Souvenir Program. National Association of Negro Musicians, Inc. 37th Anniversary.

[Detroit?]: N.P., 1956. 11¼” x 9”. Stapled thin card wrappers. pp. [52]. Good: five centermost bifolia detached; wrappers with moderate wear and a couple of small tears.

This is a program for the National Association of Negro Musicians (NANM) 33rd annual convention which doubles as an important resource for the organization's history and members. Founded in 1919, the NANM is still going strong and according to its website is the “country’s oldest organization dedicated to the preservation, encouragement, and advocacy of all genres of the music of African-Americans.”

The book lists NANM's purposes and details past accomplishments, schedules of events and rosters of officers and other leaders. There's also a roster of the officers of the Detroit Negro Civic Opera Company, which hosted the convention. There are 32 portrait photographs of officers with 17 of them women. Also of note are numerous autographs throughout the book, all worthy of further research, and including Dr. Roscoe Polin, thenpresident of NANM. There are also dozens of advertisements from Black-owned businesses, several of which are photographically illustrated.

OCLC locates no copies. Good. Item #5219

Price: $500.00