The Harlem Renaissance was a time period that I believe in retrospect is looked at through too much of a narrow lens to fully understand the context in which the period was born out of. I got to this conclusion when I really started to look at and analyze the vast historical and literary archive the time period has left us with. I think so often when the Harlem Renaissance is taught, especially in schools, it is boiled down to just this short period of Black artistic achievements and nothing else. But when I started to look at the archive that we were working with, the Harlem Renaissance begins to morph into this extremely pivotal time period in the timeline of Black history in the United States. Beyond just the artistic achievements, for which there were many and it’s important to highlight that, the Harlem Renaissance is at its most barebones, Black people at a crossroads. For most of the time that Black people were in the United States up until the early 20th century, they were not afforded the right to craft their own identities. Any depiction of Black people was done with either malicious or misguided intent, none of which was actually representative of the community. The literary archive that I have been looking at completely disrupts these attitudes. So as much as the Harlem Renaissance was a time of great artistic strides it was also a landmark period of reinvention for Black people in the United States. I think that adopting this perspective is imperative to fully grasp not just the art but the new forms of media that were born out of that time period. The Harlem Renaissance was extremely notable for the sheer number of Black-owned and managed media publications. The archive that we have been looking at in class features two prominent publications from the time: Crisis Magazine and Opportunity Magazine. Both of these magazines serve as some of the best visual representations of the changing tides when it came to the new Black identity and representation. Crisis Magazine, which was founded by W.E.B. DuBois through the NAACP, was one of the first Black media outlets to take the concept of the Black identity and view it through the lens of refinement. Some critiques of DuBois and Crisis Magazine, in particular its covers, have included accusations of colorism and classism because of who the magazine choose to highlight on the cover and inside the magazine. However superficial one might claim Crisis Magazine to be, with its intense focus on light skin, high-income Black people, DuBois’ decision I believe was of specific intent. In order to have curated the reinvention of Black people in America, it would have only been successful if those in charge of the new Black identity completely rejected the reality of Black people in the country and instead highlighted the idealized version of the community which manifested itself on the covers of Crisis Magazine. While Crisis Magazine focused on Black re-invention through the lens of appearance, Opportunity Magazine looked at this re-invention through the eyes of upward mobility.