Voices of the Harlem Renaissance (U.S. 2020)

From the U.S. Postal Service announcement on October 22, 2019:

These stamps celebrate one of the great artistic and literary movements in American history, the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, which firmly established African Americans as a vital force in literature and the arts. Twenty stamps showcase four stylized pastel portraits of these literary figures: writer, philosopher, educator and arts advocate Alain Locke; novelist Nella Larsen; bibliophile and historian Arturo Alfonso Schomburg; and poet Anne Spencer. African-inspired motifs are used as background elements of each portrait. The pane header shows a cityscape in silhouette with a sun in its midst and the title “Voices of the Harlem Renaissance.” The artist for these stamps was Gary Kelley. Art director Greg Breeding designed the stamps.

These stamps will be issued Thursday, May 21 in New York City.

Additional information will be posted below the line, with the most recent at the top.


Updated April 15th:
[press release]
USPS Cancels Dedication Ceremony for Voices of the Harlem Renaissance Stamps
These stamps will still be available for purchase on May 21.

The U.S. Postal Service is canceling the dedication ceremony for the Voices of the Harlem Renaissance Forever stamps, previously announced for May 21, due to social distancing guidance during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Voices of the Harlem Renaissance Forever stamps will still be available for purchase on May 21. A follow-up announcement for the stamps will be made prior to the release date.

Customers may purchase these stamps through the Postal Store at usps.com/shopstamps, by calling 800-STAMP24 (800-782-6724), by mail through USA Philatelic and at Post Office locations nationwide.

Requests for first-day-of-issue postmarks and first-day covers will be processed by:

USPS Stamp Fulfillment Services
8300 NE Underground Drive, Suite 300
Kansas City, MO 64144-9900

The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations

Updated April 15th:
Here are the first-day cancels for this issue: The Digital Color Postmark for this issue measures 2.53″ x 1.40″.The pictorial postmark measures 2.48″ x 1.11″ The “special” postmark, for cities other than the first-day city, measures 2.75″ x 1.38″

Updated April 10th from the Postal Bulletin:

On May 21, 2020, in New York, NY, the United States Postal Service® will issue the Voices of the Harlem Renaissance stamps (Forever® priced at the First-Class Mail® rate) in four designs, in a pressure-sensitive adhesive pane of 20 stamps (Item 476400). The stamps will go on sale nationwide May 21, 2020, and must not be sold or canceled before the first-day-of-issue. The Voices of the Harlem Renaissance pane of 20 stamps may not be split and the stamps may not be sold individually.

This issuance celebrates one of the great artistic and literary movements in American history, the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, which firmly established African Americans as a vital force in literature and the arts. Twenty stamps showcase four stylized pastel portraits of these literary figures:

  • Alain Locke, writer, philosopher, educator, and arts advocate;
  • Nella Larsen, novelist;
  • Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, bibliophile and historian; and
  • Anne Spencer, poet.

African-inspired motifs are used as background elements of each portrait. The pane header shows a cityscape in silhouette with a sun in its midst and the issuance title “Voices of the Harlem Renaissance.” The artist for these stamps was Gary Kelley. Art director Greg Breeding designed the stamps.

Automatic distribution.

How to Order the First-Day-of-Issue Postmark:
Customers have 120 days to obtain the first-day-of-issue postmark by mail. They may purchase new stamps at their local Post Office™ or at The Postal Store® website at usps.com/shop. They must affix the stamps to envelopes of their choice, address the envelopes (to themselves or others), and place them in a larger envelope addressed to:

FDOI – Voices of the Harlem Renaissance Stamps
USPS Stamp Fulfillment Services
8300 NE Underground Drive, Suite 300
Kansas City, MO 64144-9900

After applying the first-day-of-issue postmark, the Postal Service will return the envelopes through the mail. There is no charge for the postmark up to a quantity of 50. There is a 5-cent charge for each additional postmark over 50. All orders must be postmarked by September 21, 2020.

Technical Specifications:

Issue: Voices of the Harlem Renaissance Stamps
Item Number: 476400
Denomination & Type of Issue: First-Class Mail Forever
Format: Pane of 20 (4 designs)
Series: N/A
Issue Date & City: May 21, 2020, New York, NY 10199
Art Director: Greg Breeding, Charlottesville, VA
Designer: Greg Breeding, Charlottesville, VA
Typographer: Greg Breeding, Charlottesville, VA
Artist: Gary Kelley, Cedar Falls, IA
Modeler: Sandra Lane/Michelle Finn
Manufacturing Process: Offset
Printer: Banknote Corporation of America
Press Type: Alprinta 74
Stamps per Pane: 20
Print Quantity: 16,000,000 stamps
Paper Type: Phosphor, Block Tag
Adhesive Type: Pressure-sensitive
Processed at: Banknote Corporation of America
Stamp Orientation: Vertical
Image Area (w x h): 0.84 x 1.42 in./ 21.336 x 36.068 mm
Stamp Size (w x h): 0.98 x 1.56 in./24.892 x 39.624 mm
Full Pane Size (w x h): 6 x 9 in./152.4 x 228.6 mm
Colors: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black
Plate Size: 160 stamps per revolution
Plate Number: “B” followed by four (4) single digits
Marginal Markings:
Front: Header: Voices of the Harlem Renaissance • Plate number in bottom two corners
Back: ©2019 USPS • USPS logo • 2 barcodes (476400) • Plate position diagram (8)
• Promotional text

10 thoughts on “Voices of the Harlem Renaissance (U.S. 2020)

  1. Hopefully HQ will let us have a local ceremony at the Museum of African American Art in my hood eight blocks from my home. They love the Ries Chapter there and we have helped at a number of very successful events there over the past few years.

    • I don’t know what the Scott catalogues will consider the plate block. I’ve put a picture of the configuration of the pane in the “details” above: It appears it will be a 4 x 5 stamps pane, with the first stamp of each row repeated in the last stamp of that row.

    • Printer: Banknote Corporation of America
      Plate Number: “B” followed by four (4) single digits
      Marginal Markings:
      Front: Header: Voices of the Harlem Renaissance • Plate number in bottom two corners.

      Either Right or Left 8

  2. The Press Sheet 476406 and Stamp Cerremony memento 4786434 for the Voices of Harlem Renaissance appear in the Philatelic Calalog 2020/Volume 25/Quarter 2.
    They do not appear on the USPS website. Do you know if they have been printed?

    • The USPS generally hasn’t “made live” the order-links for stamp items until the stamps are issued. The first-day ceremony for this issue has been canceled (see above), so I doubt the “Stamp Ceremony Memento” will ever go on sale. The USA Philatelic catalog was printed well before the USPS began canceling all the first-day ceremonies.

  3. Correction for Stamp ceremony memento Voices of Harlem Renaissance 476434

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