The New Negro by Alain LeRoy Locke — Read

On Sunday, February 6, 1927, Locke walked up to the podium at the New Art Circle Gallery at 35 West 57th Street and prepared to deliver his remarks at the New York opening of the Blondiau-Theatre Arts Collection of "primitive African sculpture and craft art." Tired after years of fighting for his job back at Howard-Du Bois's letter to Moorland was still three months in the future-Locke had decided to become a curator and enter the business of collecting and exhibiting art and antiquities. During his trip the previous summer to Europe, Locke had carried out a mission for Edith Isaacs, editor of Theatre Arts Monthly, and purchased with her money a collection of African art from Belgian diplomat Roaul Blondiau, who had served for years in the Congo. After months of preparing this special exhibit, catalog copy, press releases, and promotional articles, Locke stood before a small audience principally of White women and men, who had come out on this cold Sunday afternoon to learn more about the craze for things African in New York.

The year 1927 was an auspicious one to open this exhibit, as the style negre was everywhere in the modernist world. African designs adorned modern furniture, sets and plays for the theater, and art by Ferdinand Leger and Alberto Giacometti. The previous year, Locke had met Mrs. Isaacs in connection with an article he had written on the Negro in American theater that mentioned the rise of African themes. Taboo, a play by Mary Hoyt Wiborg, starring Paul Robeson, had been a minor hit in New York in 1922 largely because of its African theme and costumes. Eugene O'Neill, the famous author of Emperor Jones and All God's Chillun Got Wings, had a collection of African art. Locke had convinced Mrs. Isaacs to fund his trip to Europe during the summer of 1926 to purchase a collection of roughly one thousand works of Congo art-an example of Locke's resourcefulness in finding ways to fund his European trips while he was unemployed. After purchasing the collection, shipping it to New York, and finding a suitable gallery to exhibit it, Locke had also co-curated what was the first exhibit of African art at a commercial gallery in New York. And it was the first such exhibit of African art organized by an African American, who made sure the audience received a New Negro interpretation of its meaning and importance.