...a celebration.

Photo credit:  Sarah Rogers,  from the article "Harry Belafonte: Stylish and Battle-Tested".  I love how when I downloaded it, the word "tease" appeared in the title. That was Mr. B. 

Resources

Here you'll find pointers to research material from libraries, magazines, and publishers, as well as interviews with Mr. B. 

Shomberg Center

Shomberg photo

I can't imagine what level of trust and faith someone would have in an institution to release one's own history for others to browse through.

In 2020, the Shomberg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York, was recipient of that trust when Mr. B. passed over his "extensive personal archive....400 linear feet of audiovisual materials, personal and professional papers such as letters and manuscripts, television scripts, and photo albums that chronicle Belafonte’s life, activism, and career from 1949 to the present."

In the past few years, we've seen the list of materials processed grow.

March 13, 2020 New York Times: Six Decades After the Banana Boat, Harry Belafonte’s Archive Sails Home

April 17, 2023: Schomburg Center Holds Personal Photos, Writings & More of Harry Belafonte.  Mr. Belafonte's papers can be accessed in the Schomburg's Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books Division. Learn more about Harry Belafonte's Papers at the Schomburg.

Shortcut to the Harry Belafonte Papers (bulk 1946 - 2005)

Personal photos in the Center’s Photographs and Prints Division date from 1925 through the 2010s. The pictures, contact sheets, negatives, and slides, document his acting and singing careers, political and humanitarian causes, travel, and more.

Request an in-person research appointment

Books

Does not include the deluge of ones released thanks to AI after his death.
(please don't go there)

Daylight Come Book Cover

Daylight Come

Joshua Jelly-Schapiro

Joshua Jelly-Schapiro has been writing about Harry Belafonte since 2011, when he interviewed him for an article in the New York Times around the time of the release of Mr. B's My Song.

This book is a part of the Significations series, edited by Henry Louis Gates 

Available August 4, 2026
PREORDER HERE

My Song book cover

My Song ~ A Memoir

Harry Belafonte, with Michael Shnayerson

This is a very candid look in Mr. B's words about his life. It is a companion to the Sing Your Song documentary also done in 2011. 

Grateful for this, the documentary, and the series of talks that promoted these works.

2011 Alfred A. Knopf
ISBN 978-0-307-27226-3

Becoming Belafonte book cover

Becoming Belafonte

Judith E. Smith

I have this one, but couldn't get through it. 

Maybe one day.

2014 University of Texas
ISBN 978-0-292-72914-8

Belafonte book cover

Belafonte -an Unauthorized Biography

by Arnold Shaw

I'd have to read this again to decide how I feel about it now -  But I know I appreciated it when it fell into my hands. 

I particularly appreciated the "stereos" - little sections between the chapters that gave glimpses to other things happening at the same time (also - the smell of an old book....).

1960
Chilton Company - Book Division

Harry Belafonte book cover

Harry Belafonte

Genia Fogelson

Oh it took years to finally nab this one. Honestly, not quite worth it. It's aimed at maybe high school students, and though I'd have to go back to review Arnold Shaw's, what I read sounded like a shortened summary of what was there.

1980 Holloway House (1st edition)
1991 - ISBN 0-87067-772-1

Documentaries

2024

Following Harry

This is the second in a series of three films (?) - the first, Sing Your Song, was an autobiographical look at Mr. B.  This one follows him as he lays the grounds for his humanitarian work to continue. Footage was shot and the film was in post-production at the time of Mr. B's death. 

Following Harry premiered at the Trifecta Film Festival in June of 2024. It has made appearances at some film festivals since - but if you are not near those hubs, it may take a while to get to.

Watch the official trailer here

Visit the film's web page for Upcoming Events, or sign up for more information here

SO WORH IT:  Amazing conversation with key members of the Following Harry film, including film maker Susanne Rostock, actor and humanitarian Jesse Williams, and President and CEO of  The Gathering For Justice, Carmen Perez-Jordan

A Review - Culture Mix

CNN movie follow-up: How Harry Belafonte's legacy is inspiring a younger generation - video with Carmen Perez-Jordan and Aloe Blaac

A film review from Next Best Picture 

The Sit-In Doc Artwork

2020

The Sit-In

"While the country was embroiled in a divisive election with racial tensions flaring, Civil Rights activist and trailblazing performer Harry Belafonte guest hosted The Tonight Show for one week in 1968. This documentary examines the importance of this lost broadcast history."

In My Song, Harry talks about how he originally turned down the offer from Johnny Carson, but changed his mind after a call from Robert Sarnoff, the head of RCA and owner of NBC, who felt Harry was missing an opportunity "to influence racial attitudes."

"Over the next few days, I met with the NBC hierarchy, and bit by bit, we talked out what this hybrid of a talk show might be. I would do no opening monologue. Instead, I'd sing an opening song. And I would do no commercials....Most important, I wanted a handpicked list of guests with whom I had a lot in common, so we could speak with intelligence and passion."  My Song, p.323

Unfortunately, it was standard to reuse the film tapes back then - and only interviews with Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. survived. Yet, this is worth the watch!

You can read up more in an interview with the Director Yoruba Richen here

Amazingly enough, the whole film is available online on TVO Docs YouTube channel

The entire interview The Tonight Show interview with Senator Robert Kennedy

2011

Sing Your Song

This description comes directly from an article entitled Sing Your Song: What Good is a Conscience if it is not Awakened. There, they state the following is from the film's website, which no longer exists.

Sing Your Song is a documentary film about Harry Belafonte’s life as a cultural performer and activist for civil and human rights. 

Told from Belafonte’s point of view, the film charts his life from a boy born in New York and raised in Jamaica, who returns to Harlem in his early teens where he discovers the American Negro Theater and the magic of performing.

From there the film follows Belafonte’s rise from the jazz and folk clubs of Greenwich Village and Harlem to his emergence as a star. However, even as a superstar, the life of a black man in 1960s America was far from easy and Belafonte was confronted with the same Jim Crow laws and prejudices that every other black man, woman and child in America was facing.

Among other things, the film presents a brief look at the Civil Rights Movement through the eyes of an insider, someone who despite his high profile, wasn’t afraid to spend time in the trenches.

You can watch it online here

Sing Your Song movie artwork

1982

A Veces Miro Mi Vida (Sometimes I Look at My Life)

Harry Belafonte - A Veces Miro Mi Vida (Sometimes I Look at My Life), is a Cuban documentary by Orlando Rojas from 1982, that features interviews with Harry Belafonte, and clips from his tour in Cuba, including some wonderful footage of Letta Mbulu.

This is a very rare documentary, surviving by transfers from VHS tapes. It's a very  shows a very human intimate, and vulnerable side of Mr. B.  

One day maybe, we'll find better footage.

You can find it on the Harry Belafonte Television and Video Archive YouTube channel

Magazines

A smattering, just a smattering of articles that have stood out:

Year Magazine Title & Author
2023 NPR - Music Features "In Harry's old-school politics, the "human family" mattered. But until the end, his worldview was shaped by having traveled between Harlem and Jamaica, and sensing that something profound joined their people. He remained, until his life's end, deeply engaged with the politics and people of Africa — where one of his earliest achievements, after he was asked by John Kennedy to help launch the Peace Corps, involved organizing an airlift from Kenya that included the father of one Barack Obama."
Island Man - how Harry Belafonte's Caribbean roots helped him change America by Joshua Jelly-Shapiro
2017 The Guardian "Singer and civil rights activist, 90, holds Pittsburgh audience spellbound with tales of his life and denunciation of Trump as a national ‘mistake’": 
Harry Belafonte tells crowd at likely last public appearance: 'We shall overcome'
2011 NPR Music "And nobody had survival skills and greater cunning than did my mother. She was tenacious about her dignity not being crushed. And one day she said to me — she was talking about coming back from the day when she couldn't find work — fighting back tears, she said, 'Don't ever let injustice go by unchallenged.' And that really became a deep part of my life DNA. A lot of people say to me, 'When as an artist did you decide to become an activist?' I say to them, 'I was long an activist before I became an artist.' "
Harry Belafonte: Out Of Struggle, A Beautiful Voice
2010 Mojo "Harry Belafonte’s music, acting, producing, philanthropy, social presence and political activism have become indistinguishable, each from the others: a seamless whole piece of fabric stretching across decades, speaking always and only to forward motion."
Joe Henry interviews him while Mr. B. was working on his book My Song, and documentary Sing Your Song. Re-published in 2023, possible title: Dr King called and said, ‘I think you might be of service to something I very much believe in…
1959 Time
Time

 "The young man used to ride the New York subways with a pencil in his pocket and a chip on his shoulder." - the whole Time article Lead Man Holler

Interviews

2017-Live Stories Presents

2017

Harry Belafonte Interview: A Friendship with MLK That Shaped History

"This video is a must-watch for anyone interested in the Civil Rights Movement, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy, or Harry Belafonte’s life and activism."

From Live Stories Presents
Interviewed by Taylor Branch

Watch it here
2012 - Amanpour interview

2012

A never-before-seen interview with civil rights icon Harry Belafonte

"In 2012, Christiane Amanpour sat down for an extended conversation with entertainer and activist Harry Belafonte -- much of which has never previously been seen."

Watch it here
2012 Locarno Film Festival

2012

Conversation with Harry Belafonte | Locarno Film Festival

A beloved singer and one of the first African-American actors to appear on the silver screen, he received the Pardo alla carriera in 2012 and told us how his success offered him a platform that he didn’t hesitate to use

Watch it here
2011 - Discussing "My Song"

2011

Harry Belafonte in conversation with Tim Robbins at Live Talks Los Angeles

Discussing his memoir My Song

Watch it here
2011 - NYT article

2011

Back in the Day-O 

Joshua Jelly-Schapiro interviews Mr. B. after the release of My Song (book), and before "Sing Your Song" (film).

From the New York Times: Harry Belafonte on His New Memoir, My Song

Read it here
2011 - In Conversationan JFK Library

2011

A Converstion With Harry Belafonte

Harry Belafonte discussed his new memoir My Song with award-winning television host and journalist Liz Walker.

Filmed at the JFK Library

Watch it here
2000 - History Makers

2000

An Evening With Harry Belafonte

An hour long, PBS-TV live-to-tape conversation / interview at The Art Institute of Chicago with his friend Danny Glover.

Gives a very well-rounded history about Mr. B's life and works.

Little is out-of-date, as most is about his history - other than at the time, he and Julie were still together. 

Watch it here
1990 - uncut interview in Helsinki

1990

Harry Belafonte uncut Interview Helsinki / Finland

The uncut footage of the interview of Harry Belafonte shown in the Breakfast TV of the Finnish MTV3 Channel in the beginning of 1990's.

Watch it here
1976 - Canadian interview

1976

Canada's Brian Linehan interviews Harry Belafonte

Archival footage available for licensing

Part 1

Part 2

Broken Links? It's bound to happen... Please let me know and I will remove or resolve.