Volume 4
Blackworks came in the form of a newspaper, unlike the other volumes of Umbra. This is an interesting medium as newspapers report the latest news to the public, this is symbolic to the magazine as they are saying that the topics they are talking about are urgent news reports that the public needs to hear immediately. This was the final volume of the series, so the writers and artists wrote what they wanted, how they wanted. There was no structure or proper grammar, they wrote these pieces with a conversational tone, using lots of slang and everyday words. The main topic of this magazine was the idea of giving their all and working harder than any other race, yet given no credit and feeling as if they have no purpose for the world and that death was their best option. In Pickninny’s poem he explains that his poems and words were the only things that were truly his and no one could take that from him. That is why in this edition, each poem is different from the next, each writer expressed themselves in a manner that best suited them and their emotions. There was a sense of sadness, happiness and seriousness throughout this magazine as people talked about hard work, hardships, everyday life and stereotypical black people things (poking fun at themselves). The visuals also followed the free spirited theme as many of them were abstract and unique in their own way, they didn’t have a common theme they each added a different aesthetic to the project.