Nancy Cunard: A Woman of an Epoch

This first section presents Nancy Cunard, the poet model, publisher, collector and journalist, and her intellectual and artistic career up until the production of Negro Anthology. This section contains photographs of Nancy Cunard, her lovers and friends, her bookshop, the characteristic bracelets she wore (photographs by Cecil Beaton, Barbara Ker-Seymer, Curtis Moffat, Raoul Ubac and Man Ray) as well as covers of some of the works published by Hours Press. A sound recording of Henry Crowder, an American jazzman, is played in this section.

Negro Anthology (1931-1934)

The following section explains the production process for the anthology (1931-1934) and presents the authors. This display demonstrates the original and unusual nature of the anthology. It highlights the importance of the intellectual and political black diaspora in the 1930s and its links with European and American intellectual and political movements.

This section contains a gallery of portraits, photographs of the intellectuals and authors who contributed to Negro Anthology, accompanied by a biography of each one. The contents page of the work is also reproduced.

“Equality of races, equality of sexes, equality of classes” Nancy Cunard, 1956

This section illustrates the political dimension of the anthology, both in the choice of themes and in the positions taken by its authors (anti-racism, anti-colonialism, etc.), as well as the other themes addressed by the anthology, such as relations between urban and rural cultures.

This work differed from publications of the time about Blacks, by giving a voice to political activists from America, the West Indies and Africa. An important record of the contemporary reality of the black world in America, Africa and the Caribbean, this section presents a selection of photographs (series on banana pickers in Jamaica for example) and archive documents (petitions, demonstrations relating to the Scottsboro affair*).

Creators: From Harlem to South Africa

This section illustrates the way in which Nancy Cunard chose to address the artistic questions. The creators are poets, singers, actors and musicians from black Africa and America. The anthology presents eagerly-anticipated texts on famous shows in the 1930s and defends an independent black cinema. Negro Anthology offers a fresh perspective on music and the visual arts. The display also includes two sound recordings (Black Gypsy by Eddie South and extracts from “Living is Hard: West African Music in Britain, 1927-1929, Honest Jon’s Records) and an extract from the film Borderline by Kenneth Macpherson (1930).

“The World Poets Defend the Spanish People”, 1936

The exhibit ends with Cunard’s political commitment, after the production of the anthology, to the cause of the Spanish Republicans and her new vocation as a journalist. She met up with many contributors of the anthology in this conflict, particularly the writers Langston Hughes, Tristan Tzara, Pablo Neruda and Aragon.