Opening Reception: “Beauty Unadorned: ‘Fire!!’ and the Harlem Renaissance”
- When
- Thursday, November 12, 20264:30 PM – 6:00 PM ESTAdd to calendarGoogle Calendar
- Where
- Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library121 Wall Street, New Haven, CT 06511Open in Maps
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About
“Beauty Unadorned: ‘Fire!!’ and the Harlem Renaissance” celebrates the centennial of the Harlem Renaissance experimental magazine “Fire!!.” The first and only issue appeared on November 15, 1926, and is remembered for its transgression of the era’s social codes, its formal experimentation, and its unabashed manifesto embracing Black art for art’s sake.
“Fire!!” reflected the ethos and vision of the younger generation of the New Negro movement — including Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Wallace Thurman — who insisted on their artistic freedom, without concern for the older generation’s preoccupation with respectability. The exhibition showcases correspondence, early written drafts, photographs, and artworks from these writers and thinkers as well as other contributors and friends, drawn from Beinecke Library’s James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection.
Curator: Melissa Barton, American Literature
Please join us on Thursday, November 12, 2026, for the joint opening celebration of “Beauty Unadorned: “Fire!!” and the Harlem Renaissance,” and the exhibitions “Cave Canem: A Home for Black Poetry, ”and “Satire, Sympathy, and Social Critique: William Hogarth's Progress Prints.”
Remarks begin at 4:30 p.m. This event is free and open to the public.