Womack and the culture-rich exhibit at the Studio Museum both exhibit a quality of Harlem that is unapologetic in its level of ecclesiastic allure and shows pride in the culture that has arisen in its prime. Of course, the wealthier southern half of New York City tends to view anything past 110th Street as something of a “ghetto” wasteland, whereas the term ghetto’s meaning is not something for them to define or characterize in the first place. Bob Womack’s songĀ Across 110th Street serves to convey this outsider-looking-in attitude held by the wealthy businessmen and “fine arts” that take their home in Midtown while the upper half of Manhattan’s art and business remains totally stigmatized. This was conveyed in a majority of the pieces in the Studio Museum, depicting Harlem culture as something of an inside joke that only Harlemites understand, and celebrating this closed space they have built for themselves. Of course, this didn’t sugar coat Harlem at all, and the mess of metropolitan imagery layered with dark, austere colors in some of the image conveys some of the darkness in the area, but rather than shun or disregard that darkness, it incorporated it into the art and made something of an artistic yin-yang balance that reflected that of Harlem itself.
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