“I am well-aware of how much FIRE! has ruffled DuBois’ feathers. But you tell him this the next time you see him. It’s the art of the people that needs to be cultivated, not the art of the “respectability-obsessed” black middle class. I reject his call for “socially responsible and uplifting art!” Art should be rooted in self-expression not propaganda. We are not prophets, we’re poets! Shall we preach or sing? “Beauty” is its best Priest and Psalms will be more effective than sermons. When all is said and done, you cannot expect art to answer or solve sociological or anthropological questions!!! We are determined to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame!” –Wallace Thurman

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FIRE!! Its publication was a Historical Event
and helped launch the Harlem Renaissance!

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ADAPTORS NOTES:

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FIRE!!, was conceived with the notion of expressing the African American experience during the Harlem Renaissance in a modern and realistic way, using literature as a vehicle of enlightenment. The authors of this magazine wanted an arena to express the changing attitudes of younger African Americans and used Fire!! to facilitate the exploration of issues in the Black community that were not in the forefront of mainstream African American society such as homosexuality, bisexuality, interracial relationships, promiscuity, prostitution, and color prejudice, within the Black community itself. The publication was named, according to Langston Hughes, “to burn up a lot of the old, dead conventional Negro-white ideas of the past ... into a realization of the existence of the younger Negro writers and artists, and provide us with an outlet for publication not available in the limited pages of the small Negro magazines then existing.”

 

Ironically,the magazine’s headquarters burned to the ground shortly after releasing its first issue.

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from: SMOKE LILIES AND JADE (a novel)​​

by Richard Bruce

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"Aex walked music...and the click of his heels kept time with a tune in his mind... 

...someone was approaching...and their echoes mingled . . . and gave the sound of castanets...Alex liked the sound of the approaching man’s footsteps...he walked music also...he knew the beauty of the narrow blue...Alex knew that by the way their echoes mingled...he wished he would speak...but strangers don’t speak at four o’clock in the morning...at least if they did he couldn’t imagine what would be said...maybe pardon me but are you walking toward the stars. . . yes, sir, ...then may I walk with you I want to reach the stars too..."

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