Harry Belafonte
Harry Belafonte was born on March 1, 1927, in Harlem, New York City, into a world shaped by the textures of African American urban life and Caribbean heritage. Holding both United States and Jamaican citizenship, he carried a dual cultural identity that informed the breadth of his artistic and political life. He attended George Washington Educational Campus and Wolmer's Schools before studying at The New School, a course of education that moved across continents and institutions.
His career unfolded across an unusually wide range of disciplines. A singer, musician, songwriter, and composer, he was also an actor who worked across stage, film, and television, as well as a dancer and recording artist. That range extended further still into production, where he worked as both a film producer and executive producer. The album Calypso brought his recording work to wide attention, and "Banana Boat (Day-O)" became one of his most recognized songs, a piece whose rhythms drew on Caribbean musical traditions and found listeners far beyond their origins.
Beyond the stage and studio, Belafonte was a committed civil rights advocate, political activist, and peace activist. These were not incidental affiliations but sustained commitments pursued alongside his work as an entertainer. The convergence of artistic output and public advocacy placed him in a distinctive position over the course of his long career, one in which performance and principle operated together rather than in separate registers.
Harry Belafonte died on April 25, 2023. The Library of Congress authorized label for him reads "Belafonte, Harry, 1927–2023," a designation that brackets a life spanning nearly a century and encompassing work as a singer, actor, composer, producer, and activist. That span of roles, each pursued across decades, marks the record he left behind.
Quotes by Harry Belafonte
Harry Belafonte's insights on:
Poverty was my mother's midwife. She had her children in poverty. But she also found a road to bring us a sense of purpose, and she taught us how to be valiant in the face of oppression.
I don't think soldiers should be anywhere in the world. I mean, that is a moral and a basic philosophy. I think that the only way to end wars is to have no military and to find other ways in which - I think we should suspend all nuclear weapons.
I call President Bush a terrorist. I call those around him terrorists as well: Condoleezza Rice, Rumsfeld, Gonzales in the Justice Department, and certainly Cheney.
I think there's no city quite like New York, and I've seen most of the developed cities of the world. I admire this place, its energy. It's the repository of so much history and culture and diversity.
I think New York City most represents what it is that America in general aspires to. It's big; it's dense. I've known this city from all of its social arcs. The best that's in America is yet to come. The worst that's in America is yet to come.
All too often, I'm sorry to say, I relegated my family to the cracks and margins.
One of the true pleasures of my life has been the work of John Steinbeck. He was one of the people who turned my life around. I had no direct relationship with him, unfortunately.
John Steinbeck is one of the most under-discussed and under-written-about of all American writers. He is way up there and should stand on a par, or even above, Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner.
When I was 20 and 30, my visions for what the world would be, all things were possible.
Poverty is terror. Having your Social Security threatened is terror. Having your livelihood as an elderly person slowly disappearing with no replenishment is terror.