Pearl Primus, Speak to the River

Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

A black-and-white gelatin silver photograph titled “Pearl Primus, Speak to Me of Rivers” by Barbara Morgan. The photograph captures Pearl Primus, a modern dancer, in motion while performing Langston Hughes’s poem, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” at the Belasco Theatre, New York City in October 1944. The performance is on a flat surface and before a wall darkened by shadows. Primus is crouched low, facing away from the viewer, toward the wall. Her arms are extended diagonally, with her proper right arm low and towards the back and her proper left arm high and towards the camera. Her proper left hand is stretched to show her palm. Primus is wearing either a full length garment or long flowy skirt and her flexed left foot is peeking out the bottom of the garment. The lights create two shadows of Primus against the wall.

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