Leonard Harper, the Centerpiece of the Harlem Rennaissance

Author Grant Harper Reid’s Biography

The author’s educational background was standard, except he was among the first Harlem children bussed from P.S. 197. They were bused to P.S. 7 in the Bronx’s Kingsbridge for an improved and more advanced education. He wanted to be a writer when he grew up, so he wrote a script and left it with Robert Redford’s doorman. Redford wrote Grant back with encouraging statements, “It's good stuff.” Then, the budding author wrote a second movie script, which became a finalist out of 900 in the 1991 Writer’s Guild of America East Contest.

Grant studied with the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and in activist/actor Ossie Davis’s Institute of New Cinema Artists program in 1977.

During the author's teen years, he worked for Motown Records and Commodore Entertainment, helping to put Lionel Richie and the Boys on the map, winding up, and even directing Michael Jackson backstage at Madison Square Garden. He also became a photographer, taking pictures of Jimi Hendrix, then went on to work in the film industry, thanklessly managing and finding locations for Sir Alan Parker, Francis Coppola, Lord Richard, Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Richard Lester, Mike Nichols, Spike Lee...