Prompt 0: A Great Day in Harlem

Freelance photographer Art Kane was commissioned by Esquire to shoot for the magazine's Golden Age of Jazz issue released in January 1959.

Likely the most recognizable image from the issue, A Great Day in Harlem was staged around 10 a.m. on August 12, 1958 on 126th Street between Fifth and Madison Avenues. The shot features 57 icons spanning 4 decades, including Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Rollins, Art Blakey, Thelonius Monk, Charles Mingus, Gerry Mulligan and Count Basie.

The Esquire issue itself features more beautiful photography alongside essays rhapsodizing on the past, present, and then-future of the genre. Ralph Ellison introduces rather magically the memory of Minton's Playhouse at the height of its influence as a venue and a cradle for jazz's evolution in the 40's:

IT has been a long time now, and not many remember how it was in the old days; not really. Not even those who were there to see and hear as it happened, who were pressed in the crowds beneath the dim rosy lights of the bar in the smoke-veiled room, and who shared, night after night, the mysterious spell created by the talk, the laughter, grease paint, powder, perfume, sweat, alcohol and food—all blended and simmering, like a stew on the restaurant range, and brought to a sustained moment of elusive meaning by the timbres and accents of musical instruments locked in passionate recitative. It has been too long now, some seventeen years.

-Ralph Ellison, "Manners and Morals at Minton’s, 1941: the setting for a revolution" (Esquire, 1958)

In the Neighborhood?

Check out these other local stops for a hit of inspiration.

• 1926 editorial offices of FIRE!! Magazine, spiritual predecessor of FIYAH Literary Magazine for Black Speculative Fiction (138th St)
• Langston Hughes House reopened to the public in 2023 (127th St)
• The National Jazz Museum

Other Resources

• Esquire's Golden Age of Jazz (1959) edition (must subscribe to access)
• The Guardian dissection of the photoshoot
• Art Kane @ Wall of Sound Gallery
• A Great Day in Harlem Documentary (YouTube)

Submissions

This is a solicit-only issue.

Submissions must be works related to the speculative fiction literary genres as defined in our general submission guidelines.

The application of the "Great Day in Harlem" theme may be derived from but not limited to:

• the setting
• the title
• persons featured in the image
• the time/circumstances under which the work was produced
• any related concepts

Culturally relevant interpretations of the theme are welcome and encouraged.

Please see our full submission guidelines for additional instructions.

The Issue

Publishing February 2027.