On the second day of the lab, I looked at a facsimile of the literary magazine, Fire!!. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know this archive. It is one of a kind—the only literary magazine of its time created by and for African Americans, and the only issue the magazine ever printed. Unfortunately, Fire!! was not well received. Specifically, distinct, Black intellectuals did not like the way these writers and artists depicted Black Culture—a similar kind of criticism that Langston Hughes received. Hughes’ poetry appears inside this issue, in fact. The magazine broadly covers many of the same themes witnessed inside The Weary Blues.
The editor, Wallace Thurman, makes it clear in the two notes he included that he and the contributors’ main goal was to sketch a picture of Harlem (1926). The writing and artwork are honest and raw, in an effort to be true to reality rather than overly romanticize, or negate the ‘negative’ aspects of Black life during the Harlem Renaissance. I was able to skim most of the writings included in the magazine during the brief time I spent with it, and it is an incredible depiction of the revival of African American art, writing, and music. That is not to say that African American art ever died, rather, that, this was a period of ecstatic explosion following the urban movement of “the great migration” which facilitated a sense of liberation and community—A hot spot for creative expression.
The three images above: The Forward (unique and important); two poems by Edward Silvera—the top one is incredibly representative of the magazine’s overarching theme, and the second was a personal favorite; a drawing by Richard Bruce that I enjoyed.
Great work, Beth!!