Brother to Brother: The Two Struggles

            Brother to Brother tells the story of Richard Bruce Nugent, a talented yet under appreciated writer and Perry, a young art student. Perry meets Nugent while volunteering at a homeless shelter and feels an immediate fascination towards him. Throughout the movie they gain a strong bond and Nugent shares with Perry stories of his younger years. The reason for this connection is because they share the same struggle; they are both homosexual men of color. Individually those characteristics are discriminated against, but when combined the struggle for equality and respect becomes even more of a challenge. 

In the movie there are various times this struggle is apparent. For example, in one of Perry’s classes the topic of Black Political struggle is being discussed and Perry brings up the idea of black, gay men. He is immediately yelled at by fellow classmates who feel that gay has nothing to do with the struggle of African Americans. Perry, someone who has to fight for equality with both these things, feels strongly that they do yet when he tries to voice his opinion and shows a movie about homosexuality, his homophobic classmates refuse to listen. They feel the topic of homosexual's struggles is completely irrelevant to the struggles of African Americans.

Later on in the movie, while Perry is innocently walking down the street he is jumped and beaten brutally. The offenders were his classmates, the same ones who were upset when the topic of homosexuality came up. They felt strongly that the two things were separate issues, and theirs, being African Americans fighting for equality, was more important. They didn’t like that Perry, an openly gay man, even brought up the idea of both because they were so absorbed in their own struggle.

Another time this idea is seen is during one of Nugent’s stories (seen as flashbacks in the movie). In the scene James Baldwin and Eldridge Cleaver were having an argument over not only the issue of discrimination towards homosexuality but racism as well. Baldwin states, "I was spat upon because of something I couldn't control." Then goes on to say, "When blacks insulted it hurt more." in hope for sympathy and understanding, but only got the response of Cleaver yelling at him, “You let the white man f*** you in the a**, that makes you even worse!” This shows that again although Cleaver was a black man who new the struggles of discrimination, he believed that his race's struggle was different and more important than the struggle of equality for homosexuals. Not only is a gay black man shunned from the gay community for being black, but he is also isolated from the black community because of being gay. Unfortunately, the community forces these two struggles to be separated, when in reality they shouldn’t even be things people have to fight for.

In another one of his stories, Nugent tells when he, Zora Neal Hurston, Langston Hughes and Wallace Thurman created a zine called “Fire” that focused mainly on homosexuality. They thought their attempt to talk about what was until then kept quiet would be thrilling to the black community, but instead they got the opposite response. Shops were told to take them off the racks and the reviews were far from good. Although the group had thought that they were representing the unspoken ideas about homosexuality in the black community, the community wanted those ideas to remain that way. They wanted their equality to be won and didn’t want the issues of homosexuality to get in the way.

Brother to Brother showed many instances in which discrimination towards homosexuals and African Americans occurred, yet those two things were forced to be two different struggles. Richard Bruce Nugent and Perry who were trying to fight for both of them felt that equality was equality and that the whole point of it was that those things shouldn't matter. Sadly, the rest of the community felt so absorbed in their individual struggles that there wasn’t enough time to deal with both, so they forced them to remain separate struggles. 

William H. Johnson

This piece is called Moon over Harlem. It is based on the riots of 1943, when a fight broke out among a white police officer, a black woman and a black soldier and lead into an even bigger riot with deaths and injuries. Johnson chose to portray the policemen as black men, although in the real situation they were white. Johnson also shows liquor bottles thrown on the ground in order to signify that the people of Harlem where destroying themselves.

By looking at this piece, the Harlem Renaissance theme of anger at racism comes up because they are being beaten down. But after reading about what Johnson implied by this piece, I think that desire to reconstruct the meaning of "negro" shows up too. Since he is showing them drinking and brutalizing themselves through this, he is showing the importance to take a stand and change this and "reconstruct the meaning of the negro".

I chose this piece because I think it's interesting that Johnson added the liquor bottles subtly around and yet they signify so much. I didn't notice the significance of them until reading on various websites that Johnson may in fact be suggesting that they were oppressing themselves and that brings up the Harlem Renaissance theme of desire to reconstruct the meaning of "negro" which at first I wouldn't have thought of.

I really like this image, although brutal and sad, I think that the idea of it is really interesting because of the many levels of thought Johnson put into it.  I also find it interesting that Johnson chose to portray the white police officers as African American.

http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=11874

Archibald John Motley Jr

“They're not all the same color, they're not all black, they're not all, as they used to say years ago, high yellow, they're not all brown. I try to give each one of them character as individuals. And that's hard to do when you have so many figures to do, putting them all together and still have them have their characteristics” (Motley 1978)

http://www.frenchcreoles.com/CreoleCulture/famouscreoles/johnaudubon/archibald%20motley%202010.html

This piece called Nightlife, shows the inside of club in the neighborhood of Bronzeville in Chicago, often called the Black Belt. It shows African Americans dancing, playing music and serving drinks. Motley uses simple shapes with emphasized lines in order to give it movement and uses different tones and colors for movement, a mood of jazz and in order to portray the different tones of African American skin. Motley felt strongly that not all African Americans had the same skin tone so he worked with different shades in order to portray different tones and colors of people.


This piece reflects the Harlem Renaissance themes of pride because at first glance you see the joy and liveliness of all the people. It also explores the Harlem Renaissance theme of desire to reconstruct the meaning of "negro" because in this piece it is showing African Americans doing all jobs. At a lot of clubs, African Americans would play music and serve drinks for white people, but in this case they are occupying everything. 


I chose it because I think it is an interesting piece because of all the tones of color in it, then after reading about how Jones used skin color and identity I became even more fascinated by it. Along with that, I think it's interesting that there isn't really a specific image in the center, it's sort of just a cluster of people and colors. I like this technique because it sort of gives the piece an excited, busy feel, which is exactly the mood of a club. 


I really like this piece because not only is it a great example of Harlem Renaissance art, it explores different artistic techniques and is beautiful to look at as well.

http://americangallery.wordpress.com/2009/07/03/archibald-motley-jr-1891-1981/

Josephine Baker - Black is Beautiful

This video is a short biography about Josephine Baker and her dancing. Josephine Baker explored new ways of dancing, ways of the future. She is important because she was one of the first black women to become famous and make "tan skin fashionable".

I think Josephine Bakers dancing fits the Harlem Renaissance theme of Pride. She worked hard and became famous despite the oppression against her people. She must have gained a lot of satisfaction from her accomplishments. The moves were also energetic and she seemed so happy doing them.

I chose this video showing Josephine Baker dancing because I think she is a really inspirational woman who opened up so many ideas and doors in the dancing world. Baker explored new, exciting ways of dancing and proved that it doesn't matter what one's skin color is, it's their skills and determination.

Langston Hughes

February 1, 1902 - May 22, 1967

April Rain Song

Let the rain kiss you

Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops

Let the rain sing you a lullaby

The rain makes still pools on the sidewalk

The rain makes running pools in the gutter

The rain plays a little sleep song on our roof at night 

And I love the rain.

Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri but lived with is grandmother  in Kansas for most of his childhood. His grandmother was a strong believer in racial pride and passed this on to Hughes who, although he appreciated his grandmother, grew up with a sense of rejection because he didn't live with his parents. After his grandmother passed, he moved around living with his mother and step-father and occasionally his father although they didn't get along. In his eighth grade class Hughes was named class poet and throughout high school continued to write and eventually became recognized for his poems. After highschool, Hughes attended Columbia University for a year where he furthered his writing skills and began exploring ideas of the Harlem Renaissance and using rhthym and blues in his poetry. Later hughes attended Lincoln University where he had work published and earned his B.A. Hughes worked hard to depict lower class black communities in his poems and tried to steer away from prejudices formed on skin color. He was a firm believer in "Black is Beautiful" and wrote poems that explored black community and inspired many. Hughes became and acclaimed poet and author and wrote famous works about African American life and culture. I think Langston Hughes is an amazing poet. He grew up as a African American, Homosexual man and fought through the struggles of that to become a very well known poet. He must have worked very hard and in the end his work paid off because he was able to express himself. I admire him and his work and feel that he has many beautiful poems about the Harlem Renaissance, and African American culture in general.  http://www.kansasheritage.org/crossingboundaries/page6e1.html http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/april-rain-song/ http://www.geh.org/ar/strip18/htmlsrc/m197701891477_ful.html

Romare Bearden

This collage titled Out Chorus by Romare Bearden shows a group of African American men playing various jazz instruments together. Bearden played with texture and color in order to create an almost jazzy feel to this piece. It is a reflection of not only Harlem Renaissance visual art, but also music and the exploration of  combining art forms. 

Looking at this piece, various Harlem Renaissance themes come to mind such as pride and identification with race. This group of men portrayed in the piece seem to be happily be playing their instruments and most likely feeling a sense of pride about it. It relects identifaction with race because as you can see they are all coming together in a group and identifying with each other through music and culture. 

I chose this piece at first because I like all the texture and how in the back it almost feels like the red circular texture is the jazzy music being played.  Aside from finding it aesthetically pleasing, I also think it is good reflection of Harlem Renaissance artwork.

I really like this piece. I think it's pleasing to the eye and the fact that it's a collage makes it much more interesting to me. I think this piece is well done and a good example of Harlem Renaissance art.

http://faculty.dwc.edu/wellman/black_collage_in_the_arts.htm

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