This quarter's prize is 34294, a candle holder with an African motif as seen on our candles page. It will hold three tapers and is valued at $12.95. This quarter's question: A two-month stint as a substitute principal for the Sparta Agricultural and Industrial Institute in Georgia in 1921 showed this man a harmony his own life lacked. The visit inspired him to write Cane, a series of vignettes about black life in the rural South. The novel, published in 1923, moves from the South to the North and back, showing a disconnection in the two regions for blacks. Although the book was his only work to specifically focus on the lives of African Americans, its sensitive treatment of black folk life, formal elegance, and progressive, uninhibited approach to sexuality and gender has influenced writers of the Harlem Renaissance, the Black Arts Movement, and today. After Cane was published, this man left the literary circle of New York’s Greenwich Village progressives Waldo Frank and Hart Crane to study in Fountainebleau, France, at the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man under mystic/psychologist, Georges Gurdjieff. His teacher believed that one’s essence, obscured by a socially determined personality, could be recovered by adhering to his teachings. When this student returned to the U.S., he taught Gurdieff’s philosophy in Harlem and Chicago until he broke with the mystic in the 1930s. Cane and Gurdjieff’s philosophy were simply tools this man used to resolve the conflicts of his racial identity. Racially mixed and easily identified as white, this man spent his life evading racial categories just as more and more biracials do today. With Gurdjieff’s philosophy, he found a way to define his whole identity, not just his African roots. With such a perspective, he could not accept James Weldon Johnson’s invitation to be included in the Book of American Negro Poetry. In his final long poem, Blue Meridian, published in 1936, he defines the American race as blue, a hybrid of the black, red and white races. Who was this writer?
Rules for the Beautifully Black Quarterly Drawing
No purchase is necessary. To enter the contest, fully complete the entry form, answering the drawing question(s) and providing your name and e-mail address. Winners must provide a U.S. mailing address and phone number. Only one entry per person/e-mail address is allowed. Entries will be accepted from April 28, 2008, through midnight July 27, 2008, Central Time. Winners will be selected in a random drawing of those who correctly answered the question(s). The drawing is limited to residents of the United States who are 18 years of age or older. All submissions become the property of Beautifully Black and Reasonable Too. All federal, state and local laws and regulations apply. Any taxes due are the responsibility of the winner. Void where prohibited or restricted by law. The quarterly winner of the prize will be published on this page within 15 days of the end of the drawing. Beautifully Black and Reasonable Too has the right to substitute a prize of equal or greater value if the item is no longer available. | Willie Wells was last quarter's correct answer. Elise Wilson of Chicago, IL, won the children's book The Brave Toy Soldier. Congratulations!
