[school-discuss] virtual tour of 1930s Harlem---> http://www.computer.org/cga/homepage/2002/n5/g5061.htm

[mike eschman <meschman@engima.com>]

Virtual Harlem is a learning environment that lets students experience the 
Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s as a cultural field trip.

In the early 1900s, particularly in the 1920s, African-American literature, 
art, music, dance, and social commentary began to flourish in Harlem, a 
section of New York City. This African-American cultural movement became 
known as The New Negro Movement and later as the Harlem Renaissance. The 
Harlem Renaissance transformed African-American identity and history, but it 
also transformed American culture in general. Never before had so many 
Americans read the thoughts of African-Americans and embraced their 
African-American community's productions, expressions, and style.

We wanted to convey the importance of this movement to students. We therefore 
developed Virtual Harlem,1 a collaborative virtual reality (VR) tour of 
Harlem in which participants can travel back 80 years to see and hear 
historical figures, speeches, and music from that period. We designed it to 
help students experience the neighborhood's life and culture on both visual 
and critical levels.