HOWARD DODSON: A Helmsman for the Cultural Legacy

AFTER I COMPLETED MY BOOK THE HARLEMM Reader (Three Rivers Press, May 2003), there was the additional task of getting Howard Dodson to write the Foreword. At first, I was reluctant to even ask him, given his busy schedule. But the worst he could say was no, which would have crushed me. Fortunately, he agreed to do it, and I was able to exhale. That exhalation became jubilation once it was submitted and I discovered how finely wrought it was.

The world knows Dodson as the chief curator at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, a role he has filled more than adequately tor a score of years. What they are gradually learning is that he is also a raconteur with a wicked sense of humor, a historian of great breadth and immense talent, and a writer who knows how to dispense large dollops of complicated black culture with panache and ease.

Dodson, 66, began to acquire this finesse and facility with black history and culture as a child coming of age in his hometown of Chester, Pennsylvania. He has often remarked of his keen interest in hearing the stories from elders who regaled him and other youths with memories of bygone days, particularly tales of prominent African Americans who overcame great obstacles to achieve fame and fortune.

"It is from those who have gone before and often made supreme sacrifices that I've gathered an understanding of black history," Dodson related one night outside of Chicago as we celebrated his induction into the International Literary Hall of Fame for Writers of African Descent While it is rewarding to hear Dodson's eloquence from the podium, it is equally instructive to catch him in relaxed moments when he is free to release the full complement of knowledge at his disposal.

A Career of Distinction

That evening witnessed a wide-ranging discussion, and many of us were hearing for the first time about his academic career and intellectual background that began when he was a student activist at Villanova University, from which he would earn his masters degree in history and political science in 1963. He regaled us with snippets of moments during his years with the Peace Corps and later his five-year (1974-1979) stint at the Institute of the Black World (IBW) in Atlanta. "This was perhaps the first real black think tank in the country since the demise of the American Negro Academy back in the last century," Dodson explained.

During his stay at the IBW, where he was a resident scholar, Dodson was also teaching at Emory University. In 1979, he became a consultant at the National Endowment of the Humanities, while retaining his affiliation as a program director at the IBW. Five years later, he was appointed chief curator at the Schomburg, a position that has brought him global acclaim, particularly for his expertise in the African Diaspora.

Since his arrival at the Schomburg, Dodson, who lives in Harlem, has become one of the most recognized authorities on the history of black New Yorkers. Of the first Africans to arrive in the city, he told Linda Tarrant-Reid of the Daily News, "The impact has been far more than those initial people who came. I would say that the position that people of African descent in United States have in virtually every form of literature, music, art, theater and dance has been, in some respects, either fashioned here in New York or given voice and presence here in New York. New York's own, if you will, identity has been in many respects shaped by the cultural creativity of the production of people in the Harlem community, specifically, and New York, in general...dating back to the 19th century."

Any occasion is an opportunity for Dodson to sing the praises of the Schomburg and the primacy of black New Yorkers in world culture, and in all of his books, essays, introductions and prefaces, this is a theme that he addresses with passion and conviction.

Here is an example of Dodson's eloquence from the Foreword to Tlie Harlem Reader as the talks about some of the entries: "They reflect the ever-changing, ever-evolving public consciousness of Harlem as a community, a center of cultural creativity, and an icon of the best and worst that urban black America has produced."

If Harlem is the living microcosm of black America, past and present, and the Schomburg its potent center, then Dodson is the helmsman who oversees the five million pieces of information that are so invaluable to our scholarship and research. "It is an awesome task, and I am proud to have this important position, to have the responsibility as the guardian of this veritable treasure trove," Dodson told a reporter.

For more information, visit the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at 515 Malcolm X Boulevard, New York, NY10037-1801; call212-491-2200, or logon to: http://wmv.nypLorg/research/sc/sc.html H.B.

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"It is an awesome task."

-Howard Dodson