About
A’Lelia Bundles's fourth book -- "Joy Goddess: A’Lelia Walker and the Harlem Renaissance" (Scribner June 10, 2025) -- is the first major biography of her great-grandmother, whose parties, friendships, international travels and arts patronage helped define the era. "On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C.J. Walker," her biography of her great-great-grandmother—was named a New York Times Notable Book and received the Association of Black Women Historian's Letitia Woods Brown Prize for the best book on Black women's history. She spent time at Yaddo and MacDowell while writing "Joy Goddess."
A’Lelia founded the Madam Walker Family Archives and was a network television news producer for thirty years at NBC News and then at ABC News, where she was Washington, DC deputy bureau chief. She serves on several nonprofit boards including the March on Festival, Harvard Radcliffe Institute's Schlesinger Library and Columbia Global Reports.
She is a graduate of Harvard College and Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
Featured Work
Joy Goddess: A'Lelia Walker and the Harlem Renaissance
Dubbed the "joy goddess of Harlem's 1920s" by poet Langston Hughes, A'Lelia Walker, daughter of millionaire entrepreneur Madam C.J. Walker and the author's great-grandmother and namesake, is a fascinating figure whose legendary parties and Dark Tower salon helped define the Harlem Renaissance.
After inheriting her mother's hair care enterprise, A'Lelia would become America's first high profile black heiress and a prominent patron of the arts, who entertained Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Paul Robeson, Florence Mills, James Weldon Johnson, Carl Van Vechten and W.E.B. DuBois. Now, based on extensive research and Walker's personal correspondence, Bundles creates a meticulous, nuanced portrait of a charismatic woman whose radiant personality and impresario instincts are brought to vivid and unforgettable life.
Other Works
-
"Hair As Haute Couture" in Sonya Clark's The Hair Craft Project
2015
-
Madam Walker Theatre Center: An Indianapolis Treasure
2013
-
On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C. J. Walker (Scribner)
2001
-
Madam C. J. Walker: Entrepreneur (Chelsea House)
1991 and 2008 (revised)
