Read—
Some Southern Snapshots

by
GEORGE S. SCHUYLER

in the December issue of

NEW MASSES

In this article Mr. Schuyler, a Negro writer, gives short sketches of Negro-white incidents in various Southern states. Negro boys and girls, men and women, insulted, arrested, hounded out of town, beaten, molested, and killed for imaginary, or at the most, ridiculously small and superficial acts. New details of the same old stories.

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## Foreword

FIRE ... flaming, burning, searing, and penetrating far beneath the superficial items of the flesh to boil the sluggish blood.

FIRE ... a cry of conquest in the night, warning those who sleep and revitalizing those who linger in the quiet places dozing.

FIRE ... melting steel and iron bars, poking livid tongues between stone apertures and burning wooden opposition with a cackling chuckle of contempt.

FIRE ... weaving vivid, hot designs upon an ebon bordered loom and satisfying pagan thirst for beauty unadorned ... the flesh is sweet and real ... the soul an inward flush of fire ... Beauty? ... flesh on fire—on fire in the furnace of life blazing.

"Fy-ah,
Fy-ah, Lawd,
Fy-ah gonna burn ma soul!"

# FIRE!

## A Quarterly Devoted to the Younger Negro Artists

Wishes to Thank the Following Persons
Who Acted as Patrons
For the First Issue

MAURINE BOIE, Minneapolis, Minn.
NELLIE R. BRIGHT, Philadelphia, Pa.
ARTHUR HUFF FAUSET, Philadelphia, Pa.
DOROTHY HUNT HARRIS, New York City
ARTHUR P. MOOR, Harrisburg, Pa.
DOROTHY R. PETERSON, Brooklyn, N. Y.
MR. AND MRS. JOHN PETERSON, New York City
E. B. TAYLOR, Baltimore, Md.
CARL VAN VECHTEN, New York City

Being a non-commercial product interested only in the arts, it is necessary that we make some appeal for aid from interested friends. For the second issue of FIRE we would appreciate having fifty people subscribe ten dollars each, and fifty more to subscribe five dollars each.

We make no eloquent or rhetorical plea. FIRE speaks for itself.

Gratefully,
THE BOARD OF EDITORS.

# FIRE!!

Premier Issue Edited by

WALLACE THURMAN

In Association With

Langston Hughes

Zora Neale Hurston

Gwendolyn Bennett

Aaron Douglas

Richard Bruce

John Davis

### Table of Contents

<table><tr><td>COVER DESIGNS</td><td>Aaron Douglas</td><td>1</td></tr><tr><td>FOREWORD</td><td>Richard Bruce</td><td>4</td></tr><tr><td>DRAWING</td><td>Wallace Thurman</td><td>5</td></tr><tr><td>CORDELIA THE CRUDE, A Harlem Sketch</td><td>Zora Neale Hurston</td><td>7</td></tr><tr><td>COLOR STRUCK, A Play in Four Scenes</td><td>A Section of Poetry</td><td>15</td></tr></table>

<table><tr><td>Countee Cullen</td><td>Helene Johnson</td></tr><tr><td>Edward Silvera</td><td>Waring Cuney</td></tr><tr><td>Langston Hughes</td><td>Arna Bontemps</td></tr></table>

Lewis Alexander

<table><tr><td>DRAWING</td><td>Richard Bruce</td><td>24</td></tr><tr><td>WEDDING DAY, A Story</td><td>Gwendolyn Bennett</td><td>25</td></tr><tr><td>THREE DRAWINGS</td><td>Aaron Douglas</td><td>29</td></tr><tr><td>SMOKE, LILIES AND JADE, A Novel, Part I</td><td>Richard Bruce</td><td>33</td></tr><tr><td>SWEAT, A Story</td><td>Zora Neale Hurston</td><td>40</td></tr><tr><td>INTELLIGENTSIA, An Essay</td><td>Arthur Huff Fauset</td><td>45</td></tr><tr><td>FIRE BURNS, Editorial Comment</td><td>Wallace Thurman</td><td>47</td></tr><tr><td>INCIDENTAL ART DECORATIONS</td><td>Aaron Douglas</td><td></td></tr></table>

Volume One

Number One

### EDITORIAL OFFICES

314 West 138th Street, New York City

Price $1.00 per copy

Issued Quarterly