Moderator: Nancy L. Struna (American Studies, University of Maryland)
"'We Seek What We Find; We See What We Look For': Looking for Literary Production in Washington , D. D. , 1921-1928"
Ebony Bowden (American Studies, University of Maryland)
Often referred to as the “City of Refuge ,” many Black artists in the 1920s felt drawn to Harlem because of its fast-pace living, exotic images, and opportunities for sponsorship from wealthy white patrons. Acknowledged as the intellectual and cultural hub of African American enlightenment, many artists' experiences attest that the reputation of Harlem as an artistic haven was in many ways overestimated. Promotion of these dominant characteristics has led historians to overlook other culturally productive locations like Washington , D.C. , which was also a center for literary and artistic development during the twenties.
My project recognizes Georgia Douglass Johnson as D.C.'s agent of cultural and literary production through her hostess-ship of Saturday-night literary salons held in her 1461 S. Street Northwest D. C. home from 1921-1928. The discussion of this literary salon is original because it includes theories of cultural production and cultural studies submerged within a traditional literary context. This paper involves an investigation of members of the salons as well as the internal and external dynamics of the literary community itself.
Highlighting “bodies” within this institution, one goal is to discuss multiple roles embodied by Johnson and to especially explore her function as a patron; not by providing monetary sponsorship, but literary support. Because these salons were informal and were equally inclusive of both sexes, Johnson's “Saturday Nighters” differ from other literary societies in the early twentieth century. This distinctive characteristic provides another perspective of the “body,” which involves an examination of the convergence of different genders, multiple sexualities, and varying age groups within a single literary group. A comprehensive analysis of the embodiment of this Washingtonian literary space will help to expand confined images of the New Negro Renaissance as well as help to explain Black cultural production as a whole.
"Club U: Culture Clash on the Go-Go Landscape"
Natalie Hopkinson (Journalism , University of Maryland)
This paper draws from a cultural landscape analysis of "Club U," a Washington , D.C. go-go nightclub that operated from the mid-1990s to 2005, and the public debate over its future following the stabbing death of a patron on the dance floor. It describes the historical, psychological and metaphorical dimensions of a cultural landscape symbolic to black Washingtonians and undergoing rapid gentrification. I examine the landscape's shifting boundaries and perceptions over history as well as analyze 1,000 pages of text from the city's Alcohol Beverage Control board public hearings in 2005. The "Club U" narrative illustrates shifting power and access dynamics and a contest of meaning between authorities and the community with a strong racial and colonial subtext. Here I argue that "go-go," both the music genre and meeting space operated in this context as the “chora” or ritual sacred space that exorcized historical demons and facilitated healing. Its success in this role set the stage for the space to be transformed from one that is sacred for one group to a heteronormative space in the wake of gentrification.
"The Museum/Community Relationship and the External Process of Museums: Experience in Gadsby's Tavern Museum in Alexandria , Virginia "
Rebecca Thurber (American Studies, University of Maryland)
What role do museums play in a community's identity and reciprocally, what role do the communities play in the museum's identity? This reciprocal identification process of museum and community can be viewed as a process of time and identification in a single cultural site. This paper examines this process through three external roles of the museum – cultural memory, history, and experience – within the local community in which it resides and the nation as a larger community. Gadsby's Tavern Museum and Restaurant and the Old Town Alexandria, Virginia community in which it resides, are used to examine the reciprocal identification process and the three museum roles mentioned above. Two cultural “moments” are used as evidence of this process – the creation of Gadsby's Tavern in the context of the national Bicentennial celebration and the everyday use of the museum by the community.
Although, three external roles are called out, the lynch pin is the experience of the visitor and the community as relates to the museum. This experience is where the other two roles – cultural memory and history – intersect, combine, and transform. Experience only begins this examination and looks specifically at how the museum, within the community, acts as a means to preserve the past (or history) as an experience in the present in order to ensure the future of cultural memory.