Open Book, Open Mind; A'Lelia Bundles, "Joy Goddess: A'Lelia Walker and the Harlem Renaissance"
REGISTRATION IS FULL. But please come to the auditorium at 3:30 and we'll put your name on a waiting list. At 4:05, we'll start letting in waiting list guests. Award-winning television producer and author A’Lelia Bundles will be talking with Princeton professor Khalil Gibran Muhammad about her new biography of A’Lelia Walker, her great grandmother, the hair care heiress and patroness of the Harlem Renaissance whom Langston Hughes called "the joy goddess of Harlem." Bundles will also show a PowerPoint presentation of historic images and archival photos.
"In this scintillating account, biographer Bundles ("On Her Own Ground") revisits the pioneering glamour and cultural patronage of her own great-grandmother, the hair-care heiress and Harlem Renaissance socialite A’Lelia Walker...a luminary described by Langston Hughes as the 'joy goddess of Harlem.'"—Publishers Weekly
Doors open at 3:30 p.m. The discussion will be followed by an audience Q&A and book sales and signing with Watchung Booksellers.
Open Book / Open Mind is sponsored by Montclair Public Library Foundation, Watchung Booksellers, Anonymous, David and Mary Lee Jones, and our individual Underwriters. We are also grateful for the generous support of our in-kind sponsors, First Congregational Church of Montclair, The George, and Amanti Vino. To support Open Book / Open Mind and other library programs, click here to donate.
- Date:
- Saturday, February 21, 2026
- Time:
- 4:00pm - 6:00pm
- Location:
- Montclair Main - Auditorium, Montclair Main - Conference Room
- BCCLS Library:
- Montclair Public Library
- Audience:
- Adults
- Categories:
- Adult School Open Book / Open Mind
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A’Lelia Bundles is also the author of "On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C.J. Walker," a New York Times bestseller about her great-great-grandmother, the early 20th-century hair care industry entrepreneur and philanthropist. She is the founder of the Madam Walker Family Archives, the largest private collection of Walker photographs, memorabilia and ephemera. A’Lelia worked in network television news for thirty years, first at NBC News where she was a producer for news and magazine programs, and then at ABC News where she was a World News Tonight producer, Washington, DC deputy bureau chief and director of talent development.
ABOUT THE BOOK
"Dubbed the 'joy goddess of Harlem’s 1920s' by poet Langston Hughes, A’Lelia Walker was a dazzling cultural icon whose legendary parties and Dark Tower salon helped define the Harlem cultural scene. After inheriting her mother’s pioneering hair care business, A’Lelia became America’s first high-profile Black heiress and a patron of the arts. Joy Goddess takes readers inside her New York homes, where she hosted luminaries including Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Paul Robeson, Florence Mills, James Weldon Johnson, Carl Van Vechten, and W.E.B. Du Bois—figures who shaped African American history and culture during the Roaring Twenties."—Mahogany Books
ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER
Khalil Gibran Muhammad is the inaugural Professor of African American Studies and Public Affairs at Princeton University, where he directs the Institutional Antiracism and Accountability Project. He is Board Chair of the Vera Institute of Justice, and a WGBH contributor to Boston Public Radio. He is the former Ford Foundation Professor of History, Race and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and the former Director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, a division of the New York Public Library and the world’s leading library and archive of global Black history. He co-hosted the Pushkin Industries podcast Some of My Best Friends Are.
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