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 »
Tanya
- Dance
- Music
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 »
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 »
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 »
A born-and-raised Rhode Islander, Matthew “Matthias” Barros was well-known within the Foxpoint community not only for his visual arts... Read More »
George Houston Bass was a playwright, director, producer and an educator. While his time in Providence exceeds our current timeframe for this... Read More »
Rudolph Fisher was a Harlem Renaissance era writer and medical doctor. A graduate of Providence’s Classical High School and Brown University,... Read More »
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 »
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 »
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 »
A Providence born artist, Jennings earned her Bachelor’s of Fine Arts at the Rhode Island School of Design in 1931 as well as her Masters degree in... Read More »
Sissieretta Jones was born Matilda Sissieretta Joyner in Portsmouth, Virginia, but was raised primarily in Providence, RI. She was an... Read More »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
Not many know that George Schuyler, the politically conservative African American journalist, traces his roots to New England. Born in Providence on... Read More »
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 »
"Rhode Island's original soul man"... Read More »
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 »
Based on census and newspaper records, the researchers believe that Anna Strother was likely born in Virginia, but had moved to Providence, RI at... Read More »
"Known for her beautiful voice and mastery of Cape Verdean music"... Read More »
Father of the musically driven Tavares family, “Flash” Tavares was known for filling the Foxpoint community with Cape Verdean melodies. Born... Read More »
Baltimore Afro-American columnist Lydia T. Brown reports in the “Yankee Traveler” on Nov. 10, 1951, that “A new experiment was... Read More »
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 »
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 »
Born Charles Melvin Williams, trumpeter “Cootie” Williams was born in Mobile, AL in 1911. By 1929 he was touring with Duke... Read More »