Category Archives: Survey Graphic

black feminism, Blogs, Survey Graphic

How Fantasy Opens New Ideas for Reality

When one thinks of nonfiction they think fact. It’s a genre that will always provide relevant sources and materials to help support a certain topic. Similarly, topics like racial prejudice, the New Negro, and the identity of African Americans are all things that were recognized during the Harlem Renaissance and are all supported by facts. On the other hand, when we think about fiction there might be a misconception. When one thinks about the word fiction a word that comes to mind is “fake”. Since fictional works aren’t supported by facts, people have the tendency to discredit them and don’t show the same appreciation to a piece of work that is filled with a person’s own opinions and raw emotions.  

The thing with fiction, however, is that it does a great job of enchanting the reader and it gives that little extra something. Nonfiction is very concrete and it doesn’t leave you with any room to add your own input or be creative. With fiction, you can really make a piece of work your own and introduce a topic in a way that inspires and evokes new feelings and perspectives one might not have noticed by just looking at concrete information. 

Survey Graphic includes a lot of visuals, stories, personal essays, and poems. These fictive works do an amazing job of highlighting some of the topics we find interesting and hold near and dear to us such as the Harlem Renaissance and the New Negro Movement. Now, because they aren’t so concrete they also make you wonder, what exactly is it that the writer is trying to communicate in these works? Countee Cullen is one of the poets whose work is included in Survey Graphic. When reading his poem “To a Brown Girl”, Cullen uses his artistry to touch upon the concept of identity and freedom. As Cullen suggests, “Youth is the time for careless weather; Later, lass, be weary” (“Survey Graphic”, 660). From these lines, you can interpret that Cullen is encouraging African American women to fall in love and live their life. Contrary to what the norms are/were (especially during his time), Cullen is all for freedom and self-expression. In his work, he’s debunking following the rules and what’s expected of you as an African American woman and encouraging the following of your own path. To be a good African American woman doesn’t mean you have to compromise love and enjoying life. 

When looking for a visual to represent the message behind the poem, this gif really stood out to me. The main thing I took from the poem is that African American women are valuable and strong. To me, this gif highlighted that quite literally. Pictured you see a girl who’s absolutely glowing with a rainbow behind her. It invoked feelings of inner and outer beauty as well as strength. It felt right to include it and that little rainbow in the back really just inspired positivity, vibrancy, and transformation. Maybe when Cullen wrote his poem he wanted African American women to feel just that. To experience life while you’re young and have no regrets. 

It’s works like this that not only resonate more with readers than nonfiction but also inform people in a way you would not be able to receive if you read a piece of nonfiction. To learn something by digging deep into a jumble of one’s thoughts can truthfully be hard to grasp and interpret. However, it’s that exact way of figuring something out that can sometimes be more impactful and thought-provoking. 

 

Ideal, Reality, Survey Graphic

Blog #2: The Real Vs. The Ideal

Between fiction and non-fiction, which one is better?

Imagine, for a very literal metaphor, two different books which laid out in front of a person: a non-fiction book and a fictional book.

Which one should a person choose and read?

Generally speaking, people tend to name non-fiction as the greater of the two genres. People always speak about being realistic and staying grounded, and sure, that may work in a pure business setting, however, for true ideological change, they have to learn to embrace fiction, or ideals.

Survey Graphic itself realized this, as when they first began to publish articles about the negro community, it was all non-fiction literature, and focused on a much more analytical perspective on how to change and the accomplishments of those in the community. This is representative of the non-fiction book.

The non-fiction book, the real, would do it’s best to convey matters as they are, point to the factors that caused it, and the possible consequences of such a thing occurring. It is knowledgeable. For example, in ‘The Making of a Harlem’ by James Weldon Johnson:

 

Johnson, James. “The Making of a Harlem.” Survey Graphic, vol. 6, no. 6, 1925, p. 636.

This passage is a recounting of how housing prices in a neighborhood completely tanked after colored folk began to move in. It’s a record of the historical racism and push-back the negro community had suffered, and how it led to the formation of Harlem. It’s an issue that they want all in the negro community to learn about, and to fight against.

But after a decade after the magazine began it’s first publication, they began to shift gears and began to publish fiction, or the ideal, in the form of poetry. These poems are emotional, they warn their readers, they wish for the best but are frustrated with what reality has dealt them. In particular, ‘Like a Strong Tree’ by Claude Mckay exemplifies this best:

McKay, Claude. “Like a Strong Tree.” Survey Graphic, vol. 6, no. 6, 1925, p. 662.

The tree is an ideal of the strength of self. The strength to hold onto their beliefs and how McKay wishes to stand tall like this tree for ages to come. That through a tree’s long and extended life, in particular the beginning of the second passage ‘Touching the surface and the depth of things’, they will learn and internalize everything they can reach their roots towards. With that knowledge supporting their trunk, they won’t ever falter and they’ll endure and enjoy all things that come their way and never fall.

The non-fiction passage above made me chuckle at the absurdity of it all which a tinge sense of animosity that people could really go that far. The fictional poem inspired me with it’s imagery and depictions of tenacity. If I were to think about the changes of a century ago, a tree would sit rooted in the forefront of my mind.

Which book would you choose? No matter your choice, understand that these books are not binaries, but instead, a spectrum that is absolutely critical to our daily lives.

They represent the real vs the ideal.

Both are fundamental parts of the human condition.

The Ideal

The Real

The Real

 

Lacking either one would mean that a person completely loses perspective.

A complete realist is a robot who doesn’t strive for something greater, who will keep the status quo and never turn the world into something more.

A complete idealist is a blind lunatic who can’t see the world for what is it, only spouting ideals and never the means to achieve them.

Everyone is a mix of the two, with their perspectives leaning one way or the other. And as such, it’s important to take a step back and reevaluate where you stand.

The best answer to my earlier question is to read both books, well, if you have the time.

 

Works Cited

Johnson, James. “The Making of a Harlem.” Survey Graphic, vol. 6, no. 6

McKay, Claude. “Like a Strong Tree.” Survey Graphic, vol. 6, no. 6, 1925, p. 662

Survey Graphic

“Is Gentrification Bad For Harlem?”

In “The Making of Harlem,” a chapter within the Survey Graphic magazine, negroes moved from a corner of Lower Manhattan to 53rd St. Then they relocated to Harlem due to the surfacing of better houses.  As there was a shortage of labor at the time, (country is stabilizing from WW1) there was of course a hefty amount of work available and more negroes are able to work, now being able to find work easier and at higher rates than what they’ve received ever in their lives. Also, property value for some foreclosures went to its cheapest point since lending companies have been holding vacant the “handsome dwellings,” with normal selling figures such as $15,000 (around $210,000 in today’s dollars) or $20,000 (around $281,000) selling at one-third of their normal asking price, ex: 5,000 (around $70,000). It was said that negroes in Harlem had owned more than $60 million dollars of property. It was safe to say at the time, Harlem was owned by negroes.

Real estate prices in Harlem are much more expensive today than in the 1920s, if you compare the aforementioned figures, with median sales prices around $800,000, well below the median sale price in Manhattan of $1.2million. Although Harlem is relatively cheap versus the rest of Manhattan, it is still expensive to many who have lived here their whole life. You will also notice how Harlem has once again be subject to demographic change, more blacks are leaving due to expensive rent or property taxes while well-off whites and hispanics have been bargaining at Harlem’s offerings.

 

But can the Negroes keep Harlem? I’ve already mentioned that there were pockets of negro communities before, so given the pattern before could it therefore repeat again, but at a larger scale? James Weldon Johnson claims that “when colored people do leave Harlem, their homes, their churches, their investments and their businesses, it will be because the land has become so valuable they can no longer afford to live on it.” (638) Gentrification is prevalent today in Harlem, with new luxury condos being erected and raising property values, a lot of people simply cannot afford to call Harlem their home anymore, let alone New York City. Harlem not only has been a place to call home for Negroes, but Harlem has become synonymous with Negroes itself. Detaching Negroes from Harlem would seem to lose integral value to what made Harlem, Harlem.

A crowded street in Harlem, c.1920 (Taken from "The Making of Harlem" p.637)

Picture taken from “The Making of Harlem” in Survey Graphic:  Harlem Mecca of the New Negro, pp.637

 

This may be a silly question but when Johnson claimed that the land has become so valuable they can no longer afford to live on it, I question were the lower class and middle class colored people leaving and being replaced by upper-class colored? Earlier in the text it was mentioned that a lot of whites left Harlem (white flight) because it felt like they were being invaded. Given that negroes in Harlem were more exposed to individual, entrepreneurial jobs and now have more financial freedom than ever before, now buying up properties and properly managing their finances, this was their biggest chance of retaining an area (in which they own themselves) within this time of American history. Is gentrification a race related issue or is it a class related issue? Regardless, a high-society and posh Harlem  would strip away values like community,  culture, standards, and, literally, people who help construct this place. When I look at the pictures in the “Making of Harlem,” the large crowds and communities seem like they are all socializing, mingling, there is an overall feeling of togetherness. Today, at least to me, maybe it’s just a city thing, there are occasional socializing like small talk with a person on the train or hotdog stand but overall everyone is so distant and minding their own business. This is already one example of how Harlem Renaissance Harlem differs from modern-Harlem… the sense of togetherness. Maybe it is the gentrification that has made us so distant?

 

Harlem in the 1980s and the 1990s had put a stain on Harlem’s illustrious history, with the crack situation running rampant within its community. Harlem was in disarray. Crime was then at its peak. The New York Times had even stated in “Harlem Battles over Development Project,” “since 1970, an exodus of residents has left behind the poor, the uneducated, the unemployed. Nearly two-thirds of the households have incomes below $10,000 a year.” It is not just whites who were leaving, it was people who provided stability to Harlem who were leaving including financially stable coloreds.  A journal published by Columbia University, “Crack Cocaine and Harlem’s Health,” speaks about the damage drugs have done to the community: “Between 1960 and 1990, four disparate forces – suburbanization, economic decline, epidemic disease, and municipal public policy – transformed Harlem from a functional ‘urban habitat’ to a de-urbanized area with a hyper-concentration of poor people with serious health problems. Homicides, cirrhosis,  and drug-related deaths accounted for 40% of excess mortality in Harlem. Harlem had the highest rate of age-adjusted mortality from all causes, and that rate was 50% higher than U.S. blacks living in other areas.” Harlem at this time was dying. Take a look at these before and after pictures.

Note: these are not my pictures.

1988: Corner of 132nd Street and Madison Avenue

2007: Same Corner

Pictures taken by Camilo Vergara

 

1988: 116th Street and Lenox Avenue

2007:

1988: 125th Street Between Park and Lexington Aves

2007:

All of these photos were taken by Camilo Vergara, his pictures are digitized into the Library of Congress: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?q=camilo%20vergara%20116th&st=gallery

Some people call it a second reconnaissance while others describe it as gentrification.

Was the second renaissance or gentrification necessary to save Harlem? The question becomes would you rather stay on your storied land but have it crumble before you due to drugs, crime and poverty, which is unrecognizable to its former glory or have your storied land taken from you (cannot afford to live on it anymore) but is being converted to a neighborhood with a fresh new personality?

Works cited:

Shipp, E. R. (1991, July 31). Harlem Battles Over Development Project. The New York Times., from https://www.nytimes.com/1991/07/31/nyregion/harlem-battles-over-development-project.html

Watkins, Beverly X. and Thompson Fulilore,  Mindy. (2000). “Crack Cocaine and Harlem’s Health,” Dispatches From the Ebony Tower Intellectuals Confront the African American Experience. 

Johnson, James W. (1925)  “The Making of Harlem”, Survey Graphic: Harlem Mecca of the New Negro pp. 635-639

Harlem Real Estate Market Trends. 2022 Home Prices & Sales Trends | Harlem, New York, NY Real Estate Market. from https://www.propertyshark.com/mason/market-trends/residential/nyc/manhattan/harlem

 

 

Beauty, Brownies Book, Children, Ideal, Survey Graphic

Overview

It’s the turn of the twentieth century, and the first generation of black men & women who have been born free, have all reached maturity. However, even if the law states they were free, social elements that despised their existence still lingered, so they travelled to places where they wouldn’t be persecuted as such. This led an exodus of black men and women all to New York, where they congregated into a neighborhood named Harlem. And from there, desires and hope merged, and the Harlem Renaissance began.

Now, there is only one thing that doesn’t change throughout life, and it’s the fact that we change.

Through every moment, memory, and connection in our lives, we change. We try to find aspects of ourselves, the community, and our society to alter and tinker with until we become something new and different.

But why do we do something new? Isn’t what we have already good enough?

We do all these things because of a deep rooted belief that we can become something greater. A better version of an environment or self. They all are in the pursuit of what we believe to be the best it can be.

The ideal of an idea.

Ideals were the life blood for the Harlem Renaissance, where they flowed through every man and women, whose dreams and hopes clashed with the social order to create change .

Within this site, I shall explain how ideals were the pivotal role in the development of the culture that defines Harlem to this day.

To understand the ‘ideal’ that they encapsulated, it must be first defined. Blog post #2 (The Real Vs. The Ideal), explores in-depth what idealism is and how it clashes and intermingles with it’s counterpart, pure realism. To borrow from the second blog’s understanding, and ideal is: the understanding of an ideal is varied and verbose, as each person holds their ideals differently.

So to define an ideal: it’s the most excellent form of a concept.

There have been many disparagements about the practicality of following an ideal because they don’t always mesh well with what is truly possible. They also may not match with what another believes is ideal.

However, the act of pursuing an ideal is not wrong. It’s the pure desire to change something for the better that will push a stone of change uphill until they reach the precipice where thanks to all the fruits and efforts of all the change comes tumbling down the mountain ever so faster.

Because ideals are weapons. They glitter and shine in the hearts of those who pursue them, which can charm all those who watch and believe.

An exemplary example of this can be found within the ideal of beauty. In the Blog Post #1 (Beauty of a Century), we explore how Opportunity magazine managed to sway all their readers thoughts and actions with a very loud cover that constantly tries to be beautiful.

And it’s a great idea. It can easily be found that no matter the culture and no matter the country, beauty is celebrated. And this lends itself to the question, what is beauty? How do we know something is beautiful, and how do we define that in literal word? Even with a brief glance through history, what is considered beautiful vastly differs between cultures and time periods.

So how did Opportunity magazine manage to be beautiful when the definition of beauty is so malleable? They went for a very wild approach, but yet, effective none the same. Through sheer variety, they created covers that would be beautiful in some way to a vast array of audiences. And the cherry on top is that most of them included a black female figure to prove that black people are just as beautiful as everyone else.

It’s a powerful example for the strength of a group that earnestly strives for their ideals. And this movement will not burn out in their generation, but the torch will be passed down through generation as the new blood carries the flame. Though they may carry their torches in a different way. Namely, the Fire!!! Magazine was published by the younger generation, attempting to direct the movement to better represent what it meant to be black to them.

There is a noticeable difference in the idealism of children and adults. I attempt to compare and contrast the two in the following Blog Post #3 (Nostalgia and Rain), where I bring up the difference in the world view between an adult and a child. Where the child doesn’t understand, the adult understands all too well, and almost tries to shield the eyes of the child in an attempt to buy just a little more time to change the world before they have to confront it for themselves. And we can find this kind of effort with a side publication of the same company who created Opportunity Magazine known as The Brownies Book. This book was meant to give children of the time literature that they could act in the same way as the other children, and that the stereotypes portraying them in other forms of media, weren’t accurate at all.

Ideals can be found in every part of the culture of the Harlem Renaissance and is one of the most defining features of it. It’s not making the best of a bad situation, but changing the whole situation outright with the tools they had on hand. The most pivotal point is that they didn’t give up. They didn’t accept their bad hand, but worked to stack the deck in their favor.

Keep your ideals strong and let them shine like a torch. It’s incredibly frustrating to have people say to you, “Look at reality” and completely dismiss your vision out of hand for being way too outside the norm as a vast majority just don’t feel like it’s feasible. But no matter what they say, change that astounds the world can still happen, even if it’s going to be a long time in the future. The Harlem Renaissance was able to show that complete and magnificent change, that echoed throughout the nation.

Bibliography:

The Brownies’ Book Magazine

Fire!!! Magazine

Fraternities and Sororities. (1925). Opportunity, 3(26), 48–50.

HARRIS, D. (2019). Printing the Color Line in The Crisis. In On company time: American modernism in the big magazines (pp. 80–82). essay, COLUMBIA UNIV Press.

How it feels to be Colored Me by Zora Houston

Holmes, A. (2021, February 18). The magazine that helped 1920s kids navigate racism. The Atlantic. Retrieved March 8, 2022, from https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2021/02/how-w-e-b-du-bois-changed-black-childhood-america/617952/

Hughes, L. (1925). The Weary Blues. Opportunity, 3(29), 143–143.

Johnson, James. “The Making of a Harlem.” Survey Graphic, vol. 6, no. 6, 1925, p. 636.

Locke, A. (1925). Enter the New Negro. Survey Graphic: Harlem of the New Negro, 53(11).

McKay, Claude. “Like a Strong Tree.” Survey Graphic, vol. 6, no. 6, 1925, p. 662.

Crisis, Survey Graphic, The Opportunity, W.E.B. Du Bois

Social Progress and Racial Uplift

The Harlem Renaissance was a remarkable period during which African Americans experienced many obstacles and victories from the 1920s to the 1930s. As they over came these challenges, they established social progress and had a series of social accomplishments. The Harlem Renaissance was the upbringing of Social progress, and magazines and novels of this period represented the accomplishments of African Americans. Black people overcame racial injustice in order to obtain a better education, a better career, a better future, and better prospects. Black people made massive progress in the areas of art and writing (poetry),  music (opera), and education. Around this time period, African Americans began to be recognized for their efforts to expand and enhance their culture, acquire respect, and advocate for their rights. Social progress and racial uplift is significant to educate people today about the uplifting of black people and steps towards equality and recognition of black achievements. Typically, African Americans were viewed as merely labor and, before that, possessions. White people disproportionately imposed dispossession on African Americans. Harlem Renaissance literature indicates valuable African Americans’ contributions to a society that were often neglected and misinterpreted. My first 3 blogs demonstrate how the Harlem Renaissance accelerated black culture and now what black people overcame. During this time period, people gained knowledge and educate themselves about what African Americans have gone through and their upbringing of succeeding and black excellence.

 

Beginning with W.E.B DuBois, with the Crisis magazine that had an impact and was very popular and was mainly concentrated on African American history, politics, culture, social injustice, and their rights. Crisis Magazine had a representation for African Americans and reshaped people’s opinions on African Americans. The implications of “the New Negro “ is the Crisis Magazine on having a voice for African Americans to speak their truths and facts to educate other people. According to Donal Harris in Printing the Color Line in The Crisis “However, in 1910 another kind of magazine, the African American monthly, specifically The Crisis, emerged with the conscious desire to reshape the style, size, and color of commercial periodicals as well as the implicit race of the people who read and wrote them.” (Harris, 62). These covers of the Crisis Magazine show the experience of how African Americans had issues with racial stereotypes and racial discrimination and try to correct the stereotypes. These covers were supposed to be the new representation of the New Black America. The purpose of these covers was to overcome the stereotypes of African Americans. These covers also show and determine on how it was moving, how they showed African American accomplishments, and how they influenced. These covers of The Crisis Magazine are for readers in the world and African Americans as it helps them not only change the image of African Americans in the public eye. As well as help combat the narrative of the stereotypical and racism that was going on. This magazine also tries to have a voice for African Americans to expand and increase their culture and to gain respect, and to advocate for their rights. This can also help to open opportunities for their future. In the United States, African Americans were not acknowledged by the public and were not treated well.  

 

Viewing all of these covers, they are so descriptive, natural, and real, which made me visualize and interpret what W.E.B Du Bois was attempting to do with these covers. Based on the Crisis Magazine, what makes African Americans and Blacks American is having the freedom and independence to have their own choice and able to have opportunities for their future. For instance, in the Crisis Magazine in Vol. 18, No. 1 (1919-05-01) and Vol. 17, No. 5 (1919-03-01) they show on how many African Americans entered for World War I, which shows loyalty and being proud, and wanting to fight for their country. Another example of what makes African Americans American is based on what they have been through. They weren’t able to have an education but now they have the freedom and choice. For example in the Crisis Magazine in Vol. 24, No. 4 (1922-08-01) this shows and represents in the cover that African Americans are wanting to have an education and a career for their future. The covers are for African American descents can use the cover of crisis as a visual representation of what their culture has achieved and accomplished over the years. The Crisis wasn’t just a news magazine; it was a step towards equality and recognition of black achievements.

 

In Survey Graphic Harlem Mecca of the New Negro “The Making of Harlem” by James Weldon Johnson. Harlem became a place that doesn’t necessarily have ownership because due to the culture, art, literature, and music. Harlem was only the beginning of something new that puts America’s culture into shock. This made African Americans come together in Harlem to search for a new future and new opportunities and to become themselves. They also had the same interests of progressing and getting ahead without leaving behind their customs, culture, and beliefs, developing in this way. According to James Weldon Wilson, In the Making of Harlem, it states “Harlem is indeed the great Mecca for the sight-seer, the pleasure-seeker, the curious, the adventurous, the enterprising, the ambitious and the talented of the whole Negro world; for the lure of it has reached down to every island of the Carib Sea and has penetrated even into Africa.” (Wilson, 13). This quote determines that African Americans wanted to develop to grow and to achieve, and to have ambition and talent.  They developed many careers such as politics, arts, music, beauty, and entertainment. For example, in Black Culture in Bloom: The Harlem Renaissance by Richard Worth it states, “The Harlem Renaissance gave African Americans like A’Lelia Walker an opportunity to be proud of their success. Harlem had become the rage. Going uptown to Harlem was a popular fad that attracted many New Yorkers and travelers. The popularity of Harlem helped bring success to the writers, entertainers, and artists of the Harlem Renaissance.”(Worth, 75). This shows that the tireless struggle of African Americans to progress and teach their culture, which they are proud of, had a good result in many outstanding African Americans in art, music, and other fields. 

 

The progress of African Americans during the Harlem Renaissance was changing in the “Social Progress” in the Opportunity Magazine. African Americans have been achieving and succeeding with art, music, writing, and education. Around this time, African Americans have been acknowledged and received recognition to expand and increase their culture and to gain respect, and to advocate for their rights. This can also help to open opportunities for their future. 

African Americans were fighting and trying to have opportunities that enlightened themselves in different aspects, having an education, theatre, music, art, politics, and entertainment. Some of those people who sought for opportunities and became successful that I mentioned in my blog post are Gwendolyn B. Bennett, Carl Van Vechtim, and  Senator Adelbert H. Roberts. Many African Americans who started standing out because they kept searching for opportunities to get what they wanted and kept going to help their community and unity. According to Word, Image, and the New Negro  by Anne Elizabeth Carroll it states “Furthermore, while the primary purpose of Opportunity’s studies and news stories about African Americans’ achievements is perhaps to define African Americans as capable of integration and accomplishments, they also assert that American society would benefit if African Americans were granted greater opportunities.”( Caroll, 56). This represents and determines that African Americans are capable of having a better education and career, having a successful future for themselves and receiving better opportunities. 

 

During the Harlem Renaissance Era, social progress and racial uplift is very important to enlighten people about the uplifting of black people and steps towards equality and recognition of black achievements. African Americans have expanded and increased their culture and to gain respect and to fight for their rights. The literature, essays, and artwork of the Harlem Renaissance demonstrate the many values and views that are forming and changing during the period. Which can show that African Americans have seen success and black greatness as a result of their upbringing.

 

Work Cited

HARRIS, DONALD. On Company Time: American Modernism in the Big Magazines. COLUMBIA UNIV Press, 2019.

Harlem, Mecca of the new negro. Yale University Library. (n.d.). Retrieved May 10, 2022, from https://collections.library.yale.edu/catalog/17368696

Modernist journals: Crisis. Modernist Journals | Crisis. (n.d.). Retrieved May 10, 2022, from https://modjourn.org/journal/crisis/

Modernist journals: Crisis. A record of the darker races. vol. 18, no. 5. Modernist Journals | Crisis. A Record of the Darker Races. Vol. 18, No. 5. (n.d.). Retrieved May 10, 2022, from https://modjourn.org/issue/bdr512492/

Modernist journals: Crisis. A record of the darker races. vol. 17, no. 5. Modernist Journals | Crisis. A Record of the Darker Races. Vol. 17, No. 5. (n.d.). Retrieved May 10, 2022, from https://modjourn.org/issue/bdr511760/

Modernist journals: Crisis. A record of the darker races. vol. 24, no. 4. Modernist Journals | Crisis. A Record of the Darker Races. Vol. 24, No. 4. (n.d.). Retrieved May 10, 2022, from https://modjourn.org/issue/bdr521604/

Worth, Richard. Black Culture in Bloom : The Harlem Renaissance, Rosen Publishing Group, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/baruch/detail.action?docID=6228046.

https://books.google.com/books?id=JcgZAAAAIAAJ

Anne Elizabeth Carroll, Word, Image, and the New Negro : Representation and Identity in the Harlem Renaissance(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005).

Crisis, Survey Graphic, W.E.B. Du Bois

Illustrations vs. Photographs of Harlem and The Crisis Culture

Between Illustrations and Photographs, there are two types of expressive art. They are both commonly alike because it shows how the artist is trying to depict and trying to tell us something about what’s going on in the art. Unlike others, some might find Illustrations and photographs not similar. I personally feel like they are both similar because you can alter a photograph to the context that you want and you can also alter an illustration because it’s more direct on what you choose to draw. These both determine that Illustrations and Photographs are very commonly alike.

 

In the book Survey Graphic Harlem Mecca of the New Negro “The Making of Harlem” by James Weldon Johnson. Harlem became a place that doesn’t necessarily have ownership because due to the culture, art, literature, and music. Harlem was only the beginning of something new that puts America’s culture into shock. This made African Americans come together in Harlem to search for a new future and new opportunities and to become themselves. They also had the same interests of progressing and getting ahead without leaving behind their customs, culture, and beliefs, developing in this way. According to James Weldon Wilson, In the Making of Harlem, it states “Harlem is indeed the great Mecca for the sight-seer, the pleasure-seeker, the curious, the adventurous, the enterprising, the ambitious and the talented of the whole Negro world; for the lure of it has reached down to every island of the Carib Sea and has penetrated even into Africa.” (Wilson, page 13). This quote determines that African Americans wanted to develop to grow and to achieve and to have ambition and talent.

The Crisis Magazine also has illustrations and photographs covers which represents African Americans trying to have a voice to expand and increase their culture and to gain respect and to advocate for their rights. Also, all of these covers are so descriptive, natural, and real which made me visualize and interpret what W.E.B Du Bois was attempting to do with these covers. Based on the Crisis Magazine what makes African Americans and Blacks American is having the freedom and independence to have their own choice and able to have opportunities for their future. For instance in the Crisis Magazine in Vol. 18, No. 1 (1919-05-01) and Vol. 17, No. 5 (1919-03-01) they show on how many African Americans entered for World War I 1 which shows loyalty and being proud, and wanting to fight for their country. Another example of what makes African Americans American is based on what they have been through. They weren’t able to have an education but now they have the freedom and choice. For example in the Crisis Magazine in this shows and represents in the cover that African Americans are wanting to have an education and a career for their future.

 

 In this photograph, it was in Harlem which is showing that many people are taking the train and the majority are African Americans. Compared to now in Harlem, there’s way more diversity, not just African Americans. 

 

 

Both of these different types of creative and expressive art which are illustrations and photographs are both very similar because it determines on how the artist sees from a different perspective and show us the meaning of the art. Some people find illustrations and photographs different although I personally disagree. Based on these photographs and illustrations that I have chosen you could see that the artist wanted to show a deeper meaning, and tell us a background story about it. This determines why illustrations and photographs are similar.