About
This March, the 8th graders at Juniata Park Academy participated in an Arts push-in project within their Social Studies classes. Using what they learned through their research on the Harlem Renaissance, students created zines highlighting the prominent creators, artists, and scholars they studied.
After watching a short presentation, JPA's creative 8th graders began to work in groups to create their own zines! It was up to them to decide what facts were most important from their research, and how to present them in a visual way.
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Students used collage, word art, illustration, writing, and even cut paper in their zines. Head to the Student Work page to see the awesome results.
Why Zines?
Zines have become a form of art that encourages creatives of all disciplines to collaborate.
They can be full of writing, photos, lyrics, illustrations, poetry, collage...the list goes on and on! Zines are known for their ability to be easily reproduced at a low cost, making communication accessible to all.
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The Harlem Renaissance was an African-American cultural movement--an "intellectual, social, and artistic explosion"--based out of Harlem, New York, that spanned from 1918 to the mid-1930s. The Harlem Renaissance made way for a boom in African-American music, visual art, dance, fashion, intellectual writings and discourse, and literature.
The Renaissance saw great contributions to African-American literature, include literary anthologies, magazines, collections of poetry, and volumes of work. An anthology is "a collection of selected literary pieces or passages or works of art or music" (Merriam-Webster). Just a few examples:
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The Messenger, a political and literary magazine co-founded in 1917 by Philip Randolph and Chandler Owen
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The Crisis, the NAACP's publication, of which Jesse Redmon Fauset became the literary editor in 1919
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Fire!!, an artistic and literary magazine published in 1926, by Langston Hughes, Wallace Thurman, Zora Neale Hurston, Aaron Douglas, and Richard Bruce Nugent
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So...why zines? Ms. Gold chose zines because she felt it was a good parallel between the literary strides of the Harlem Renaissance, and a modern day form of art and communication. Just like the literary magazines and anthologies of the 1910's-1930's, zines bring together all types of art and literature in one format. Zines are also used to spread powerful messages and ideas widely, and that is exactly what took place during, and after, the Harlem Renaissance in the fight for equality and justice.
Click to learn more: Literary Timeline of the Harlem Renaissance​
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