Scope and arrangement
The Helen Brown scrapbook contains programs and reviews of plays and concerts that took place in New York City between 1926 and 1941. Included are articles and reviews of musicians, singers, actors, writers, such as Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston, and artists, such as Jacob Lawrence, Augusta Savage and James L. Allen. The programs represent a variety of performances, among them those by the Negro Opera Company and Hall Johnson's groups (the Hall Johnson Singers, Hall Johnson Jubilee Singers, and Hall Johnson Negro Choir). Also included are programs for Roland Hayes, Richard B. Harrison, Marian Anderson, Paul Robeson, Hazel Harrison, Abbie Mitchell, Jules Beldsoe, and the Eva Jessye Choir. The lyrics to some songs can also be found in the scrapbook..
Programs: The Negro Opera Company; Friends Amusement Guild; Hall Johnson Singers; Hall Johnson Jubilee Singers; Hall Johnson Negro Choir; Lincoln University Commencement, 1929 and Class Day Exercises; Langston Hughes; Ethel Anderson; Sonoma Talley, Roland Hayes; James Bell; Dock Snellings; Richard B. Harrison; Four Saints in Three Acts; Negro String Quartet; William Bowers; Marian Anderson; Paul Robeson; Gilpin Players in "Joy to My Soul" by L. Hughes; James H. Walker; Waldine Williams and Marcus d' Albert; Marguerite Avery; Hazel Harrison; Abbie Mitchell; Jules Bledsoe; Eva Jessye Choir, "Stevedore," The Sphinx League; Carl Diton; Frederick Douglass Hogan; "Drums of Haiti."
Clippings/Reviews: Hall Johnson; "The Emperor Jones;" Langston Hughes; Roland Hayes; James Bell; Abbie Mitchell; "Green Pastures," Sissieretta Jones "Black Patti;" Inez Clough; Charles Gilpin; Ira Aldridge; "Black Souls;" Bloodstream," "Four Saints in Three Acts;" "Stevedore;" Zora Neale Hurston ("Amsterdam News," 4/6/35); Ethel Waters in "As Thousands;" "Mulatto;" William Grant Still; Gandhi in Africa; "Porgy and Bess;" "Walk Together Chillun;" "How Come Lawd;" "Conjure Man Dies;" Augusta Savage;" Paul Robeson; Jacob Lawrence; Samuel Coleridge Taylor; Melville Charlton; "Singin' the Blues;" "Shuffle Along of 1933;" "Hummin' Sam."