Scandinavia: A Haven for African Americans in the 20th Century?
Recently, I went to Scandinavia House for films being shown on the Sami indigenous population in Scandinavia. This led to that. I discovered that there was an exhibit upstairs entitled Nordic Utopia? African Americans in the 20th Century, curated by Ethelene Whitmire. I decided to see it. It blew me away! There was information on several African American visual and performing artists, including four videos. Many of them were unfamiliar to me, and all of them were fascinating.
Walter Williams’ paintings of sunflower fields were at the beginning of the exhibit, along with photographs of Josephine Baker’s Copenhagen visit, where she performed to packed audiences in “Jo’s Revue,” and a video about the career of singer Anne Wiggins Brown, who married Olympic ski jumper Thorleif Schjelderup and settled permanently in Norway. The work of William H. Johnson, who sojourned in Denmark after marrying a Danish textile artist, and returned to America in 1938 before World War II broke out, is also on display.
In the next room, another video shows jazz musician Sahib Shihab performing in the Montmartre Jazzhus, Copenhagen’s leading performance venue for jazz music; another video covers some of Bernie Moore’s interviews of African American expats. We see paintings too, such as Floating Woman by Ronald Burns, and photographs of Babs Gonzalez and Dexter Gordon, who lived in Copenhagen and performed extensively in Sweden. The New School Library has an biography of Dexter Gordon’s life online in Sophisticated Giant: The Life and Legacy of Dexter Gordon, at https://search.library.newschool.edu/permalink/01NYU_TNS/1njc0pr/alma99100769905907871 as well as an interview (available online in the Journal of Pan-African Studies v.9 no.9 November 2016, pp.204-242) with Expressionist painter Herbert Gentry, also featured here.
The third room of the exhibit displays multiple works by collage artist Howard Smith. In the final room, a documentary, Dancing Prophet, showcases Cincinnati-born dancer, choreographer, and teacher Doug Crutchfield working with elderly women and handicapped children to help them achieve movement through dancing.
This exhibit was a revelation to me, since most accounts of expat African American artists, writers, and musicians I have read focus on their experiences in Paris. In these rooms at Scandinavia House, I found ample evidence of their positive experiences as visitors, sojourners, and expats in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway as well. I recommend this free exhibit highly, which is due to continue through March 8th at Scandinavia House (open Tuesday & Thursday through Saturday from noon-6 p.m. and on Wednesday from noon -7 p.m.) at 58 Park Avenue, four blocks south of Grand Central Station. And, although I saw no exhibit catalogs, I found out later that one has been created for this exhibit, so I have ordered it for the New School Library.
Carmen Hendershott
February 24, 2025
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