Bryan Carter is devoted to teaching African American literature
from the Harlem Renaissance era, a period considered one of the most
creative in American history.
During the 1920s and early 1930s, Harlem inspired some of the
nation’s best known Black writers, poets, musicians and visual artists
to make the legendary community their artistic home. To Carter, a Ph.D.
candidate in African American literature and an instructor at the
University of Missouri-Columbia, part of Harlem’s appeal was the
vitality of its neighborhoods. The social scene, churches, restaurants,
architecture and night life exerted great influence on African American
artists of the period.
Two years ago, believing that students would better absorb the
literature of the Harlem Renaissance if they had a thorough
understanding of the community and its environment, Carter enlisted the
university’s Advanced Technology Center to recreate Harlem locales
through virtual reality technology.
“I wanted to assist students in the visualization of what may have
inspired various artists to create their work during one of the most
artistically productive periods in African American history,” Carter
says.
The collaboration between Carter and researchers at the Advanced
Technology Center has yielded Virtual Harlem, a virtual reality
rendering of Harlem streets and sites. The program allows students to
tour Harlem renaissance-era sites by viewing photographic and film
images projected onto a fifteen-foot by twenty-foot screen. The
students wear special goggles that allow them to see the images in
three-dimensions.
While facing the screen, students follow an interactive tour —
viewing sites and buildings, and hearing the daytime sounds of busy
streets. During the nighttime — Virtual Harlem tour, students peer
into the interior of the legendary Cotton Club, listen to music, and
eavesdrop on conversations.
Last spring, the forty-six students in Carter’s “Survey of African
American Literature in the Twentieth Century” class tested Virtual
Harlem for the first time as part of their coursework. This fall, fifty
students are testing phase two of the program — which includes more
sites, speeches and poetry from personalities of the time, and filmed
scenes.