Hot off the Press

“FIRE … flaming, burning, searing, and penetrating far beneath the superficial items of the flesh to boil the sluggish blood.”

This is how the legendary magazine Fire!! begins. Some of the best and brightest African-American artists of the Harlem Renaissance created their stories, poems, plays, artwork, and essays to stir your blood. They didn’t want you to just read but also to feel their art!

The Harlem Renaissance was a rebirth of African-American culture that lasted mainly between 1920 and 1930. It began in Harlem, New York City, but it influenced Black artists in other places like Paris. It embraced every art form, from music to literature to art.

Fire!! was founded by many of the artists that were featured in its pages. They wanted to challenge the older ideas and give a place for new ones. These artists included poet Langston Hughes, novelist and playwright Zora Neale Hurston, novelist Wallace Thurman (also the editor), and poet Countee Cullen. The American painter Aaron Douglas created all of the artwork, including the cover above.

One of the poems by Hughes is “Elevator Boy,” which focuses on the reality of African-American employment at that time.

I got a job now
Runnin’ an elevator
In the Dennison Hotel in Jersey,
Job aint no good though.
No money around.
Jobs are just chances
Like everything else.
Maybe a little luck now,
Maybe not.
Maybe a good job sometimes:
Step out o’ the barrel, boy.
Two new suits an’
A woman to sleep with.
Maybe no luck for a long time.
Only the elevators
Goin’ up an’ down,
Up an’ down,
Or somebody else’s shoes
To shine,
Or greasy pots in a dirty kitchen.
I been runnin’ this
Elevator too long.
Guess I’ll quit now.

Hurston shares a short play (“Color Struck”) and a story (“Sweat”). Both of these explore relationship dynamics. The play also looks at intra-racial bias within the African-American community.

Part of Fire!!‘s fame lies in the fact that there was only one issue. Sales for it were low, and reception was poor. Some found it offensive because a few pieces dealt with prostitution and homosexuality. Other people disliked the use of Black slang (found in Hurston’s contributions). Probably the final, and ironic, nail in the coffin for Fire!! was that its headquarters went up in flames. Perhaps the magazine was just too hot for the times.

We are lucky to have it.

This post was contributed by Carla Foust, a Distributed Proofreaders volunteer.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 1st, 2023 at 12:01 am and is filed under Book Review. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.