Tanya

While little is known about the dancer “Tanya,” she made quite an impression on Providence in 1952. A May 3, 1952 Baltimore Afro-American... Read More »

  • Dance
  • Music

Edward M. Bannister

Painter Edward Bannister was born in New Brunswick, Canada in 1828. He was a founder and active member of The Providence Art Club and his paintings... Read More »

  • Visual Art

Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones)

Few artists have stirred up as much controversy as Amiri Baraka. Born Everett LeRoi Jones in Newark, NJ in 1934, and published in his early life... Read More »

  • Music
  • Performance
  • Theater
  • Writing

George Houston Bass

George Houston Bass was a playwright, director, producer and an educator. While his time in Providence exceeds our current timeframe for this... Read More »

  • Music
  • Performance
  • Theater

Rudolph Fisher

Rudolph Fisher was a Harlem Renaissance era writer and medical doctor. A graduate of Providence’s Classical High School and Brown University,... Read More »

  • Writing

Erroll Garner

Erroll Garner was born in Pittsburgh, PA in 1923. He began playing the piano at the age of 3, and by the age of 11 was a local phenomenon. At the age... Read More »

  • Music

Johnny Hudgins

Blackface minstrelsy was not performed only by the type of working class white actors described by scholars of whiteness studies such as David... Read More »

  • Music
  • Performance
  • Theater

Wilmer Jennings

Wilmer Jennings studied under famed African American artist Hale Woodruff while earning a degree from Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA. He then came... Read More »

  • Visual Art

Sissieretta Jones

Sissieretta Jones was born Matilda Sissieretta Joyner in Portsmouth, Virginia, but was raised primarily in Providence, RI. She was an... Read More »

  • Music
  • Performance

Clarence “Clay” Osborne

Clay Osborne was a crucial component of Rhode Island jazz culture for over four decades. A Providence native born in 1927 to the jazz artist Clarence... Read More »

  • Music

Nancy Elizabeth Prophet

Nancy Elizabeth Prophet was the first African American graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design. She became a known Harlem Renaissance Sculptor... Read More »

  • Visual Art

Don Redman

Widely recognized as one of the founders of big band and swing—especially lauded for establishing the big band reed section—Donald Matthew Redman... Read More »

  • Music
  • Writing

Mahler Ryder

According to his daughter, Ulli K. Ryder, Ph.D,, Mahler Ryder loved technology and showed talent for art at an early age. Raised by his grandparents,... Read More »

  • Music
  • Visual Art

George Schuyler

Not many know that George Schuyler, the politically conservative African American journalist, traces his roots to New England. Born in Providence on... Read More »

  • Writing

E. Vernon Scott

A native of Providence, E. Vernon Scott was an integral part of the Baltimore music scene during the 1920s. While in Baltimore, he attended Morgan... Read More »

  • Music

Valaida Snow

Born in 1903 in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Valaida Snow was a jazz musician who started her entertainment career at the young age of 15 and gained... Read More »

  • Music

Sarah Vaughan

Sarah Vaughan, known as “The Divine One” for her beautiful voice, was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1924. She grew up in Newark, a place... Read More »

  • Music

Portia White

A black Canadian contralto born in 1911 in Truro, Nova Scotia, Portia White swept the United States classical music scene during the 1940s and 1950s.... Read More »

  • Music