Red Flags: Descendants

In the final episode of Harlem and Moscow: Red Flags we’re taking the conversation to the present day with the daughter of the 1932 trip organizer Louise Thompson Patterson. Playwright Alle Mims sits down for an enlightening and heartwarming conversation with MaryLouise Patterson. The pair discuss …

Red Flags: Sex and the Soviet Union

In this episode of Harlem and Moscow: Red Flags we get hot, heavy and a little messy. Host Sam Riddell talks to experts about the hook-ups and heartbreaks of the 1932 trip to the Soviet Union. We learn about what the dating landscape was like during the Harlem Renaissance, the culture around marria…

Return Home to Harlem

In a desperate attempt to get to Langston Hughes, Dorothy West decides to propose marriage. Louise Thompson tries to talk her out of it and shares the reality of what it means to be in love with a man like Langston.  Louise also reveals a secret behind her own failed marriage.  As plans for life af…

Russian Reckoning

The group of Harlem Renaissance actors and artists return to Moscow moving from the Grand Hotel to a small hostel.    Henry Lee Moon tells Langston Hughes that he thinks the film has been sabotaged by Americans. In a heartfelt moment, Louise Thompson speaks to Dorothy West and Mildred Jones about a…

Red Flags: Black Communists

In this episode of Harlem and Moscow: Red Flags, host Michael Harriot is talking to experts about the conditions in America circa the 1930s that made the Soviet Union and Communism very appealing to Black folks in the states. We learn more about the African Blood Brotherhood, the CPUSA, and other c…

Russian Reality Check

The production of the film “Black And White”  gets underway IN Moscow with a less than stellar first rehearsal that is only saved by the star of the Harlem Renaissance performers, Sylvia Garner.    Langston  Hughes reveals his doubts on the script. Dorothy West receives devastating news from home a…

When in Moscow

Dorothy West and the Harlem  Renaissance artists and activists get settled into the Grand Hotel and enjoy the lavish luxuries the Soviets have to offer.  Caviar anyone?  While exploring Moscow, Mildred  Jones and Langston Hughes push the prim and proper  Dorothy out of her comfort zone.  While par…

Red Flags: The Real People of the Harlem Renaissance

In this episode of Harlem and Moscow: Red Flags, host Panama Jackson is talking to experts about the people of the Harlem Renaissance who went on this trip to Moscow back in 1932. We learn more about Dorothy West, Langston Hughes, Henry Lee Moon, Louise Thompson, and others who journeyed to the Sov…

Mission to Moscow

Dorothy West anxiously awaits the arrival of Langston Hughes on their voyage from Harlem to  Moscow to make a movie.  Dorothy gets to know some of the other  Harlem Renaissance artists and activists, including Louise Thompson, the organizer, and Mildred Jones, an artist she will be rooming with. On…

The Film

In this true story of the Harlem Renaissance in the Soviet Union, we are introduced to the young writer and actress Dorothy West and her mother, Rachel West, who wants to hear all about her daughter’s year in Moscow making a film.    Rachel is especially curious about the famous poet Langston Hughe…