Dorothy Peterson (1897-1978) was a Spanish teacher, aspiring actress, novelist, and arts patron closely associated with the Harlem Renaissance writers and artists. She co-founded the Harlem Experimental Theater in 1929 in the basement of the Harlem branch of the New York Public Library, and was involved with the Harlem Suitcase Theater. Her contribution to establish the James Weldon Johnson Collection of Negro Arts and letters at Yale University were significant.

Peterson was associated with the “New Negro” movement, and was dedicated to preserving black arts and culture, as well as the preservation of the work of many Puerto Rican artists. Her father was U.S. consul to Puerto Cabello, Venezuela for two years, and later the deputy collector of the IRS in San Juan, Puerto Rico, which allowed Peterson to be exposed to a multilingual environment from a young age. She graduated from the University of Puerto Rico, and then studied French at New York University. In the 1950s she moved to Spain shortly and then returned to the United States where she lived for the rest of her life.

Peterson was known for her lively and adventurous nature, which attracted people with diverse interests to her. Knowledgeable in both literature and art, she held a modest, but notable interracial literary salon at her father’s home on Monroe Street in Brooklyn, which later moved to her own apartment in Harlem in 1925. Conversation was the main emphasis at these gatherings which became informal stop-in parties lasting often until early morning hours.

Langston Hughes described Peterson as someone “... who moved with such poise among… colorful celebrities that I thought when I first met her she was a white girl of the grande monde, slightly sun-tanned.” Peterson was also known for her affection for Jean Toomer, an African American poet and novelist associated with the Harlem Renaissance, influenced by Eastern thought and Russian philosophy as a way to achieve cosmic consciousness. Later in her life Peterson converted to Catholicism and became very conservative, referring to the Harlem Renaissance as a silly time in her youth.


SOURCES
https://books.google.com/books?id=uV70UNzNQhIC&pg=PA162&lpg=PA162&dq=dorothy+peterson+%2B+salon&source=bl&ots=TQHdsv5Vci&sig=87Wudpcmm5RhnEN0tVYm13ZVJhE&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjar4aek_HXAhUQON8KHSUZC9cQ6AEIZjAQ#v=onepage&q=dorothy%20peterson%20%2B%20salon&f=false
https://books.google.com/books?id=NgIYlUbaoAoC&pg=PA1081&lpg=PA1081&dq=dorothy+Peterson+salon+artist&source=bl&ots=IFkDYLhs1d&sig=ynesIpAvgx5FdeDxiQW2TZnctLo&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi32_uE-c3XAhVKOyYKHfGQAbAQ6AEIVTAM#v=onepage&q=dorothy%20Peterson%20salon%20artist&f=false
https://books.google.com/books?id=ME55BgAAQBAJ&pg=PA13&lpg=PA13&dq=dorothy+Peterson+salon+artist&source=bl&ots=zom-vxuOcT&sig=qNLhXrq5E7q7VnYKafwv_WSv3Sc&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi32_uE-c3XAhVKOyYKHfGQAbAQ6AEIXjAO#v=onepage&q=dorothy%20Peterson%20salon%20artist&f=false
https://books.google.com/books?id=cyiMuLrgGpEC&pg=PA27&lpg=PA27&dq=dorothy+Peterson+art+patron&source=bl&ots=09EQW6imBK&sig=DVulRhgVitU9-QkRVbpw_Vtn690&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjL5bqa_c3XAhWEVyYKHWhiAiwQ6AEITjAK#v=onepage&q=dorothy%20Peterson%20art%20patron&f=false
https://books.google.com/books?id=NgIYlUbaoAoC&pg=PA965&lpg=PA965&dq=dorothy+Peterson+art+patron&source=bl&ots=IFkDYLit3c&sig=nfAPPh97MvXQva5qrCQObAbIWNg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjL5bqa_c3XAhWEVyYKHWhiAiwQ6AEIUzAM#v=onepage&q=dorothy%20Peterson%20art%20patron&f=false


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