Black Beauty: A History and Celebration.Black Beauty: A History and Celebration by Ben Arogundade Avalon, September 2000, $39.95, ISBN ISBN abbr. International Standard Book Number ISBN International Standard Book Number ISBN n abbr (= International Standard Book Number) → ISBN m 1-560-25276-6 The Jazz Age Noun 1. Jazz Age - the 1920s in the United States characterized in the novels of F. Scott Fitzgerald as a period of wealth, youthful exuberance, and carefree hedonism , Prohibition and the Harlem Renaissance Harlem Renaissance, term used to describe a flowering of African-American literature and art in the 1920s, mainly in the Harlem district of New York City. During the mass migration of African Americans from the rural agricultural South to the urban industrial North are terms associated with the 1920s. However, more than black musicians, writers, and bathtub gin bathtub gin n. Homemade gin. Noun 1. bathtub gin - homemade gin especially that made illegally gin - strong liquor flavored with juniper berries were in vogue then. The fashion of tanned skin was born in the twenties, when sun tan oil was first sold. Coco Chanel Gabrielle Bonheur "Coco" Chanel (August 19, 1883 – January 10, 1971)[1] was a pioneering French fashion designer whose modernist philosophy, menswear-inspired fashions, and pursuit of expensive simplicity made her arguably the most important figure in the history , the French designer, started the trend. Clara Bow, sex goddess of silent film, created a sensation in the twenties with her generous lips, an early example that white glamour often owes much to black features--and vice versa VICE VERSA. On the contrary; on opposite sides. . Around the same time in Paris, Josephine Baker was launched into megastardom with a honey-colored body that pleasured the eye. "For the first time ever, universal beauty had a black face," writes Ben Arogundade. Baker, one of many exponents of the type, personifies hybrid beauty. In Black Beauty, Arogundade charts contrasting images of blackness that have generated attention across time and the globe. The Venus Hottentot, whose ample body was exhibited behind bars in London and Paris in 1810, represents unmixed authenticity. The two are played off against each other, but ultimately both are equated with primitive nature. Grace Jones, who was displayed inside a cage in the eighties was also promoted as primitive. In the nineties, the black blondes, like Lil'Kim, Mary J. Blige and Ru Paul, have redefined the ultimate emblem of white beauty and manifested black arrival in the game of racial masking. Arogundade, a Nigerian journalist, has written a well-researched book in simple but affecting language. Not only is the volume full of stunning photographs, but there are historical revelations as well. Shakespeare's "Dark Lady" had Africa in her genes, and thanks to an eighteenth century mulatto MULATTO. A person born of one white and one black parent. 7 Mass. R. 88; 2 Bailey, 558. queen from Germany, a proverbial drop of African blood colors the lineage of the English Royals. At the heart of Arogundade's historical survey is the struggle of black beauty to dictate its terms, not be demeaned or scrapped for the benefit of others. Barbara Lewis is currently editing an anthology entitled Spectacular Savagery: Lynching in America. |
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