Black Arts Movement

Leaders of the Black Arts Movement believed that in order for change to occur, African-Americans would need to stand up for themselves and create a separate Black culture. Larry Neal explores this objective in depth, in his piece, The Black Arts Movement. Gil Scott-Heron further promotes the message in his famous poem, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. As evidenced in both of these works, Black culture would need to overtake White culture in order to overturn the oppressive society of the time. The importance of nationhood empowered the African-American community to attempt to destroy White culture and create their own Black culture. At the time, many thought that there were two separate spirits in America, a Black spirit and a White…

In the late 1960’s, early 70’s a movement was emerged that called the Black Arts Movement (BAM). The Black Arts Movement was created in Harlem by writer and activist Amiri Baraka, considered the father of the Black Arts Movement. This national movement was initiated after the assassination of Malcom X. Many well-known writers were involved with the movement including: Nikki Giovanni, Sonia Sanchez, Maya Angelou, and Larry Neal. Many may considered the Black Arts movement to be compared to the…

Almost since its inception to the United States black history has been becoming fully and completely free from one thing or another. Post-Civil War that narrative for a majority of African-Americans was to be brought onto a level playing field as the Other, White World. No longer slaves, the next step was to become acclimated to this new sense of freedom and everything that it meant. Through over several decades of Jim Crow segregation, degradation, and defamation, these lack of freedoms African…

In Larry Neal’s essay entitled, The Black Arts Movement, he writes that “the motive behind the Black aesthetic is the destruction of the white thing. The destruction of white ideas, and white ways of looking at the world” (Neal, The Black Arts Movement). Larry Neal defines the Black Aesthetic as such, to emphasize that the motive of the movement is to destroy things all white and is also introducing the politics of the movement. Neal echoes the views of Malcolm X, who urged for a cultural…

these questions Black Nationalism took a stand in preaching self-reliance, a holistic approach in viewing nationalism in the black community and created a sense of intellectual liberation, the effects of this can be seen vividly in the art and literature of the Black Arts Movement. In the climax of Amiri Baraka’s Dutchman Clay does just this, eviscerating all of Lula’s preconceived notions of what blackness was and gave her an inside understanding of what her privilege disallows her to see.…

In the wake of the Black Power Movement a group of politically motivated artists, poets, and musicians emerged to ignite what was known as the Black Arts Movement in the mid 1960s. One of the artists who emerged from this era was Ernest Barnes. Known as the “Picasso of the black world,” Barnes was born in Durham, North Carolina, and was known for his artistic expression of the African American lifestyle. “The Sugar Shack” was one of his most widely renowned paintings, since it fully captured the…

The African American race is a group amongst many that faces difficulty in finding success through their art whether they are musicians, artists, writers, or dramatists. To make a change for themselves, there have been African American individuals who have united to establish movements with their motive being to seek liberation. Of the various movements formed, the Black Arts Movement was very popular. Unlike most articles, Larry Neal’s The Black Arts Movement was an effective piece that…

Oakland is a community flourishing in the arts, poetry and literature that has historically ignored in academia by major publishing companies. Most of this work consists of oral/performance poetry and flourishes in communal spaces, spaces that work towards unifying the community and creating a safe environment for underrepresented and marginalized communities.From the beginning of the Black Arts Movement in the 70s with writers such as Ishmael Reed and Sarah Webster Fabio have pushed the…

The Black Arts Movement (1965-1975) is considered to be one of the most essential moments in African American literature. It encouraged and motivated African Americans to form their very own publishing companies and magazines as well as numerous institutions of the arts. The movement was also believed to have inspired the formation of African American Studies classes at universities and colleges throughout the United States (Rojas 2147). The Black Arts Movement was also thought to have been…

The Black Arts Movement left a lasting impression not only on African-American culture, but on all American cultures. “…criticized as misogynist, homophobic, anti-Semitic, and racially exclusive, the Black Arts movement is also credited with inciting a new generation of poets, writers, and artists” (A Brief Guide to the Black Arts Movement). The Black Arts movement is dated from approximately 1960 to 1970, coinciding with the Civil Rights Movement, Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam, and the…