City of Islands: Caribbean Intellectuals in New York by Tammy L. Brown

Abstract

Reviewed by: City of Islands: Caribbean Intellectuals in New York by Tammy L. Brown Cécile Accilien CITY OF ISLANDS: Caribbean Intellectuals in New York. By Tammy L. Brown. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. 2015. In New York City, a literal city of islands, people from the Caribbean islands comprise over one third of its foreign-born population. Historian Tammy L. Brown traces the impact of English-speaking Caribbean-born immigrants from Trinidad, Barbados and Jamaica in the early twentieth century while exposing the tensions between non-US blacks and African Americans. She meticulously documents their civic and social engagement in the city and their ability to fight against racism and sexism. Each of the seven chapters each highlight a specific intellectual and show the primary influence of their family life and Caribbean culture. Chapter 1 "Caribbean New York", focuses on Trinidadian born Jazz-pianist Hazel Scott to analyze the life of Caribbean immigrants to New York. By describing her marriage to Adam Clayton Powell Jr., Brown argues that the social and political encounters between Caribbean immigrants and American-born blacks were complex and filled with animosity. Chapter 2 "Ethelred Brown and the Character of New Negro Leadership" analyzes the life of the Jamaican born preacher Egbert Ethelred Brown through his upbringing and conversion from the Methodist church to the Unitarian church in Jamaica. Brown argues that he uses pan-Caribbean solidarity in his sermons and speeches as a strategy to advance his own political agenda. Chapter 3 "Richard B. Moore and Pan-Caribbean Consciousness" relates the life of the Barbadian communist, socialist and anti-colonial leader Richard B. Moore. He moved to New York at an early age and was influenced and shaped by both Caribbean and African-American intellectuals such as Ethelred Brown, Chandler Owen, Arturo Schomburg, Cyril Briggs to name but a few. He was also greatly influenced by Frederick Douglass and considered education as the path to freedom. Through his poetry, speeches and articles Moore prescribes equal rights for justice, social and economic betterment of all people of African descent. In chapter 4 "Pearl Primus and the Performance of African Diasporic Identities," Brown depicts the life and 50-year career of choreographer and dancer Pearl Primus as a model of Caribbean women artist-activists who fought for social and racial justice through their art, notably [End Page 81] poetry, choreography, interviews and other writings. Brown notes that Primus is part of the lineage of women who use their work and their fame to be "warriors for social justice" (97) and that she "use[s] dance as a mode of political protest in Jim Crow America. . .at a time when black bodies were criminalized, demonized, mocked and physically attacked" (99). In Brown's view, through her work she forged "a theoretical bridge between two of the most significant movements in the history of modern American art: the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Arts movement" (103). Through her multiculturalism and African-centered consciousness in her art and her personal life Primus marked the stage for generations of Caribbean and American-born women and men. When Shirley Chisholm ran for president in 1972 she was the first black candidate for a major party's presidential nomination. Prior to that in 1968 she became the first black woman in Congress. Chapter 5 "Shirley Chisholm and the Style of Multicultural Democracy" analyzes the political career of one of the most influential black woman leaders of that era. The child of Bajan immigrants, Chisholm used her political might to fight for civil rights and women's rights, which are intrinsically connected. She notes, "It is true that women are second-class citizens, just as black people are. . .I want the time to come when we can be as blind to sex as we are to color" (147). As a black immigrant woman, she could relate to various constituencies 1960 and 70s New York. Brown asserts that Chisholm's "transcultural status" made her appealing. Being a part of American and Bajan culture Chisholm was very conscious of the complexity of her dual identity and the tensions between Caribbean and Black Americans. She reflects: "It is wrong, because the accident that my ancestors were...