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Manet Harrison Fowler

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Manet Harrison Fowler
Born
Minnia Helen Harrison

1895 (1895)
Died1976 (aged 80–81)
NationalityAmerican
Alma materTuskegee Institute
Occupation(s)Musician, Educator
Known forManet’s African series paintings grace the galleries of Chaney College, Tuskegee and Yale.
Notable workAfrican series, Dante by the Bridge
Spouse
Stephen H. Fowler
​
​
(m. 1915⁠–⁠1965)​

Manet Harrison Fowler (August 30, 1895 — February 1976) was an American musician, dramatic soprano, artist, voice coach, piano teacher, conductor, music educator and midwife. She was a child prodigy, giving piano recitals at the age of six. A native of Fort Worth, Texas she founded the Mwalimu School for the development of African Music and Creative Art in 1928 and relocated to New York City during the Harlem Renaissance. She was President of the Texas Association of Negro Musicians (TANM), the first state branch of the National Association of Negro Musicians.

Early life

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Minnia (later respelled "Manet") Helen Harrison was born in Fort Worth, Texas, to Louisiana natives Taylor Henry Harrison, an African American and Carrie Vickers Harrison, a creole of African, French and Irish descent. She showed talent for music from an early age, playing piano at church from age six. Manet attended the Tuskegee Institute, and graduated in 1913. She pursued further studies in visual arts at The Art Institute of Chicago and in music at the Chicago Musical College and American Conservatory of Music. A well known painter of her time, she was also an opera singer performing around the country as a dramatic soprano.[1]

Career

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Fowler taught music at Prairie View State Normal and Industrial College, and directed a church choir in Fort Worth. She was co-founder of the Texas Association of Negro Musicians in 1926, and she served on the board of the National Association of Negro Musicians, as scholarship committee chair,[2] and edited its journal, The Negro Musician.[3]

In 1928, she started the Mwalimu School.[4] She moved the Mwalimu program to Harlem in 1932, where (as the Mwalimu Center for African Culture) it became a contribution to the Harlem Renaissance. Literary figures such as Carter G. Woodson taught at Mwalimu in Harlem. The school also offered a community kitchen, a library of works by black authors, and lessons from bodybuilding to comparative religion.[5] The school's Mwalimu Festival Chorus performed often in New York, and made recordings, under Fowler's direction;[6] they were called "one of the outstanding Negro choral groups in technical proficiency" by Alain LeRoy Locke.[7]

In 1930, a pageant Fowler wrote, produced, and directed, The Voice, was performed by over 2000 cast members at the National Baptist Convention in Chicago.[8] She also wrote Up From Slavery, and another musical piece, African Suite.[9] Several paintings by Manet Harrison Fowler are in the Juneteenth Museum in Fort Worth.[10] A portrait she painted of her daughter Manet Helen Fowler is in the permanent collection at Yale University Art Gallery.[11][12]

In 1972, Fowler was honored alongside Duke Ellington, Ramsey Lewis, Everett Lee, and Margaret Rosezarian Harris at the annual awards dinner at the Waldorf Astoria, New York for the National Association of Negro Musicians.[13][14]

Personal life

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Manet Harrison married fellow educator Stephen Hamilton Fowler in 1915. They had five children, including Manet Helen Fowler, the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D in cultural anthropology in the U.S. and George H. Fowler, former Commissioner of the NYS Division of Human Rights and the first African American named to a cabinet rank by Governor Nelson Rockefeller.[15] Manet Harrison Fowler was widowed in 1965,[16] and died in 1976, aged 80 years, in New York. The Manet Harrison Fowler and Manet Helen Fowler Papers are archived together at the Beinecke Library at Yale University.[17] Another collection of her papers is at Emory University.[6]

References

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  1. ^ Laurie Jasinski, "Manet Harrison Fowler" Handbook of Texas Online (Texas State Historical Association 2013).
  2. ^ "Scholarship Head" Indianapolis Recorder (July 15, 1933): 6. via Hoosier State ChroniclesOpen access icon
  3. ^ Cary D. Wintz, Paul Finkelman, eds., Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance: A-J (Taylor & Francis 2004): 523. ISBN 9781579584573
  4. ^ John H. Thompson, "AFRICA: Its Civilization, Art And Culture Being Kept Afresh In America By A Lone Texas Woman" Chicago Defender (May 13, 1939): 13. via ProQuest
  5. ^ Lucien H. White, "Mwalimu Festival Chorus To Give Concert of African Music at Town Hall Mar. 31" New York Age (April 1, 1939): 7.
  6. ^ a b Manet Harrison Fowler Papers, 1913-1960, Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, Emory University.
  7. ^ Alain Locke, "Negro Music Goes to Par" Opportunity: Journal of Negro Life (July 1939): 199.
  8. ^ "Mme. Manet Fowler to Direct Baptist Pageant" Chicago Defender (August 9, 1930): 6. via ProQuest
  9. ^ Library of Congress, Catalog of Copyright Entries: Music (1970): 5.
  10. ^ Jeff Prince, "Going Once..." Fort Worth Weekly (October 29, 2008).
  11. ^ "Gallery Talk, A Portrait that Paints a Collection: Manet Harrison Fowler in the African Galleries" New Haven Hotel Events Calendar (July 12, 2017).
  12. ^ Manet Harrison Fowler, "Portrait of Manet Helen Fowler" (1951), in Yale University Art Gallery.
  13. ^ "Bonnie's Kids Opens Friday" Pittsburgh Courier (August 19, 1972): 12. via Newspapers.comOpen access icon
  14. ^ "NANM Honors Duke Ellington and Margaret Harris at Confab '72" Chicago Daily Defender (July 22, 1972): 23. via ProQuest
  15. ^ ”Rockefeller Names Negro To Industrial Post” ‘’Jet Magazine (January 22, 1959):
  16. ^ "S. H. Fowler, Civic Leader, Dies in N. Y." Chicago Daily Defender (November 2, 1965): 21. via ProQuest
  17. ^ Manet Harrison Fowler and Manet Helen Fowler Papers, James Weldon Johnson Collection in the Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
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  • Manet Harrison Fowler Papers. James Weldon Johnson Collection in the Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
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