Turn the World Upside DownIn the first half of the twentieth century, Black hemispheric culture grappled with the legacies of colonialism, U. S. empire, and Jim Crow. As writers and performers sought to convey the terror and the beauty of Black life under oppressive conditions, they increasingly turned to the labor, movement, speech, sound, and ritual of everyday "folk." Many critics have perceived these representations of folk culture as efforts to reclaim an authentic past.