As a result of a collaboration between classes in the English and the History departments, as well as the Rare Books Library at URochester, a new exhibition centering on the one-time magazine FIRE!! will be on display starting May 4, 2026.
This year is the centennial anniversary of the magazine FIRE!!, and in celebration of this, two cases that will be displayed in Lam Square and the Rare Books Library of Rush Rhees will boast various, mostly first-edition, works by the writers and editors of the 1926 magazine come opening day. These texts include everything from Countee Cullen’s first book of poetry to Arthur Huff Fauset’s “Folklore from Nova Scotia,” which explores folklore, tales, and vernacular speech from the rural black communities in Nova Scotia in the 1920s, to a first edition copy of Alain Locke’s “The New Negro,” which appeared in last year’s pop-up exhibition that celebrated its 100th anniversary.
The exhibit centers around the one-time publication FIRE!!, formed by famous writers, essayists, and artists, which rose to prominence during the 1920s in the Harlem Renaissance. These figures include the poet Langston Hughes whose extensive body of work influenced writers all through the 20th century, including Lorraine Hansberry, the writer of one of America’s most produced and studied plays: “A Raisin in the Sun.”
Alongside the texts found in the cases, there will be QR codes that will take readers to student-written essays that explore chosen aspects of the text and how they pertain to FIRE!! These have been written by students in Professor Matthew Omelsky’s Intro to African American Literature class. The students each chose a text and spent time in the Rare Books and Special Collections reading and working on forming connections between their piece and FIRE!!, as well as drawing in secondary material to educate both themselves and those that will view the exhibit.
As Omelsky said over email, the public will have the opportunity to learn important context and history attached “to the different forms of Black cultural expression we encounter in the world today” through the exhibit. Many of the themes explored in the attached essays appear in cultural and academic conversations today, making both the writers and their texts relevant in more ways than simply whom they inspired. Professor Chambliss, instructor of Gateway to History: The Harlem and Black Chicago Renaissances, pointed out that “the combination of literary and historical analysis [will] help to illuminate this period.”
The contents of each case were selected by the students themselves, as was the layout of the texts within the case. Chambliss’ class “researched related primary source documents to reconstruct the movement’s social context,” she said in an email exchange. Her class also wrote essays about primary sources that they researched from the same period attached via QR codes that appear in the cases. The labels that give a very brief overview of each piece were composed by Omelsky’s students.
More than just a research opportunity, this exhibit allows students to write for more than just their professor. In order to make the works accessible to all kinds of readers, students needed to reframe their writing and argument skills. In doing so, the exhibits help to push Rare Books and Special Collections onto center stage.
Kabron Tadios, a student of Chambliss’ class, reflected on what she gained from the class: “With every source I read, I learned something that shaped and reshaped how I saw the movement. I’ve also found a new appreciation for archives and the work it takes to piece together a cohesive history from fragments left behind from the specific era.”
