Culture, Multiculturalism, and The (post) Modern City

M. Yusuf Asari Novie Indriyana Yoel Wibowo

Introduction
Megalopolis character > no single ethnic group,

way of life, and or industrial sector domination

Megalopolis > pluralism (Jenks, 1993: 7) e pluribus unum ( one from many ) > US motto,

adopted by an Act of Congress in 1782.

 Nation as whole culture >< subcultures flourishing LA, Miami, & Houston > variegated images of

post modern cities

US Post-Modern City
Los Angeles (LA- the 1st postmodern city), Miami,

Houston (1980s)
Those were the first inherently multicultural,

global, and postmodern cities.

Closely related with urbanism

 Famous movies and video games set theme in post

modern city: Blade Runner, LA Law, Miami Vice, LA Noire, etc

 Problems of post modern cities > dilemma of

multiculturalism (LA: over 150 nationalities)

The justifiable need for all voices to be heard, for

all identities to be affirmed

How to overcome? By hetero-architecture

Hetero-architecture
Architecture of variety as a sequence of opposed historical types or of an eclectic mixture of styles. (Jencks, 1993: 9)

 Related with political project > rise of postmodern

liberalism, which groups and subcultures turn themselves into legal individuals (ibid: 10)
Also named as politics of difference

Harlem in Multicurturalism in New York

Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City

borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands. Harlem was annexed to New York City in 1873. It is made up of great diversity of people and cultural attitude. Many of natives are highly educated, cultivated, open-minded, hard-working and namely Harlem is privileged site of exoticism, primitivism, and behavioral license.

 Harlem Renaissance started

after the first World War It became significance that African-American was ready to take central role in American life The second reason of Harlem Renaissance is, the discovery of African artistic tradition and the use of African settings and so on According Alain Locke, the professor of philosophy at Howard University, Harlem Renaissance was the significance of a great change from old negro to new negro

 The central concern of Alain Lockes new negro

was to avoid the negro appear ridiculous to whites The best concept of new negro can be found in the novel entitled Nigger Heaven printed in 1926 by Carl van Vechten