On the Shoulders of Giants: My Journey Through the Harlem Renaissance

Here is a man who should be an inspiration to a whole generation. This book is more proof that he is more than just an athlete. This book is recommended reading for all teenagers

On the Shoulders of Giants speaks of a bygone, sometimes forgotten piece of America and its culture that nevertheless has great, reaching tentacles into our present, and that will continue to shake and embrace us well into our future. Beautifully written, with a title that says it all, this book is just as evocative and fascinating for non-sports, non-jazz fans as it will undoubtedly be for those entrenched in both subjects. A wonderful discovery.

Especially interesting are the musicians and music that originated or passed through Harlem during this time.

The Harlem Renaissance continues to contribute to society today, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar explains why in this memoir.

If the winner of six NBA championships and just as many MVP Awards wanted to write a book of passable reflections on the Harlem Renaissance and make it sound like a big deal when it wasn't, he could probably get away with it. Fortunately, that's not what Kareem Abdul-Jabbar chose to do in "On the Shoulders of Giants." He took the opposite route, providing readers with a superior work of lively history, passionate memoir, keen social commentary, and entertaining musical appreciation. Dozens of books on the Harlem Renaissance have hit the shelves since the 2003 publication of Facts On File's Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance . Few (if any) have illustrated as precisely as "On the Shoulders of Giants" exactly why and how the Harlem Renaissance remains a vibrant cultural and spiritual force. Like other competent authors on the subject, Abdul-Jabbar provides literary snapshots of the major players and events that produced the Harlem Renaissance. Unlike other books, his gives us something more. He includes chapters on how elements of the Harlem Renaissance directly impacted the development of his own life as a son of Harlem and that of others who picked up where the Renaissance left off and kept it going in other forms. The world knows Kareem Abdul-Jabbar mostly as a champion athlete. In "On the Shoulders of Giants," we meet him as the teen-aged scholar Lew Alcindor working beside famed educator Dr. Henrik Clarke. With Dr. Clarke, Abdul-Jabbar helped publish a weekly journal on Harlem and discovered how his birthplace earned the title "The Capitol of Black America." We see the youth inspired by the world famous Harlem Globetrotters give up his dream to play professional baseball in exchange for a plan to conquer basketball. We meet the great lover of classic black literature, the connoisseur of jazz, and the defender of his beloved community. Aside from his individual highly informed observations of the Harlem Renaissance proper, Abdul-Jabbar also offers some daring interpretations of the movement. Take, for example, his contention that "The Harlem Renaissance didn't end... [it] pried open a lot of reluctant doors and those who came after learned how to shoulder those doors open even wider. The guiding principles of the Harlem Renaissance survived and flourished." Towards that end, he cites both Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr., as products and embodiments of Harlem Renaissance ideologies. This writer agrees with that assessment. As important as "On the Shoulders of Giants" is for what it says about the past, it's even more important for what it indicates about the present and the future. by Author-Poet Aberjhani author of The American Poet Who Went Home Again and Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance (Facts on File Library of American History)