About the Author

Michael K. Johnson is professor of English at University of Maine at Farmington. He is author of Black Masculinity and the Frontier Myth in American Literature and Hoo-Doo Cowboys and Bronze Buckaroos: Conceptions of the African American West, the latter published by University Press of Mississippi.

Reviews

By providing the first biography of Harlem Renaissance singer and memoirist Taylor Gordon, Michael K. Johnson's Can't Stand Still enhances our understanding of the rich cultural output of the New Negro movement, the expansiveness of its geographies, the intra- and interracial networks that sustained it, and the at-times fleeting effect it had on the lives of its remarkable participants who remained marginalized in its aftermath. When he recovers the life of Taylor Gordon, Johnson demands we consider both the New Negro movement's most soaring aspirations and devastating losses.--Emily Lutenski, author of West of Harlem: African American Writers and the Borderlands

Long consigned to obscurity in the footnotes of Harlem Renaissance history, Taylor Gordon was one of the most gifted singers and interesting personalities of that era. In Can't Stand Still, Michael K. Johnson returns him to center stage with significant new research and vivid storytelling about Gordon's Odyssey-like childhood, singular vocal talent, struggles with mental illness, and rich partnership with J. Rosamond Johnson, another giant of American and African American music.--A'Lelia Bundles, author of On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C. J. Walker

The detailed account of Gordon's life and career in Can't Stand Still demonstrates that previous studies of the period have overlooked Gordon's importance to spiritual literature, his relationship with Rosamond Johnson, and his interaction with his peers. The book also expands the geography of the Harlem Renaissance by documenting Gordon's experiences with racial and social conditions as he traveled throughout the nation.--Amy E. Carreiro "The Journal of American History"