Andrea Smith
They say it was happening in Harlem. Friday Night at Honeybees fleshes out the scene at those house parties brimming with the famous and infamous personalities: the artists, the jazz, the musicians, the food, the culture of Blacks, happy to be out of the South, up North. Or at least trying to be happy, considering the state of things, stretching life to fit their beat and shiny shoes to fit the feet. Artists and laborers were swamped with work by day but come Friday night, they are totally swank and you could bank they wanted to take the A-Train to Honeybees. Everyone who’s anyone in the Harlem music scene has heard of Honeybee McColor and the famous Friday night “gathers” that fill her house to bursting. In the early 1960s, nowhere but “The Big House” attracts so many renowned jazz and blues musicians– and no one but Miss Honeybee attracts talented lost souls like Forestine Bent and Viola Bembrey.The two singers come from separate worlds: one from the Brooklyn projects, the other from the Baptist, rural South. One has a God-given voice and the ambition to be a star, the other a more subtle gift and a handful of hazy fantasies. But both learn the destructive consequences of following their hearts. They find sanctuary together under Honeybee’s tender guidance, struggling to find the balancing point where music doesn’t overpower love.
Including a house of characters from the wildly-for-real and to the starchly-dignified, Andrea Smith has woven an unforgettable novel overflowing with high energy, big heart, and compassion. It’s a ticket to rapture.
Paper 12.00
