Walter Dean Myers and Christopher Myers fill this book with the sounds, sights, and spirit of those who came to Harlem.
A collective “sound, a celebration, memories of feelings, a place”. And on the streets you can see “a carnival of children, stickball heroes, hide-and-seek knights and ladies, waiting to sing their own sweet songs, living out their own slam dunk dreams, listening for the coming of the blues.” Barbecues, fried fish joints, Sunday Night Gospel, collard greens.
The voices of Langston, Countee, Du Bois, and Baldwin shape this city. A place where a man didn’t have to know his place simply because he was black.” Those who came to Harlem brought with them a song, first heard in the villages of Ghana and Senegal, and now left flowing through this city: “a new sound, raucous and sassy.” Religion, music, and art fill the souls of the people of this city as they hope, and pray, and sing, and paint, and write.
He died on July 1, 2014, following a brief illness. Walter Dean Myers was married, had three grown children and lived in Jersey City, New Jersey. For three years he led a writing workshop for children in a school in Jersey City, New Jersey. He visited schools to speak to children, teachers, librarians, and parents. In addition to the publication of his books, Walter contributed to educational and literary publications. Monster and Autobiography of My Dead Brother were selected as National Book Award Finalists. For one of his books, Monster, he received the first Michael Printz Award for Young Adult literature awarded by the American Library Association. Edwards Award and the Virginia Hamilton Award. Two of his books were awarded Newbery Honors. He received many awards for his work in this field including the Coretta Scott King Award, five times. He published over seventy books for children and young adults. Walter wrote from childhood, first finding success in 1969 when he won the Council on Interracial Books for Children contest, which resulted in the publication of his first book for children, Where Does the Day Go?, by Parent's Magazine Press. He attended Stuyvesant High School until the age of seventeen when he joined the army.Īfter serving four years in the army, he worked at various jobs and earned a BA from Empire State College. He was brought up and went to public school there. Walter Dean Myers was born on Augin Martinsburg, West Virginia but moved to Harlem with his foster parents at age three.
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