Author: Sophie Fine

Afro-Futurist Room, Sophie Fine

A period room is a space that recreates a particular historical time and place to depict and immerse the viewer in the intended era. The room serves as a tool to transport one back into what life looked like in the past.  I visited The Newark Museum of Art, which features several Victorian period rooms, when I was in middle school.

The goal in installing the Afro-Futurist exhibit was to challenge the traditional period room by bringing the past, present, and future all together. It weaves history with imagination and the future instead of focusing on one time period. In the exhibit, the room recreates a home belonging to the descendants of Seneca Village; by choosing Seneca Village as the setting, a place razed in order to create Central Park, the room showcases the lives that people could have had and how they could have grown if their homes had not been destroyed. 

Afro-futurism is a creative approach that centers Black experience by combining Black history with imagination and visions of the future. The title of the room, “Before Yesterday We Could Fly,” references a collection of African folktales “The People Could Fly.” Flight is a central theme in the period room, associated with spirituality and imagination. Here, flight can represent physical escape from discriminatory places, but it can also convey the freedom to imagine a life beyond the constraints that society has imposed upon you. However, according to the author, the exhibition’s concept of Afro-futurism is insufficiently developed, as it is a “neutralization of history,” inadequately addressing the historical realities of racial discrimination.

Saidiya Hartman’s book, “Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments,” explores how young Black women in the early twentieth-century in New York and Philadelphia challenged traditional ideas regarding relationships and work. Women who explored queer relationships or rejected unfair work were considered “wayward” by authorities. Through everyday choices, these women challenged the restrictions imposed on them. These women “took flight” and realized the lives that they dreamed of in order to live freely. Thus, it is fitting that this book is in the exhibit, as it demonstrates Black women who, despite being mistreated, looked to the future and explored its possibilities.

0

A City of Migrants and Immigrants II, Sophie Fine

Carmen Lizardo, originally from the Dominican Republic, immigrated to the United States at the age of nineteen. She uses multimedia such as printmaking and mosaics to layer and shape images. In this mosaic from the exhibit “Great Waves of Immigration” at the 181st Street A-train station, Lizardo portrays an immigrant journey to America. The boat pictured is a yola, a small, often makeshift Dominican motorboat commonly utilized to immigrate to the US. The extreme overcrowding on the boat depicts the harsh conditions that immigrants have to endure in order to survive their journey. As the immigrants approach American territory, the color scheme shifts; the yellow hue on the left side of the mural remains only on a small part of the right-hand side, illustrating that the immigrants have entered new land with different geographical and cultural boundaries. I interpreted the one-way sign at the bottom of Lizardo’s mosaic as a representation of the sacrifices involved in the immigrant journey; immigrants move toward a new home but may be unable to return to the life they left behind.

Moreover, Lizardo’s mosaic can be connected to her personal experience. Beginning in the 1960’s, Dominicans became a significant part of Washington Heights’ population, making the George Washington Bridge, which geographically connects to the Heights, a fitting site to associate with America. The Bridge represents the transition that immigrants experience when entering a new place full of different culture and language. Furthermore, the stairs at the bottom of the bridge and the blooming trees represent the growth and opportunities that can potentially be found in America.

0

Alice Austen, Sophie Fine

Trude & I masked, short skirts August 6, 1891

Alice Austen (1866-1952) was a documentary photographer known for her photography of New York City. She led a non-traditional lifestyle, having an intimate relationship with a woman named Gertrude Tate and remaining independently wealthy for the majority of her life. She took pictures of immigrant populations, harsh work conditions, intimate relationships between Victorian women, and different social events in Victorian society. The subjects of Austen’s photographs are important in 2026 because it provides us a lens into the life of a woman who did not live the life typically expected of women in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. Austen’s photography can help us understand the diversity of women’s experiences in New York City.

The photograph pictured below, with a description of “Trude & I masked, short skirts August 6, 1891,” is pertinent to today’s life in New York City because it reflects that social norms can change quite rapidly. Although women smoking in their undergarments, or “short skirts,” as Austen labeled them, was radical for the time that the photograph was captured and most likely in a very private setting, modern New York City is a place known for people expressing themselves freely in public. The photograph captures an early form of the freedom of expression that has now become a vital part of New York City.

0

Proudly powered by WordPress | Theme: Baskerville 2 by Anders Noren.

Up ↑