PLAY INFOURSCENESand “SWEAT,” a powerful
story about a besieged but ultimately triumphant
southern laundress. The section entitled “Flame
from the Dark Tower” featured poems by LEWIS
ALEXANDER,ARNA BONTEMPS,COUNTEE
CULLEN,WARINGCUNEY, Langston Hughes, HE-
LENE JOHNSON, and EDWARDSILVERA. Richard
Bruce contributed several items to the issue, in-
cluding part one of Smoke, Lillies and Jade, a work
that critics have hailed as the first published
African-American work with homosexual themes.
ARTHURHUFFFAUSETcontributed an essay enti-
tled “Intelligentsia,” and Aaron Douglas, whose
striking artwork graced the cover of the magazine,
published three additional drawings and some “In-
cidental Art Decorations” in the issue.
The majority of first-edition copies of the
short-lived journal were destroyed when a fire
spread through the building in which they were
being stored. Facsimile copies of the journal were
created in 1982 by the Fire!! Press.
Bibliography
Cobb, Michael. “Insolent Racing, Rough Narrative: The
Harlem Renaissance’s Impolite Queers.” Callaloo:
A Journal of African-American and African Arts and
Letters23, no. 1 (winter 2000): 328–351.
Henry, Matthew. “Playing with Fire!!: Manifesto of the
Harlem Niggerati.” Griot: Official Journal of the
Southern Conference on Afro-American Studies, Inc.
10, no. 2 (fall 1992): 40–52.
Hughes, Langston. The Big Sea: An Autobiography.New
York: Knopf, 1940.
“Fire and Cloud”Richard Wright(1938)
A prize-winning short story by RICHARDWRIGHT.
It was awarded the first prize of $500 in a 1937
contest sponsored by Storyand then awarded the
O. Henry Memorial Award in 1938. The work was
published first in 1938 in Storyand then repub-
lished in UNCLETOM’SCHILDREN:FOURNOVEL-
LAS, the acclaimed 1938 collection of Wright
fiction.
HARPER&BROTHERS, the original publishers,
reissued the volume two years later, in 1940, and
included an additional novella Bright and Morning
Star, and Wright’s memorable autobiographical
essay “The Ethics of Living Jim Crow.”
“Fire and Cloud” documents the political
awakening of Dan Taylor, a minister whose sense of
self and his ability to advocate for his community
have been compromised by white racism and in-
timidation. In the face of a life-threatening
drought, Taylor must decide whether he will join
his congregation and the black community in a
protest march. The white local government asks
him to dissuade the community and when he fails
to do so, subjects him to a brutal whipping. It is in
the midst of this violence that Taylor experiences a
powerful epiphany. He takes his place at the head
of the protest march and, with his community, suc-
ceeds in obtaining food for the desperate citizens.
The story was one of Wright’s most powerful il-
lustrations of the rigors and dangers of black south-
ern folk life. It has been hailed for its realism,
critique of capitalism, and celebration of the eman-
cipatory benefits of collective, or communist, action.Bibliography
Gayle, Addison. Richard Wright: Ordeal of A Native Son.
Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1980.
Tuhkanen, Miko Juhani. “A (b)igger’s place”: Lynching
and Specularity in Richard Wright’s “Fire and
Cloud” and “Native Son.” African American Review
33 (spring 1999): 125–133.“Fire and the Cloud, The”Zora Neale
Hurston(1934)
A short story by ZORANEALEHURSTONthat ap-
peared in CHALLENGEin September 1934. The
journal, founded by DOROTHYWESTin 1934, pub-
lished Hurston’s Harlem Renaissance contempo-
raries and also is known for being the periodical in
which RICHARD WRIGHT’s seminal essay, “A
Blueprint for Negro Writing,” first appeared.
Hurston’s story should not be confused with
Wright’s story “FIRE ANDCLOUD” published in the
1940 collection UNCLETOM’SCHILDREN.Hurston’s
story would later evolve into her 1939 novel
MOSES,MAN OF THEMOUNTAIN.The short story
features Moses in an illuminating and reflective
conversation about his leadership with a lizard.
Hurston uses folklore and vivid personification to
revisit the emancipation of the Hebrew slaves from
their Egyptian bondage. Hurston biographer Va-
lerie Boyd notes that the short story reveals the“Fire and the Cloud, The” 161