Students research Harlem Renaissance for gala to support Academy for Personal and Scholastic Success

CEDAR RAPIDS — The vibrancy, creativity and resilience of the Harlem Renaissance will be on display at The Academy for Scholastic and Personal Success’ 15th annual gala — with a twist.

Students of the academy will share inspiring aspects of African American culture and introduce the people, personalities, artists, musicians and politicians that shaped the Harlem Renaissance 100 years ago in spite of Jim Crow laws, state and local laws that enforced racial segregation until 1965.

The gala raises money for The Academy for Personal and Scholastic Success of Cedar Rapids, which provides Black students an education they can't find in a public school classroom. It teaches students about Black history, literature, math and science and has a postsecondary seminar to help students prepare for college and being successful once here.

Students leave the academy confident with “lofty goals they can seek to achieve,” founder Ruth White said.

“The Harlem Renaissance was an island of art and music and vibrancy and vitality in the middle of a very somber time,” White said. “The fact that these people of color were able to produce wonderful artwork and music and forms of art during that time is a wonder to behold, and it’s typical of how Black folks have made a way out of no way — to take a phrase from a spiritual — all along. In the midst of suppression, you find a way to create and survive.”

The academy also offers programs for middle and elementary school students. At six Cedar Rapids middle schools, students meet with a site leader and work on Black history, literature, self-confidence and self-respect in a program called African American Awareness Program.

The Harlem Renaissance Gala will be at 5:30 p.m. May 12 at the Olympic South Side Theater, 1202 Third St. SE #200 in Cedar Rapids. Tickets are $60 a person and can be purchased online at theacademysps.com/15th-annual-gala.

Attendees will be immersed in the ambience of the 1920s and will be encouraged to dress up in period clothing, and hors d'oeuvres from the period will be served. There also will be a silent auction.

The academy typically raises around $40,000 during the gala, but White has hopes to raise up to $60,000 this time. White expects between 300 and 400 people to attend.

The money helps the academy maintain its programming and provide students’ transportation if needed. The academy is also in search of an office, White said.

“If you were to peel back the layers” on any one student of the academy, you may find they are from low-income households, single-parent households, and the student probably doesn’t have a college fund or concrete goal to pursue higher education, White said. The academy teaches Black students they are capable of doing more, White said.

Many of these students will play an integral role in the gala, entertaining guests with history of little-known characters during the Harlem Renaissance, and teaching about some of the Black artists, musicians, writers, fashionistas, chefs and politicians of the era.

Students visited The Cedar Rapids Museum of Art earlier this month to look at photos taken by Cedar Rapids native Carl Van Vechten, who photographed a world his white contemporaries seldom saw during the Harlem Renaissance.

Martine Niwe, 16, a junior at Jefferson High School, explored presenting at the gala on poets such as Georgia Douglass Johnson, one of the earliest female African American playwrights and an important figure of the Harlem Renaissance.

“To be able to write at that time took a lot of courage,” said Martine, who was drawn to the academy because of the opportunity to be taught by Black teachers. “She had to be brave, and she didn’t gain the recognition she deserved.”

Davonte Townsend, 17, a junior at Jefferson High School, is researching politician Marcus Garvey for the gala.

“When people think of the Harlem Renaissance, they think of artists, but it was also a political time,” Davonte said.

Black politicians advocate for more than anti-slavery, the civil rights movement and Black Lives Matter, Davonte said. “Black people are not a monolith,” he said.

Ahmed Elsheikh, 15, a sophomore at Kennedy High School, said the academy is teaching him to be unapologetic about being Black. He didn’t know much about the Harlem Renaissance until joining the academy.

In the traditional school setting, Ahmed said he doesn’t feel like he’s learned much about Black history outside of Black History Month in February.

Ibrahim Osman, 17, a junior at Jefferson High School, agrees with Ahmed. The traditional school “teaches the most basic parts” of Black history — and not the important parts, he said.

“Learning is fun,“ White said. ”When one has knowledge or information, they feel more powerful. We want to make sure people get to see that and begin to understand some aspects of African American culture that they may not have known about. There are aspects of education everyone has missed — because it wasn’t in the curriculum.”

More can be learned about the Harlem Renaissance leading up to the gala by joining Critical Conversations, a free virtual learning opportunity offered by the academy. Critical Conversations meets biweekly virtually via Zoom. Resources on subjects being discussed will be provided to registrants the week before each discussion. The next meetings are 7 p.m. March 21, April 4, April 18 and May 2.

Comments: (319) 398-8411; grace.king@thegazette.com