Streets, Sounds and Identity in Interwar Harlem

Harlem was never entirely a "black" neighborhood. White landlords, shopkeepers, policemen, and visitors abounded. In the 1920s and 1930s, Harlem's African American residents made it seem theirs, however, through the use of sound. What white visitors found "noisy"—whether they were excited or repelled by it—marked out the territory, as it were. Sounds ranged from special events including parades and funerals, to everyday activities such as street speaking and hanging out. This use of public space had as its analogue the formation of a black public sphere. Members of this counter-public sphere, including those associated with the Harlem Renaissance, defined themselves as aural beings, rather than as individuals oriented by sight. Debate erupted frequently within this sphere as to what was appropriate sound or noise, on the streets and especially in political and social agitation. The multiplicity of voices was ultimately the defining characteristic of the black public sphere, and of black modernity itself.