In 1926 Wallace Thurman and Zora Neale Hurston, along with
other Harlem writers and artists published a literary magazine called, Fire!!. The magazine was not
widely accepted and was even offensive to some because they focused on Negros
who were not part of the mainstream society by exploring homosexuality,
prostitution and interracial sexuality. In the movie, Brother to Brother, Thurman and Hurston
are shown meeting with a white publisher who was thinking about publishing
their magazine, but had a few changes in mind
With illustrations from such great artist like Aaron
Douglas, and Writing from greatly talented wordsmiths like Langston Hughes, its
no wonder the magazine got attention from the publisher but the radical content
was not so appealing. The publisher thought that if they toned down the
homosexuality and "translated the negro language" the magazine would
be a great success. His justification was that it was such an outrageous
and unacceptable topic, that nobody was going to buy it, or even understand it
for that matter. The publisher
says that “the public wants danger, sex and violence”. It needed to be more appealing to a
wider audience. Thurman and Hurston weren't too keen on the idea. As a matter of fact, they were livid.
They thought that this was something that the world needed to hear about, and
they were sick and tired of being constantly being oppressed. Thurman believes that that type of
story was not relevant. He didn’t
want to please the audience if it meant damaging his pride in any way. The whole point of Fire!! was to show people what it was really like in the Harlem
renaissance and changing the style would defeat the purpose. The publisher also tells Thurman that
“Negros have insight into the world that whites never get.” But Thurman still fought for his
beliefs and did not change his style.
The publisher tells Hurston that her voice “needs to change from
vernacular to white English.” She
tells the publisher that, “the Zine is for my people and they’ll understand
it.” She did not want to please
the white people, she wanted to please her own people. She wanted to expose the stereotypes
about African Americans. She wanted
to write something that was authentic.
I believe that Thurman and Hurston made the right choice by
never tried to be people that they weren’t just to make some money. It was clear that their pride and love
for Harlem was far more important than any amount of money. The theme of pride is strong throughout
the entire movie and this scene especially. Thurman and Hurston never jeopardized their pride and they
stayed true to who they were inside.
They were strong and brave and extremely admirable.
