Someone has finally gotten around to writing a book about little old me. I must say I’m surprised it has taken this long. Doesn’t my life have all the ingredients for a juicy tale? Soirees, fashions, drama, and honey…the beautiful boys. I was…how do they say it in 2026? I was that girl. Then, of course, there’s Papa W.E.B. Du Bois, who was the leader of the Black people, especially the ones in Harlem. Or at least it seemed that way.
Anyway, the title of the book, A HARLEM WEDDING, worried me right from the start. Everyone had something to say about my wedding to Countee Cullen. The church biddies, my Papa’s movement friends, Miss Jessie Redmon Fauset…and every newspaper that followed society. I mean, that Geraldyn Dismond wouldn’t let me get any rest. Her columns printed so many things…not all true things.
It was true that I had sixteen bridesmaids and 3,000 people (or more) attended. Did you know the poet Langston Hughes and Harold Jackman (the handsomest man in Harlem) were groomsmen? Everyone who was anyone came to see me walk down that aisle to my certain doom.
But I was pleasantly surprised that this story is NOT just about that one tragic yet spectacular day in 1928. It’s about the series of rather unfortunate events that got me to that day, and of course, the bitter aftermath of it all. Besides, I was going to have a Harlem wedding no matter what, with Papa’s meddling, matchmaking and carrying on. I needed to deliver him an heir, preferably a grandson, who he could hold up to the world and fret over.
I was so tickled that in addition to my very complicated love life, the author, Tiffany L. Warren, paid great attention to me as a socialite. All my stunning fashions at the balls and parties, and my work with my sorority Delta Sigma Theta, Inc. I am proud to know that our divine sisterhood lives on, over one hundred years later.
The joy of this fictional retelling of my real life is that it features my Jimmie. James Melvin Lunceford, I mean. Our days together in Harlem, at Fisk University, and then back in Harlem once more. I haven’t forgotten him, and now history won’t forget our love. It was the magical kind that endures. Even still.
I hope you enjoy reading all about me and that my story inspires you. And I hope you know you can have everything you dream about. It took me time to learn that lesson, so don’t waste any of your precious years wondering. You. Are. Worthy.
And so was I!
A Novel
From The Unexpected Diva author Tiffany Warren—a dishy and dramatic novel of the Harlem Renaissance and its most famous Black debutante, Yolande Du Bois, daughter of W.E.B. Du Bois, whose spectacular wedding to poet Countee Cullen was the society event of the year...even though the bride and groom were not-so-secretly in love with other people.
A century ago, Harlem’s glittering social scene had a single princess: Yolande Du Bois, the only child of N.A.A.C.P. icon W.E.B. Du Bois. Yolande was bold, vivacious, and beloved of every gossip columnist. A true daddy’s girl, Yolande followed her father’s advice on everything: from where she went to college (Fisk—Papa’s alma mater) to which sorority she joined (Delta Sigma Theta). But in matters of the heart, Yolande and her father did not agree. Dr. Du Bois himself curated a string of handsome suitors from the “Talented Tenth” for her, but Yolande’s true love was jazz musician Jimmie Lunceford, son of a working-class family from far-off Denver, Colorado. Their romance was an open secret, and more than a little scandalous.
Despite it all, Yolande wound up marrying her father’s choice: famed poet Countee Cullen. Their lavish uptown wedding was the hottest social ticket of 1928. With three thousand attendees, sixteen bridesmaids, and Langston Hughes as a groomsman, it was truly a sight to behold.
But, immediately after the wedding, Yolande’s carefully constructed fairy tale begins to crumble. Torn between the expectations of her father and society and her heart’s true desire, Yolande is forced to decide whether she must leave Harlem to create a more authentic life on her own terms.
A Harlem Wedding is a heady read about love, notoriety, Black excellence, deception, and the très chic lifestyles of the Black elite, from speakeasies of Harlem and the green fields of Fisk University, all the way to Le Grand Duc in Paris.
Multicultural African-American [ HarperCollins, On Sale: May 12, 2026, Hardcover / e-Book / audiobook, ISBN: 9780063322172 / eISBN: 9780063322189 ]
I'm happily married with five beautiful children. I have a technology degree (yeah, I'm a nerd)and I worked for about 8 years in the IT department of a bank. I started writing when I was fourteen, but the publishing world is still new to me. I'm very happy to have a chance to pursue my dreams!
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