In Survey Graphic, non-fiction essays about Harlem and the black experience are placed side-by-side with imaginative and fictive work like the journal’s many poems and illustrations. Both kinds of work seem to be given equal importance on the page, serving the common goal of enlightening the reader on “modern” black life in Harlem. Though creative works and non-fiction works are often separated, with non-fiction seen as more “true” and superior, Survey Graphic shows how they can work in tandem. But why emphasize fiction and imagination in a journal that is ultimately meant to reflect some of the seriousness of the black experience? Why are made-up works like poems and illustrations necessary for readers to learn more about Harlem and the New Negro?

In his essay “Harlem” in Survey Graphic, Alain Locke answers some of these questions. “American Negroes have been a race more in name than in fact, or to be exact, more in sentiment than in experience. The chief bond between them has been that of a common condition rather than a common consciousness; a problem in common rather than a life in common. In Harlem, Negro life is seizing upon its first chances for group expression and self-determination.” writes Locke. Here, Locke not only touches on what is happening culturally in Harlem during the Harlem renaissance, but also helps explain why Survey Graphic, and many other works from the Harlem renaissance, focus intently on fiction and imagination. Locke sees Harlem as an opportunity for black people to create their own unique identity out of the struggles of their past. Harlem, as the “Mecca of the New Negro” is the center of this creation. Because so little has been offered to black people, in places like Harlem, they are crafting a new sense of self for the future. Instead of simply presenting a journal full of essays and research, Survey Graphic showcases the imagination and ingenuity found in black creative life at this time, like poems by Claude McKay and Langston Hughes.