ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, February 13, 1996 TAG: 9602130128
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: KRISTEN KAMMERER STAFF WRITER
What raises the rent by raising the roof?
A rent party, of course!
Back in Harlem in the 1920s, times were hard and options few. Rents were going up as fast as the unemployment rate. For the families living there, earning enough money to pay the rent sometimes proved impossible.
But, out of a bad situation, came a solution - the rent party.
The idea was to get a musician friend, maybe Fats Waller or Duke Ellington, to come to your house and play some jazz or blues. You would then cook a little something and invite all your friends to come over and listen. For your trouble, every guest contributed a small amount, maybe a nickel or a quarter, to ``the pot.'' If they wanted something to eat or drink, or to play cards, then they would pay a little more. All the proceeds then went toward paying your rent.
According to Nikki Giovanni, poet and professor of English at Virginia Tech, ``Instead of giving in to despair, the people back then made something out of it.''
It was this spirit of determination and community that Giovanni wanted to recreate for the students in her Harlem Renaissance class.
``My students are always talking about paying their own rents, so I thought it would be neat to show them how they did it back in the old days. Sort of give them a taste of what it means, as the old saying goes, `to make a way out of no way.'''
Though most of Giovanni's students had never heard of a rent party, the idea appealed to them. Last Friday at 5:30 p.m., the class threw a rent party of its own.
Sponsored by the Black Studies Program, the Department of English, Virginia Tech Dining Services, the National Bank of Blacksburg and the Blacksburg Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta, the party drew over 200 people of all ages.
Admission to the party cost $1. Dinner cost an additional $1.50. ``We're holding prices to the '20s,'' Giovanni said.
Upstairs at the University Club, the local Red Clay Jazz Quintet, provided a steady stream of jazz to onlookers who lounged on couches or bobbed their heads to the beat.
In another room, people hunkered around card tables playing bid whist, a card game that incorporates rules from several other games such as bridge, spades, hearts and poker.
While few college students were familiar with the rules, parents and professors enthusiastically formed teams. Though the games were not played for money, the competition was fierce. Players called out things like, ``Four high uptown, aces, kings, and crowns win!" or "Look out, partner, he's trying to run a bus!''
Downstairs people lined up for the food. The feast, served buffet style, was reminiscent of the times and included fried chicken, baked ham, pig's feet and sauerkraut, cole slaw, potato salad, chitterlings, dirty rice and corn bread. All the food and beverages, including fruit punch and non-alcoholic beer, were donated by local merchants.
Giovanni's sister, Gary Giovanni, coordinated the food preparation. It took a volunteer crew of women from the Blacksburg community three days to make enough food using ``recipes'' found only in their heads. Working in the kitchen facilities at Tech's Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Maple Anderson cooked up 100 pounds of chitterlings and Ethel Dobbins made her ``no secret''cornbread (though how it could taste so good without a secret ingredient is something her friends are still pondering).
Other volunteers took turns frying chicken and chopping vegetables. According to Gary Giovanni, ``It was truly a community effort. Everyone pitched in ... and we had fun!''
At the party, people walked away from the buffet balancing small mountains on their paper plates. According to Dylan Anderson, 9, a student at Margaret Beeks Elementary, the fried chicken was ``better than Kentucky Fried Chicken.''
Tyron Edmon, 18, a freshman at Tech, said, between mouthfuls, that he ``hadn't had a home cooked meal in a looong time.''
Patsy Lavender, a professor of theater arts at Tech, also was enjoying the food. However, she was unaware that one of the dishes she was gobbling up included pigs' feet.
While people chatted and enjoyed the food, the music heated up.
Gus Kitchen, a graduate student at Tech, stepped up to a microphone nearby and belted out some bluesy tunes in a powerful voice. When he started to sing, everyone stopped chewing and looked up. The atmosphere began to warm. People standing in the buffet line, or sitting at a table, started to sing harmony with Gus, or throw in a line or two of their own.
Next up was Chris Hughes, a student in Giovanni's class, and his friend, John, who picked out some blues on their guitars. Things seemed to mellow until Lorenzo ``Logie'' Meachum, a musician and teacher from Winston Salem, N.C., walked up to join the boys. In an impromptu performance, Meachum sang a lively version of ``Big -Legged Women.'' His rich, weathered voice, brought everyone to their feet. A group of women got out on the dance floor and spun around to enthusiastic claps and cheers. Soon everyone joined in on the chorus.
Overcome with enthusiasm, Haywood ``Woody'' Farrar, a history professor at Tech, grabbed the mike next and sang a few tunes of his own, karaoke-style.
``I can't believe Woody can sing!" said one woman in the crowd. "He's a history professor! He's straight as an arrow!''
In the midst of all the music, food, card playing and laughter, Nikki Giovanni stopped to look around. Shaking her head, she said, ``It's such a great thing to have all these people together who you wouldn't normally find in the same place.''
Gus Kitchen, taking a break from his singing, recalled going to similar parties in Arkansas when he was a child. ``This party is just like the real thing,'' he said. ``There's plenty of food and music and mingling. There's a lot of love in this room. That's what it's all about, really.''
LENGTH: Long : 116 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: James McLeod. 1. To the delight of the seated guests,by CNBsome of the more daring show their stuff on the dance floor (above).
2. Laretta King serves up a portion of potato salad in the food line
(right). 3. On Thursday (above), in the Wallace Hall kitchen,
Barbara Pendergrass, Tech's associate dean of students, slices up
cornbread while Pat Berger looks for additional ingredients for her
batch of "dirty rice." Berger is retired from the Radford Army
Ammunitions Plant. 4. Malaika Courts, Rodney Pulliam II, and Jordan
Pulliam have fun dancing (right) to the tunes Friday evening.
color.