New Errands: The Undergraduate Journal of American Studies
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The Harlem Renaissance: A Cultural, Social, and Political Movement
Full text linkThe Harlem Renaissance was an explosion of creativity and culture within New York City\u27s African American community in the 1920s, however, its true impact far surpassed a mere cultural movement. It was the locus for the radicalization and politicization for a disenfranchised population. The creative minds behind the Harlem Renaissance used artistic expression to prove their_humanity_and demand equality from an often hostile white America. The literal migration of southern Blacks to the North also symbolized a mental shift, changing the previous image of the rural, uneducated AfricanAmerican to one of urban, cosmopolitan sophistication. This new identity led to increased social consciousness, and endowed a population that until this time had only experienced inferiority and depravity. This movement provided a source of release of their oppression and gave them hope, faith, and inspiration to create an empowered identity. This new movement wasn\u27t just a coincidence, however, it was driven by several key circumstances and figures, and among the most important of these was Charles Spurgeon Johnson. He, with the support of philosopher and professor Alain LeRoy Locke, guided the emergence of AfricanAmerican culture into whitedominated society, and this effort was formally and symbolically launched through their orchestration of the Civic Club Dinner in Manhattan on March 21st, 1924
Silhouetted Stereotypes in the Art of Kara Walker
Full text linkKara Walker explores traditional narratives of race and gender power dynamics in her black and white silhouette installations. By presenting most figures in the same black color, racial and individual features are realized through detail. The theme of consumption is prevalent in Walker\u27s work, such as the consumption of people as products in the slave trade as well as the consumption of breast milk in modern versions of the Madonna lactans. Walker\u27s work draws on traditional intersections of race, class, and gender dynamics to create an original commentary on the cultural consumption of materials, beings, and art. Despite this commentary, Walker does not offer a clear stance on these issues and leaves the audience without a resolution to her shocking silhouettes
Opera in 20th Century America: Overcoming the Racialization of Sound
Full text linkThe summer of 2015 will bring a revival of Voodoo, a Harlem Renaissance opera by H. Lawrence Freeman, in its first performance since its 1928 premiere. It is being revived by the Harlem Opera Theater at the Miller Theater at Columbia University. The opera was the first opera written by an African-American produced in the United States. Advertised at its premier as "A Negro Jazz Opera" (Poster, 1928, H. Lawrence Freeman Papers), the opera is set on a Louisiana plantation just after the Civil War. It focuses on a love triangle between three former slaves, one of whom turns to voodoo and magic to win the affection of her lover and to be rid of her rival. The opera combines western classical music with passages of period dance music, and includes re-settings of several AfricanAmerican spirituals, such as "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot"(H. L. Freeman, 1914, Voodoo Manuscript, H. Lawrence Freeman Papers). Written, conducted, played, and sung by African-Americans, Freeman\u27s opera uses elements of Grand Opera-- the fusion of the vital elements of music, drama and dancecombined with rhythms and melodies of jazz and African-American music-- to challenge what I want to suggest is the constructed racialization of sound. Examining the preserved papers of H. Lawrence Freeman, I will explore and undermine the racialized properties of the history of sound and music, using Eric Lott\u27s Love & Theft, a historical and theoretical study of blackface minstrelsy in America, as a jumping off point. Shawn MarieGarrett\u27s article, "Return of the Repressed" will guide me through my analysis of H. L. Freeman and his African-American contemporaries, who deracialized sound by asking the questions what is black? What is white
Disrupting and Reimagining the Workplace through Casual Fridays
Full text linkImagine every Monday through Friday, from nine to five every week, putting on formal business wear as you head to the office or classroom. If you are a woman, you make sure to put on your pantyhose and heels, matched with your pencil skirt and conservative button down, ironed blouse. If you are a man, you find your cuff-links, tie your tie, and make sure your suit is freshly ironed and your shoes freshly shined. As you enter into your workplace\u27s formal atmosphere, all of your peers and superiors wear the same outfit. You immediately fee the importance of looking fancy to reflect the professionalism of the company for which you work. The person who comes in with their shirt wrinkled or their hair unkempt is stigmatized; their co-workers wonder why they would come to work in such a sloppy manner. This institutional behavior that has defined corporate America for decades has been disrupted by a folk ritual that changes the office structure
Lifting the Curtain: How Lin-Manuel Miranda Challenged West Side Story\u27s Cultural Stereotypes
Full text linkFour Tony Awards, including Best Musical. A Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album. Anomination for the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Lin-Manuel Miranda did not quietly emerge, but rather,exploded onto the theatrical scene. His debut musical, In The Heights (2008), swept Broadway and catapultedMiranda onto center stage. The diversification of Broadway theatre over the prior decade had providedMiranda with a stage upon which to showcase both the plight and the rich culture of the Latino community inWashington Heights, New York. He seized this opportunity, creating a vibrant cityscape by employing anontraditional score of rap and Latin music to invoke the foot-tapping pulse intrinsic to the Latino community.However, Miranda\u27s mission went beyond entertainment to a deep-rooted desire to use the Broadway spotlightto dispel commonly accepted, cultural stereotypes of Latino immigrants. While the characters portrayed in theplay trace their roots to Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, Miranda\u27s message could beextrapolated to other Latino nationalities. Success often attracts criticism and some critics accused Miranda ofdepicting an idealized picture of life in Washington Heights. While these critics may have been correct, theoverwhelming acclaim for In The Heights served to validate Miranda\u27s goal of creating positive roles for Latinothespians and mitigating negative stereotypes of Latinos generally. His success was all the more poignant as the play was showcased in a traditionally white space. Lifting The Curtain: How Lin-Manuel Miranda Challenged West Side Story\u27s Cultural Stereotypes by Schuyler Ritchie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licens
Building the Bridge Between Advertising and Social Change
Full text linkThe Internet has increased the media\u27s presence in the lives of Americans by way of social media and video streaming websites. As Americans continue to access endless streams of media content, they are also constantly inundated with advertisements. Whether they are tucked away on the side of a webpage, embedded in newsfeeds, or unavoidable interruptions before video clips, advertisements have become significant in the everyday lives of Americans. Not only are they significant in frequency of appearance, but more importantly, as products of media, they possess meaningful cultural value. Scholar, Douglas Kellner rightfully argues that media and advertising provide the tools for us to forge our identities; our notions of gender, class, ethnicity and race, nationality, sexuality, and of \u27us\u27 and \u27them.\u27 Media images help shape our view of the world and our deepest values…and how to conform to the dominant system of norms, values, practices, and institutions"1(Kellner, 7). Due to the significant roles that media and advertising play in individuals identity formation and worldviews, it is necessary to consider the role that ads play in reproducing or maintaining hegemony. Utilizing James Lull\u27s definition of hegemony as "power or dominance that one social group has over others2" (Lull, 33), scholars have argued that advertisers, employed in an industry motivated by profit and once labeled as, "hidden persuaders," have worked in favor of maintaining hegemony and the dominant ideology. (For the purposes of this paper, the dominant group is considered as being comprised of White, middle to upper class men who would like to maintain a capitalist based, patriarchal society and hegemony.) Historically, media corporations and advertising agencies have engaged in exclusive employment decisions by hiring mostly White, middle to upper-class males to fill executive positions. The business sector also has a history of being dominated by White men. Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude that corporations utilize the media as "tools to perpetuate their power, wealth and status3" (Lull, 33). However, despite the instinct to conclude that media corporations, belonging to and controlled by the dominant group, use their power to reproduce hegemony, recent advertisements challenge this assumption. Building the Bridge Between Advertising and Social Change by Jaquelin Salg is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licens
Irving Penn: Preserving the Myth of the American Woman
Full text linkMarlene Dietrich blew into Irving Penn\u27s Fifth Avenue studio to have her portrait taken for a 1948 issue of Vogue. "The first thing she said was \u27you have to put the light there!\u27 I said, \u27Now, look: in this experience you be Dietrich and I\u27ll be the photographer.\u27 And, boy, she was boiled, but she stayed with it"(Fielden). To Penn\u27s bewilderment, Dietrich ultimately was unhappy with the portrait and the next time she saw him she, "turned on her heel" and walked the other way (Fielden). Dietrich was a new brand of American celebrity. She had made a name for herself by bending the rules of gender representation, often wearing men\u27s clothing in sexually provocative settings (Chauncey). To "be Dietrich" is for Marlene to control her self-presentation and expression. To forgo her agency is for her to hand her identity to its capturer. In his portrait of Marlene Dietrich, Irving Penn controls Dietrich\u27s presentation thereby manipulating her identity and imposing an unwarranted sense of shame onto her body forcing her to conform to the myth of the midcentury American woman
Changes in Advertisements During the Civil War
Full text linkThe Civil War was a time when uncertainty was high. No one knew what was going to happen to them. The families that were left behind during the war were uncertain if they were going to be forced out of their house and left with no place to go, or even worse they are left to die. The men were off at war… How would a family survive if they have no income and children to feed or have to pay for a doctor to come to the house and administer medicine for a sickly child? The soldiers had their doubts about whether or not they were going to live through the next battle that they were fighting in and whether or not they were going to be able to survive an injury if one occurred. The men that fought in the war had their doubts and were uncertain if they were even going to make it home to their families. They also had to deal with the fact that they could come home to their entire family being deceased or the family had to move to a new area and they were not able to communicate where they are now living. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licens
Evacuees, Refugees, or Internally Displaced Persons: How Labels Perpetuate Dominant Ideological Hierarchies in the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina
Full text linkThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License