STYLE AND GRACE: AFRICAN AMERICANS AT HOME

by Michael Henry Adams

Bulfinch Press, September 2003

$35.00, ISBN 0-821-22847-1

Our Kind of Style

MICHAEL HENRY ADAMS lives in an old kitchen, but you'd never know it. The architectural historian has transformed the space with antique mirrors, a Chinese carpet, artfully stacked books, a low-hanging chandelier, imported textiles, Bayard Rustin's walking sticks and stone fragments from other old brownstones in Harlem. His eclectic collection of furniture ranges from a carved West African stool to an early 1900s Iyre-back chair that evokes the mahogany suite of Mama Willie, his stylish great-great grandmother.

Besides Mama Willie, Adams was influenced by the grandeur of Stan Hywet Hall, a 65-room house museum in Akron, Ohio, where he was a volunteer tour guide on his off days. His love of history, culture and design is reflected in his new book Style and Grace: African Americans at Home.

Through his prose, along with pictures by Mick Hales, Adams walks readers through his home and those of photographer and filmmaker Gordon Parks; Rep. Charles Rangel and his wife, Alma; model Kimora Lee and hip-hop impresario Russell Simmons; and dancer Sylvia Waters.

Readers can envision sitting for a spell on the Rangels' English camelback sofa under an Indian mirror framed in shell and ebony; playing Parks's grand piano while gazing at the East River; or soaking in Waters's dolphin-footed tub surrounded by oak, inlaid marble and mirrors with recessed lighting overhead.

Adams calls Gordon Chambers's 1860s Italianate brownstone "a modern masterpiece." Chambers hired interior designer Henry Mitchell to blend neoclassical furniture and treasures from trips around the world. His open dining room features a marble counter with gas burners, a grill and translucent glass. To reach the lily pool in his garden, visitors pass a wall displaying awards and photos from his work as a Grammy-winning composer and former music editor at Essence.

Another treat in Adams's book is the sneak peek into the shared home of design divas Cheryl Riley and Courtney Sloane. Each woman has won acclaim for interior and furniture designs, some of which have been featured in the Cooper-Hewitt. Their garden apartment in Chelsea reflects their playful personalities and talent, from the Mexican wooden crocodile and ram skull in front of the fireplace to the vibrant artwork, leather and corduroy sofa, African textile-covered chairs and custom mirrors.

Photograph (A Living Room)