Black Internationalism and Shakespeare and Company

Abstract

In the interwar period, Paris became home to a network of Black writers and artists from around the world. Using data from the Shakespeare and Company Project, as well as various archival sources, this article reveals connections between this network and Sylvia Beach’s bookshop and lending library. The article begins with the Harlem Renaissance writer and artist Gwendolyn Bennett, arguing that her relationship with Shakespeare and Company illuminates a porousness between the “Lost Generation” and “Paris Noir.” The article then examines how Beach connected writing from Harlem to Black intellectuals in Paris, who were in the process of creating a new anti-colonial articulation of race.