Hello everyone. My name is Angela Brown. I work at CSN as a gaming laboratory administrative assistant. I’m going to give you the brief history on the black Arts Movement.
The diversity program sponsors the black history program at CSN. I was invited to participate in the poetry reading program. It is my passion to read and write poetry. It is my desire to inspire young poets who want to be writers to follow their dreams of becoming a poet.
The poet Imamu Amiri Baraka is widely considered to be the father of the Black Arts Movement, which began in 1965 and ended in 1975.
One of the most important figures in the Black Arts movement was Amiri Baraka (formerly LeRoi Jones), who began his career among the Beat generation, living in Greenwich Village and associating with poets such as Allen Ginsberg, Charles Olson, and Gary Snyder.
The assassination of Malcolm X was a turning point in his life. Afterward, he disavowed his old life—including his marriage to Hettie Cohen—and changed his name to Amiri Baraka. He became a black nationalist, moved to Harlem and founded the Black Arts Repertory Theatre/School.
Rooted in the Nation of Islam, the Black Power movement and the Civil Rights Movement, the Black Arts Movement grew out of a changing political and cultural climate in which Black artists attempted to create politically engaged work that explored the African American cultural and historical experience.
The black aesthetic is a cultural ideology that developed in America alongside the civil rights movement in the 1960s and promoted black separatism in the arts. The purpose of the black arts movement was for artist to create politically engaged work that explored the African American cultural and historical experience and transformed the way African Americans were portrayed in literature and the arts.
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.
The black Arts Movement occurred from 1965 – 1975. It was then LeRoi Jones, also known as Amari Baraka, who opened the repository school of the arts. The repository school of the arts offered courses in visual and performing arts. Students would study music, dance, theater and literature. Artist would learn to express their social perspective on race, culture and sexuality through music, literature, dance and theater. Artist like Nikki Giovanni, Sonia Sanchez, Maya Angelou and Audre Lord we’re amongst poets involved in the black Arts movement. The contributions of the artist in the black art movement, has had a positive influence on rap, spoken word and hip hop poems because it helped to influence modern artists to express their views on social, cultural and political issues which occur in society today.
There are two words that come to mind when I think of the Black Arts Movement: the aesthetic movement and black consciousness .
The black Arts Movement is considered the aesthetic arts movement. The black Arts Movement was one of the most controversial arts movement in American history. The black Arts Movement was both a social and political movement which focus was used to express black cultural identity through an artistic expression. The movement gave a moral expression stating black is beautiful. The art form conveyed an emotional response known for its sentimental value as an contextual and intimate art form of expression .
The black conscious movement was a grass roots movement that started in the 60’s and 70’s during the Civil Rights Era. During the Civil Rights Era black people protested for equality and justice. The movement represented social and political consciousness. Black consciousness means to be aware of ones identity as a black person. Black consciousness helped to organize and educate primarily the youth to understand inequality, social unrest, and injustice in society to promote change.
There were two wars being fought in the sixties and seventies: The Vietnam war and non-violent movement for Cilvil Rights. From 1965-1975, black artist and writers from the black arts movement, redefined black literature from the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920’s and 1930’s. The black arts movement compromised the black consciousness to liberate a message of economic, cultural and psychological truth. The fundamental reason for black culture to exist was social and economic empowerment. Self-knowledge of ones culture is the discovery of understanding who you are by identifying with your purpose as you relate to the world. How we feel about ourselves is the reason we exist.
The sixties and seventies was a time of political and economic disparity. Since slavery there were negative images of the black race. The message behind the black arts movement changed the perception people had about black people. The black Arts Movement challenged society to change how blacks were treated. The black Arts Movement had an influence on other American writers and poets to develop a new form of writing. Black Arts served as a medium for expression meant to strengthen that solidarity and creativity, in terms of the Black Aesthetic.
I am grateful for the Black Arts Movement because I found my voice in poetry. Poets like Nikki Giovanni and Maya Angelou are an inspiration to read in identifying my cultural diversity. Often I reflect on poems like Ego Tripping by Nikki Giovanni or I am a black woman by Mari Evans or This is not a small voice by Sonia Sanchez, to remind me that I am a poet because I have something to say about my cultural environment and activism. It is the reason I am a poet.