The Black Arts Movement of the 1960s-1970s aimed to develop a body of artistic works that would change perceptions of African American identity and provide empowerment. Key figures included Amiri Baraka, who founded the movement in Harlem and wrote influential works like Dutchman that addressed racial oppression. Audre Lorde and Nikki Giovanni also produced impactful poetry exploring themes of black pride, oppression, and personal survival. Meanwhile, leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X advocated for black freedom and rights through non-violent and more militant approaches respectively.
The life and achievements of William Jaird Levitt. This was a report from school which i posted online so that it may help others on knowing William Levitt .
Sources of the following files have been in the internet which i merged and made a powerpoint presentation on it. Credits to Wikipedia and Youtube.
This was our presentation that we gave in class. If any of the links do not work and you would like to see them, please email any member of the group on the Contact Us page.
The life and achievements of William Jaird Levitt. This was a report from school which i posted online so that it may help others on knowing William Levitt .
Sources of the following files have been in the internet which i merged and made a powerpoint presentation on it. Credits to Wikipedia and Youtube.
This was our presentation that we gave in class. If any of the links do not work and you would like to see them, please email any member of the group on the Contact Us page.
CommentaryMotivated by politics, a group of African-American au.docxpickersgillkayne
Commentary:
Motivated by politics, a group of African-American authors became known as the
Black Arts Movement
. Preeminent in this movement was the poet Imamu Amiri Baraka. The movement stemmed from the strife following the assassination of Malcom X in 1965, and then the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968. Those involved in the changes spreading across America, known as Black Nationalism or the
Black Power Movement
, broke into two primary branches--Revolutionary Nationalists, which included such groups as the Black Panther Party, and Cultural Nationalists, which includes the Black Arts Movement.
The expression of the Black Power Movement was evident in several ways: changes in clothing styles (dashikis, for example) adopted among several black groups, more vocal involvement in politics, and more outspoken tones in and topics of writing, speeches, and the plastic arts (sculpture and painting).
Though the Black Arts Movement began in Harlem, it quickly spread to many cities around the country. Numerous African-American magazines, publishing houses, and journals flourished during this time, such as
Negro Digest, Black World
, Third World Press,
The Black Scholar
, and Lotus Press, among others. Poetry was the predominant form of writing within this movement, but not exclusively--short stories, drama, essay, plays, and music were also key to the content of this era.
The Black Arts Movement was not without controversy. The content of its works is often cited as homophobic, exclusive, misogynistic, and anti-Semitic in favor of black identity.
The Black Arts Movement’s influence began to fade as the result of an unlikely source--success. As members such as James Baldwin, Maya Angelou, and Nikki Giovanni, among others, became popular and even wealthy as the result of the works they also became mainstream, which was an unforeseen consequence counter to the basis of the movement itself.
Recovering the History of African Americans
Attempts to recover and recognize the history of African Americans was part of the Black Power Movement. This is seen in African Americans who changed their birth names to African names. Born as Leroi Jones, Amiri Baraka, for example, changed his name in 1964. Stokely Carmichael became Kwame Ture. In Alice Walker's short story "Everyday Use," Dee returns home with the name Wangero.
Attitudes and actions that before the 1960s might have been kept private became more overt, which is evident in the essays defining the Black Arts Movement. Richard Wright's comments about African-American writers in his 1937 essay "Blueprint for Negro Writing" were no longer true. In that essay, Wright discussed black writers who "dressed in the knee-pants of servility" as they went "abegging to white America" for approval. He notes, "Negro writing was something external to the lives of educated Negroes themselves."
Instead, the arts in the 1960s were more aligned with what Du Bois wrote in 1926, when he call.
Essay about The Harlem Renaissance
Essay on The Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance Essay
Essay on The Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance Essay
National Humanities Center Resource Toolbox .docxhallettfaustina
National Humanities Center Resource Toolbox
The Making of African American Identity: Vol. III, 1917-1968
LARRY NEAL
The Black Arts Movement
Drama Review, *Summer 1968
Part One of Three (excerpts)
BLACK REVOLUTIONARY THEATRE is the name given to that
special Black American strain of theatre, film, and agitprop public
activity that originated in the Black Arts Movement, the Black
religious and spiritual sects, and in Third World Revolutionary
Cultural and Political societies. [Eds.]
1.
The Black Arts Movement is radically opposed to any concept of the
artist that alienates him from his community. This movement is the
aesthetic and spiritual sister of the Black Power concept. As such, it
envisions an art that speaks directly to the needs and aspirations of Black
America. In order to perform this task, the Black Arts Movement proposes a radical reordering of the
western cultural aesthetic. It proposes a separate symbolism, mythology, critique, and iconology. The
Black Arts and the Black Power concept both relate broadly to the Afro-American’s desire for self-
determination and nationhood. Both concepts are nationalistic. One is concerned with the relationship
between art and politics; the other with the art of politics.
Recently, these two movements have begun to merge: the political values inherent in the Black Power
concept are now finding concrete expression in the aesthetics of Afro-American dramatists, poets,
choreographers, musicians, and novelists. A main tenet of Black Power is the necessity for Black people
to define the world in their own terms. The Black artist has made the same point in the context of
aesthetics. The two movements postulate that there are in fact and in spirit two Americas — one black,
one white. The Black artist takes this to mean that his primary duty is to speak to the spiritual and cultural
needs of Black people. Therefore, the main thrust of this new breed of contemporary writers is to confront
the contradictions arising out of the Black man’s experience in the racist West. Currently, these writers
are re-evaluating western aesthetic, the traditional role of the writer, and the social function of art.
Implicit in this re-evaluation is the need to develop a “black aesthetic.” It is the opinion of many Black
writers, I among them, that the Western aesthetic has run its course: it is impossible to construct anything
meaningful within its decaying structure. We advocate a cultural revolution in art and ideas. The cultural
values inherent in western history must either be radicalized or destroyed, and we will probably find that
even radicalization is impossible. In fact, what is needed is a whole new system of ideas. Poet Don L.
Lee1 expresses it:
. . . We must destroy Faulkner, dick, jane,2 and other perpetrators of evil. It’s time for DuBois, Nat
Turner, and Kwame Nkrumah.3 As Frantz Fanon4 points out: destroy the culture and ...
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