Alelia walker funeral homes
Home / Celebrity Biographies / Alelia walker funeral homes
‘The Depression brought everybody down a peg or two. This home was where her mother's funeral was held, and where she stayed most while in New York. A'Lelia did not become active in this movement until the death of her mother. Mary McLeod Bethune, Mae Walker Perry and Marion R. Perry at A’Lelia Walker’s graveside
Later, at Woodlawn Cemetery, Mae [Walker Perry, her daughter], Marion [Perry], Mayme [White], Mrs.
Bethune and a small group gathered around the flower-filled space that had been dug beside her mother’s grave. She first arrived to New York to aid her mother in a rapidly growing company that involved hair care products specifically for colored women. Through the success of the Walker Company, A'Lelia was able to use that money to support local Harlem Renaissance artists, civil rights activists, black businessmen, etc.
Villa Lewaro was named for Walker (Lelia Walker Robbinson) after Italian tenor Enrico Caruso told her after a visit to the property that the newly built Irvington-on-Hudson mansion reminded him of the houses of his native country. A'Lelia Walker is known to be an incredible businesswoman and a patron of the arts.
His “Skyscraper” bookcase became the logo for the event invitations.
In 1927, Walker opened her famous salon “The Dark Tower”, initially named the Walker Studio, in a converted floor of her Harlem townhouse at 108-110 West 136th Street near Lenox Avenue (now Malcolm X Boulevard); it was intended as a space and tearoom to entertain and support Harlem and Greenwich Village writers, poets, and artists.
Most events were crowded by hundreds, if you did not arrive early, there was no way of getting in. A'Lelia had business experience at a very young age and took control of the local business when her mother traveled to other companies around the United States.
While A'Lelia lived in New York, she was amazed by the current culture and social life; the Harlem Renaissance was in its early stages.
Nothing in this age is quite as good as THAT…I miss her…What a woman!”
Langston Hughes/Pastel by Winold Reiss
Hughes described her as “a gorgeous dark Amazon in a silver turban…A’Lelia Walker was the joy goddess of Harlem’s 1920s.”
Copyright: A’Lelia Bundles August 17, 2011
A’Lelia Bundles is at work on Joy Goddess: A’Lelia Walker and the Harlem Renaissance, the first major biography of her great-grandmother.
For updates about the book, please visit our Madam Walker and A’Lelia Walker Family ArchivesWebsite and Facebook page and our Madam C.
J. Walker Biography Facebook page and Madam C. J. Walker Official Website.
Contact A’Lelia at https://aleliabundles.com/ and visit her personal Facebook page.
Queer Places:
Madam Walker Legacy Center, 617 Indiana Ave, Indianapolis, IN 46202
108-110 W 136th St, New York, NY 10030
80 Edgecombe Ave, New York, NY 10030
Villa Lewaro, Irvington, NY 10533
Woodlawn Cemetery Bronx, Bronx County, New York, USA
A'Lelia Walker (June 6, 1885 – August 17, 1931) was an American businesswoman and patron of the arts.
SOURCES
https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2015/09/22/436344078/remembering-alelia-walker-who-made-a-ritzy-space-for-harlems-queer-black-artists
http://www.blackpast.org/aah/walker-alelia-1885-1931
http://www.aleliabundles.com/2013/11/23/writing-biography-an-update-on-the-joy-goddess-of-harlem/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A%27Lelia_Walker#Arts_patron
https://savingplaces.org/stories/how-alelia-walker-and-the-dark-tower-shaped-the-harlem-renaissance#.WlaN9yPMy8U
close window next
My published books:
BACK TO HOME PAGE
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A%27Lelia_Walker
- Rupp, Leila J..
Sapphistries (Intersections) (p.180).
The Walker family decided to move to New York around the 1920s; about the same time the Harlem Renaissance was taking place. The salon was held in Villa Lewaro, a beautiful white house built in 1917 by Walker’s mother. The Austrian designer Paul Frankl created the interior. can I get an okurrrrrr?!?
Now,
imagine the inheritance left for A'Lelia after the death of her mother.
She was eulogized by Reverend Adam Clayton Powell Sr. at the funeral parlor on Seventh Avenue. Famous entertainers, artists, civil rights leaders, bankers and businessmen of all racial background were also part of the scene. She hired musicians, photographers, modistes, architects, and caterers to entertain her guest at dinners, dances and recitals.
Prohibition notwithstanding, they’d toasted each other with champagne.
Prominent visitors included Alberta Hunter, Florence Mills, Zora Neale Hurston, W.E.B.