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Sat, 20 Apr 2024 11:41:07 -0500

We sought out the exhibit, The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism, a comprehensive exhibition. There was much about familiar names like Langston Hughes and others. The surprise for me was muralist Aaron Douglas, of Fisk University, who here depicts exploited Black labor through multiple civilizations. There was great debate in the "New Negro" movement in the 1930's whether to embrace cultural traditions grounded in Africa and indigenous Black life, a view espoused by the Urban League, or work with imagery infused with the academic tradition that commanded respect by established authorities. W.E.B. Dubois and the NAACP are said to be associated with the latter view.