Joy Goddess

A'Lelia Walker and the Harlem Renaissance

De: A'Lelia Bundles

Narrado por: A'Lelia Bundles

A vibrant, deeply researched biography of A’Lelia Walker—daughter of Madam C.J. Walker and herself a central figure of the Harlem Renaissance—written by her great-granddaughter.

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. Joy Goddess takes listeners inside her three New York homes—a mansion, a townhouse, and a pied-a-terre—where she entertained Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Paul Robeson, Florence Mills, James Weldon Johnson, Carl Van Vechten, W.E.B. DuBois, and other cultural, social and intellectual luminaries of the Roaring Twenties.

Now, based on extensive research and Walker’s personal correspondence, her great-granddaughter creates a meticulous, nuanced portrait of a charismatic woman struggling to define herself as a wife, mother, and businesswoman outside her famous mother’s sphere. In Joy Goddess, A’Lelia’s radiant personality and impresario instincts—at the center of a vast, artistic social world where she flourished as a fashion trendsetter and international traveler—are brought to vivid and unforgettable life.

©2025 A'Lelia Bundles (P)2025 Simon & Schuster Audio

Great Story of Legacy

To know the story of Madam CJ Walker and her daughter is one thing, but to hear it in the voice of her descendent made it that much more special. The way the storytelling was depicted was magical and had me locked in from the first chapter.

I'm incredibly proud of how this story was written and look forward to seeing all that is to come about the Walker legacy.

Pure JOY!

Thoroughly inJOYED this amazing book honoring the life and legacy of A’leila Walker! Deeply grateful for this work and high level of storytelling, research, reverence, and historical aptitude! Job well done!!! Encore! Encore! I am a HUGE fan of Madame Walker and this story encapsulates the complexities of Harlem life, love, family, legacy, wealth, racism, and so much more!! Kudos to A’leila Bundles for writing this brilliant story!