Posted on Field Trips (Met, Met: Afrofuturist Room, Schomburg, Uncategorized

Contemporary: Trip To The Met

Last Thursday we explored Schomburg, Harlem at the Met Museum. What caught our group’s eye was the TV in the center of the Schomburg exhibit. The ideas that our groups expressed was the idea of the play on words on the saying “the revolution will not be televised’. The term was coined by musician Gil Scott Heron in 1971. The saying means in order to move forward, you need to understand the past that was uncaptured. The design of the TV had five sides televising the same thing, which perhaps is meant to represent seeing the situation at every different angle. To add on to that, we could relate this to the trope of the New Negro article that emphasizes the importance of black representation in the media. What the room represents is preserving one’s self despite being in a changing environment

Gil Scott-Heron- The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnJFhuOWgXg

Posted on Black Digital Humanities, Debates in Digital Humanities 2016: Making a Case for Black Digital Humanities” by Kim Gallon, Hot Take or Short Blog Post Response

Contemporary: Hot Take on Black Digital Humanities

My Hot Take will be focused on the book “Making a Case for Black Digital Humanities” by Kim Gallon. This reading was one I found very fascinating, and I learned about the concept of Black Digital Humanities, which is the intersection of Black studies and digital humanities. The article had a lot to say about how black digital humanities can help to unmask the racialized systems of authority at work in how we know the digital humanities as a field and use its associated practices. Gallon makes the claim that the black digital humanities would have us rethink the political relations that have racialized the scholarly, philosophy, and historic texts that we examine.

Posted on Blog Post #5, Fire!!, Passing (2021) directed by Rebecca Hall, Passing by Nella Larsen (the novel), Uncategorized

The Theme of the Gaze in Works of Literature from the Harlem Renaissance

Throughout these readings, the gaze and one’s perception and awareness of other individuals is a prominent theme. In the story of “Cordelia the Crude”, Cordelia is a young and promiscuous girl with the potential of being a prostitute and no more than that. She doesn’t work or go to school, and she spends her nights in theatres going out and sleeping with strange men. Until she encounters a young man who is kind to her and gives her money for nothing in return. This young man perceives Cordelia differently than she perceives herself. The gaze in this story is represented from perspective of a supporting character, the young man. He views Cordelia differently. In the reading from “Fire” the young man describes seeing Cordelia in a place where he feels as she doesn’t belong. It was written, “And there I saw Cornelia savagely careening in a drunken abortion of the Charleston”. (Thurman,6). Being written from his perspective strengthened the idea that this young man thought more of her than just a sex object but for what she really was. As well as there existing a paradigm of the gaze from this young man, I think this story has another example of the theme of the gaze being prominent in “Cornelia the Crude”. It is believed that the self-perception of black individuals was a key factor in there likely to be successful and productive. I think Cornelia was impacted by the how the young man treated her. In this time period and even today, many black youths seem to lead undisciplined and reckless lives due to several factors but none other than self-perception. The reading states about Cordelia, “…, sixteen years old, matronly matured, was an undisciplined, half-literate, product of rustic South Carolina…”. (Thurman,5). Cornelia’s upbringing and childhood didn’t prepare her to amount to much and led her to start her life down the wrong path. With no interest in education, work, or anything productive. It wasn’t until the young man gave her the two dollars when she realized she could make a living of her the promiscuous lifestyle she was living. Meaning she was influenced by how she perceived herself from the beginning to go down the wrong path and when given the opportunity to make a living with that crude lifestyle she takes it. I think her perception of herself is what led Cordelia to make the choices she made. And I think this is where the gaze is a relevant theme.

Similarly, the gaze is represented in a story of African American life in Nella Larsen’s “Passing”. In this text, a light skinned black woman named Clare earns the status of passing off as white/Caucasian due to her light complexion. She lives life as a white woman with almost no one knowing her secret. Disregarding her identity and her integrity as a black person she joins sides with a race that wouldn’t accept her if they knew the truth. In the reading it describes Clare as, “…Clare Kendry cared nothing for the race. She only belonged to it…”. (Larsen,90). In this text, the gaze is characterized through expounding the societal view of individuals and their status in society based on their racial and ethnic characteristics. There are several driving factors in what makes people view other individuals this way in this story such as racism, prejudice, and colorism. Jack, who is Clare’s husband who is unsuspecting of her secret passes around small racial jokes at her due to her darkening skin complexion. James once said, “Well, you see, it’s like this. When we were first married, she was as white as—as—well as white as a lily. But I declare she’s gettin’ darker and darker. I tell her if she don’t look out, she’ll wake up one of these days and find she’s turned into a nigger.” (Larsen,67). The theme of the gaze is prevalent with Clare and how she is perceived by others because she sacrifices her integrity and identity to be accepted into a group of people who wouldn’t stop to think of mistreating her for her color.

Citation:
Thurman,Wallace. 1926.”Cordelia The Crude”.(pp.5-6)
Larsen,Nella.1929.”Passing”.(pp.67)(pp.90)

Posted on Blog Post #3, Opportunity Magazine, Survey Graphic: Harlem Mecca of the New Negro, Uncategorized

Harlem: A Safe Haven of Opportunity

As James Wheldon Johnson described it in “The Making of Harlem”, Harlem was quite possibly the greatest Negro city in the world for the era of the Harlem Renaissance. It was the ground at which African Americans saw a revival of their culture and made progress like never before. The demographical details of black neighborhoods during this era were described in Kelly Miller’s “Where is the Negro Heaven”. As Harlem transformed, so did other cities with black populations. Economic and social progress was seen. In the article, Millers emphasizes, “These were days of sudden and swift transformation for black folk. Lucky Negros were translated from the corn field to congress.” This statement is from a man who was born to former slave parents. Kelly Miller himself was a prominent figure in the intellectual life of African Americans for close to half a century. It was African Americans who descended from the very bottom like him who built Harlem by defying what was expected of them as being descendants of slaves. Harlem thrived with excellence. While reading his article, I knew I was reading the experience of those who built Harlem during the Harlem Renaissance from a firsthand source. When Miller spoke of the Negro involvement in Washington or politicians like John Herman, you can tell he was a part of the contribution.

The social progress African Americans went through from being slaves to aristocrats was elaborated in “A Biographical Sketch of Archibald H. Grimke” from the Opportunity. This was a short autobiography of an African American man who was born into slavery and made it to several top tier colleges including Harvard. This man was Archibald H. Grimke, and he became a well-known lawyer, diplomat, journalist, and activist. The autobiography was written by Grimke’s own daughter who in the next century was leading a life as a writer. This passage stood out to me because it described the journey of a figure of the Harlem Renaissance as he went from a former slave to a successful aristocrat. It is life stories like this that tell us what the Harlem Renaissance and the impact it has on American society and the way the perceived and felt about African Americans. Archibald H. Grimke and his story is somewhat symbolic the idea of the social progress of African Americans. Through my lens, I think if it wasn’t for places like Harlem, which serve as a safe haven for black people, Grimke wouldn’t have been able to accomplish all of the things he accomplished to full ability. Grimke was a lawyer, diplomat, journalist, and community leader. That is impressive and so inspiring.

Alain Locke, possibly the most well known and most prolific writer of the Harlem Renaissance, annotates and writes about a Belgian artist named August Mambour in the Opportunity. This passage was very thought-provoking because Mambour was an artist that contributed to African American expression. His paintings had African American artistic inspiration and style. Locke acknowledges this art style and speaks on how Mambour making his art was a moral and spiritual penetration into African life. Alain Locke describes Mambour saying, “August Mambour’s grasp upon the Negro subject is deeper than that of a marvelous technical control, and to that extent he, with many others, is a debtor of one whom he owes no direct artistic technical debt or influences”. Locke is complimenting the idea that artists should have a free exchange of ideas. He also says that a white artist like Mambour digging from African American inspiration is how society should function. With there existing acknowledgement of African American creativity and artists of different races not feeling restricted from drawing inspiration from each other’s art. I think this was a very honorable thing of Locke to say. Especially during this time period where races stayed divided from one another. Mambour, a white artist, drawing inspiration from Black art. Locke, a black writer, analyzing and annotating Mambour’s work. The way Locke was describing Mambour’s painting resonated with me and made me curious to go view it myself. It does seem to stem from Black inspirations.

Harlem Renaissance - Definition, Artists & How It Started - HISTORY

Harlem Renaissance | Definition, Artists, Writers, Poems, Literature, & Facts | Britannica

Harlem during this Renaissance was a cultural mecca. These items from the Opportunity hold the experiences and journey of African Americans as they went from (how Millers would call it) the corn field to congress. These items tell us the social progress that was made by these people as well as the progress they had on society. Not only was it a cultural mecca Harlem was also a state of opportunity. Where there were ambitious and hungry creators of African descent, there weren’t many places where they could have the full advantage working as they would in a place like Harlem. It helped these artists and writers lay their foundation to their full potential and gain more control over their business and the industries they worked in.

Citations:

Grimke, Angelina A. February 1925. “A Biographical Sketch of Archibald H. Grimke”. “Opportunity” (pp.44)

Locke, Alain. August 1925. “The Art of August Mambour”. “Opportunity” (pp. 240)

Miller, Kelly. December 1926. “Where is the Negro Heaven”. “Opportunity” (pp. 370)

Posted on Blog post #1, Crisis Magazine, Uncategorized

The Power of the Crisis

The Crisis was a unique publication for its time. This magazineshowed the insight into the experiences and lives of a group of people who for most of American history were held down by a racial caste system. In America, people of African descent were outcasted by the society, seen as people who couldn’t become like the well-off. They worked menial jobs as housekeepers and janitors and weren’t expected to amount to a more affluent lifestyle. The Crisis shuts down these types of stereotypes by showing there could be a bright side to the black experience in America through their covers. The covers of this magazine have depicted the black experience in America as not how it was stereotypically expected to be but with an implication that there will be a new life for Black Americans in America. The covers were the face of this new Black America. These covers did marvels by defeating stereotypes of lower-class African Americans. People didn’t expect to see African Americans in graduation caps and being proud of and having their own culture. These covers were for two groups of people. The first group is the African Americans, so they could see themselves as more than what they were expected to be. An African American working a menial job, making not very much money, and not knowing much of their own history beyond slavery could see themselves as more than an underclassman and could see themselves prospering and living better lives. The second group of people that the Crisis magazine covers are for are the typical non-black American citizens. These groups of people expect not much from African Americans, rather than being people without any history, prosperity, or success. When people like this see the covers of the Crisis publication, they stop believing these types of negative stereotypes and see what the Black experience in America is really like.

For this publication, they had a few advantages that African Americans at the time didn’t have and that was owning the new and advanced printing technologies that were required to make this magazine very successful. For the Crisis and W.E.B. DuBois, advantages such as this gave the lower-class political insight and increased the professionalism of the magazine and made it more popular. According to Donal Harris, Dubois took advantage of the benefits new print technologies can have in creating a successful publication. With these characteristics, The Crisis was able to make implications of a new form of black representation and promote the image of “The New Negro” and destroy genre stereotypes. Dubois did however face some challenges while commanding this publication. Dubois had some solemn concerns.  Dolan Harris writes, “…he voiced his concern about the wide gap between the quantity and quality of magazines available, particularly regarding their ability to instill substantive intellectual discourse or political change.” Dubois was worried about several things, such as if the Crisis was reaching a serious and wide enough audience, and if the magazine provides intelligent and substantial information and will this information be strong enough to spark political change.