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Footnotes
The Black Artists Who Rewrote the Rules of the Great White Way
$26.99 / Sourcebooks, 2021
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Set primarily in 1920s New York City, Footnotes is the remarkable true story of the Black artists behind the unlikely Broadway sensation that brought jazz into the mainstream and helped usher in the Harlem Renaissance—in the aftermath of a World War, decimated economy, worldwide pandemic, and the most violent period of racial violence since the Civil War.
In a heavily-segregated America still grappling with the lasting impact of slavery, these artists defied the odds to become internationally-renowned trailblazers, who forever changed the look and sound of our popular entertainment.
I am so excited to tell the story of Noble Sissle, Eubie Blake, Flournoy Miller, and Aubrey Lyles, four dynamic men who, over the course of the past hundred years, went from front-page headlines to historical footnotes; the fantastic people they shared their lives with—like a teenage Josephine Baker, who schemed and sweet-talked her way into the show, and in turn, her first standout role—and the unique moment in history they inhabited and shaped.
Footnotes will be published on May 25, 2021 to coincide with the centennial of Shuffle Along, the Broadway musical with an all-Black cast and all-Black creative team that forever changed the face of the Great White Way.