Richard Wright
The Historic Landmarks Preservation Center and the Fort Greene Association are joining in an effort to place a cultural medallion on the home at 175 Carlton Avenue in historic Fort Greene, Brooklyn, where acclaimed author Richard Wright wrote his breakout novel, Native Son. This was the first work ever by an African American writer to become a Book of the Month Club selection, and was later adapted into a successful Broadway play directed by Orson Welles.
The year was 1938 when Wright was living at the Carlton Avenue home of his friends Jane and Herbert Newton, from where on most mornings he would walk up to a bench by the Martyrs Monument atop Fort Greene Park and jot his notes on a yellow pad that evolved into Native Son. In its text he wrote: “Men can starve from a lack of self-realization as much as they can from a lack of bread.” Among Wright’s other works were an autobiographical narrative, Uncle Tom’s Children, as well as Black Boy, many non-fiction articles, and even haikus.
The Wright medallion in Fort Greene will add to plaques in Brooklyn created by the Historic Landmarks Preservation Center, led by Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel, who states: “The HLPC is pleased to honor this great African American writer, linking him with a host of sites associated with outstanding luminaries in New York City. Richard Wright’s cultural medallion will now join other ones in Brooklyn dedicated to the novelist Jack Kerouac, baseball legend Jackie Robinson, and the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Marianne Moore.”
Mr. Paul Palazzo is the chair of the Fort Greene Association, assisted in this commemorative event by the writer Howard Pitsch of the FGA Landmarks Committee who explains: “So many times I’ve walked by Richard Wright’s one-time home and wondered, ‘Why has no one ever thought to give praise where praise is due?’ Native Son was a principal facet of African Americans’ bedrock in our nation’s literature.”
The noted author-musician Carl Hancock Rux is also lending his talent to the HPLC and FGA effort. Says Mr . Rux: “For years I’ve had a very special dream — to honor the historical contributions of African Americans in New York City. That dream is legion, and I am now embarking upon realizing that dream. Wright was also significant in adding to the WPA Writers’ Project guidebook, New York Panorama and wrote the book’s essay on Harlem.”
A ceremony devoted to the Wright cultural medallion at the Carlton Avenue home will occur once funding is completed. The Fort Greene Association is now undertaking this program.
Please be generous in supporting this worthy initiative, send a check or money order made payable to the Fort Greene Association with Richard Wright noted in the memo.
Mail:
Fort Greene Association, Inc.
Box 170563
Brooklyn, NY 11217-0563
Click here to make donations via NY Charities. Please indicate in the blue “Designate your donation to a specific program or fund” box, be sure to make mention “Wright cultural medallion”. All donations received will go 100% towards the purchase of the Wright cultural medallion and are tax deductible.
Thank you in advance for your consideration and generosity.
The Fort Greene Association is devoted to historic preservation, neighborhood and park enhancement, as well as cultural, economic and housing advancement throughout the neighborhood of Fort Greene, Brooklyn. The Fort Greene Association, Inc. is an all-volunteer organization, operating as a non-profit 501(c) (3) charitable organization that supports and works in concert with the many other fine organizations that make our community so special and vital. Follow us on Twitter or become our Facebook Fan.
