Evans’ friend Lincoln Kirstein made note of the appalling conditions in New York in 1931, a few years after the 1929 stock market crash:

Thousands of men sell apples—really fine apples—on the street for a nickel a piece. The apparent desperation one meets everywhere is really terrifying.

But the rich were still enjoying themselves. Evans noted dockside goodbye parties for wealthy passengers about to embark on luxury cruises. At one swell affair, a Negro choir had been engaged to sing Spirituals, including a song called “It is the Needy Time.”