Art & Literary Festival: The Harlem Renaissance

The Joslyn Castle & Gardens and Metropolitan Community College are partnering once again for the Art & Literary Festival. This year will be a celebration and exploration of one of the most electrifying and influential moments in American history, the Harlem Renaissance. In the 1920’s, in African American communities in New York City and in cities throughout the North and Midwest, creative and intellectual life thrived.

The main event of the festival is the production of an anthology of dramatized short stories, essays, and poems entitled Voices from the Harlem Renaissance, adapted by Scott Working and directed by TammyRa’. The evening will include selections by Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, Gwendolyn Bennett, Helene Johnson, Angela Weld Grimke, and Zora Neale Hurston.

Joslyn Castle will host a public art show with works inspired by the movement. Free lectures on the art and literature of the Harlem Renaissance, as well as Omaha’s role in it, will be offered before each performance. The Great Plains Black History Museum has generously loaned the Joslyn Castle an exhibit on the history of the Dreamland Ballroom, which will be on display in the Castle Library during the festival. 

Festival Schedule

Friday, Oct 14T

Peggy Jones: Art History Lecture, 6pm-7pm, Free 

Dramatic Readings, doors at 7pm, Production at 7:30pm, $22 

Saturday, Oct 15

Public reading of two original one-act plays by local playwrights Kim Louise and Peggy Jones, 2pm, Free

Eric Ewing: Our Role in the Harlem Renaissance  
6pm – 7pm, Free 

Dramatic Readings, Doors at 7pm, Production at 7:30pm $22

Sunday, Oct 16

Ramon Guerra: Literature of the Harlem Renaissance, 6pm-7pm, Free

Dramatic Readings, Doors at 7pm, Production at 7:30pm, $22

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Host or Publisher Joslyn Castle & Gardens