Nancy Cunard's 'Negro Anthology' and Anti-Fascist Legacy at Musée du Quai Branly

The Musée du Quai Branly in Paris is hosting 'L'Atlantique Noir de Nancy Cunard, Negro Anthology (1931-1934)' until May 18, 2014. The exhibition spotlights the British aristocrat, poet, publisher, and activist Nancy Cunard (1896–1965), who compiled the 855-page 'Negro Anthology' in 1934. The book comprehensively covered African and African American history, literature, politics, anthropology, and art, featuring contributions from historians, activists, journalists, musicians, and surrealists like René Crevel. Cunard, heir to the Cunard shipping fortune, was a model for Man Ray and Brancusi, a friend of Dadaists and Surrealists, and publisher of Samuel Beckett's first book. Her relationship with African American jazz pianist Henry Crowder sparked racist backlash, leading her mother to disinherit her. During the Spanish Civil War, she fought fascism in Barcelona and later smuggled Republican refugees into France. After WWII, she found her home looted and artworks destroyed. She died in Paris in 1965, destitute and alone, with only a few friends at her funeral. Pablo Neruda eulogized her as having 'consumed herself in a long battle against the injustice of the world.'