Transnational Aesthetics in “Harlem: Mecca of the New Negro”

Abstract

This paper examines the transnational dimensions of the March 1925 issue of Survey Graphic, the “Harlem: Mecca of the New Negro” issue that eventually led to the publication of Alain Locke’s New Negro Anthology. The paper examines this text by looking at the work of German artist Winold Reiss, who largely influenced artist Aaron Douglas; Jamaican author W.A. Domingo; Jamaican poet Claude McKay; and Puerto Rican-German author Arthur A. Schomburg. This paper contends that as transnational actors, Black artists were just as responsible for contributing to the purportedly all-white European culture that they inherited in the United States as they were for creating the hybrid African American forms that are inherent elements in all American culture.