legacy. “The Harlem Renaissance isn’t dead,” Huggins argued, “as the Harlem Renaissance lives with everybody.” Now, with every participant gone, Once Upon a Time in Harlem ensures that flame continues to burn brightly.
