Terryl C. Givens
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195167115
- eISBN:
- 9780199785599
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195167115.003.0019
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
The Paris Art Mission introduced European developments and training into Utah art at the turn of the century. Today, loose alliances like the New York Mormon Artists Group have supplanted efforts to ...
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The Paris Art Mission introduced European developments and training into Utah art at the turn of the century. Today, loose alliances like the New York Mormon Artists Group have supplanted efforts to create a self conscious style (as with the Art and Belief Movement). World class sculptors as well as prominent painters emerged by mid-century. A regular international art competition is the major vehicle for opening the church to cultural influences from beyond the United States.Less
The Paris Art Mission introduced European developments and training into Utah art at the turn of the century. Today, loose alliances like the New York Mormon Artists Group have supplanted efforts to create a self conscious style (as with the Art and Belief Movement). World class sculptors as well as prominent painters emerged by mid-century. A regular international art competition is the major vehicle for opening the church to cultural influences from beyond the United States.
Winifred Breines
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195179040
- eISBN:
- 9780199788583
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195179040.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
The Black Power movement of the 1960s developed out of anger about the way African Americans were treated in the United States. It emphasized black culture, history, pride, community, and rage. ...
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The Black Power movement of the 1960s developed out of anger about the way African Americans were treated in the United States. It emphasized black culture, history, pride, community, and rage. Spokesmen argued that black men were more damaged by racism than black women, that men should be the leaders, head of the household, and dominant. Black women were empowered and thrilled by the Black Power movement, including the Black Panther Party, but many had critiques of its male chauvinism, common to many nationalist movements. Female radical African American activists and Black Arts movement members sometimes did not find the intraracial cross-gender solidarity that they sought and were often disappointed.Less
The Black Power movement of the 1960s developed out of anger about the way African Americans were treated in the United States. It emphasized black culture, history, pride, community, and rage. Spokesmen argued that black men were more damaged by racism than black women, that men should be the leaders, head of the household, and dominant. Black women were empowered and thrilled by the Black Power movement, including the Black Panther Party, but many had critiques of its male chauvinism, common to many nationalist movements. Female radical African American activists and Black Arts movement members sometimes did not find the intraracial cross-gender solidarity that they sought and were often disappointed.
Bernard Gendron
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195336641
- eISBN:
- 9780199868551
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195336641.003.0011
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western, Popular
This chapter analyses the resurgence of the jazz avant‐garde in New York in the mid‐1960s, focusing in particular upon musicians' negotiation of competing aesthetic, social, and economic imperatives. ...
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This chapter analyses the resurgence of the jazz avant‐garde in New York in the mid‐1960s, focusing in particular upon musicians' negotiation of competing aesthetic, social, and economic imperatives. Through a detailed investigation of shifting patterns of reception in the jazz press, attention is drawn to a complex of factors that lifted the jazz avant‐garde from near obscurity in the early years of the decade, to a canonised status by 1965. Prominent amongst these factors was the politically radical discourse promoted by figures associated with the Black Arts Movement such as Amiri Baraka and Larry Neal, which conceived black avant‐garde musicians as shaping the spiritual foundation for revolutionary change. The articulation of a radical social purpose thus assisted the process of canonisation, although this canonisation brought no parallel economic success.Less
This chapter analyses the resurgence of the jazz avant‐garde in New York in the mid‐1960s, focusing in particular upon musicians' negotiation of competing aesthetic, social, and economic imperatives. Through a detailed investigation of shifting patterns of reception in the jazz press, attention is drawn to a complex of factors that lifted the jazz avant‐garde from near obscurity in the early years of the decade, to a canonised status by 1965. Prominent amongst these factors was the politically radical discourse promoted by figures associated with the Black Arts Movement such as Amiri Baraka and Larry Neal, which conceived black avant‐garde musicians as shaping the spiritual foundation for revolutionary change. The articulation of a radical social purpose thus assisted the process of canonisation, although this canonisation brought no parallel economic success.
Lee Higgins
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199777839
- eISBN:
- 9780199950218
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199777839.003.0002
- Subject:
- Music, Ethnomusicology, World Music, Psychology of Music
This chapter examines the community arts scene in the UK and community cultural development from the US. As an initially Western enterprise, community arts grew from the development of new artistic ...
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This chapter examines the community arts scene in the UK and community cultural development from the US. As an initially Western enterprise, community arts grew from the development of new artistic expressions that offered a challenge to the dominant culture, cumulating in the counter-revolution of the 1960s and 1970s. Using this as a starting point, the chapter plots the ideology, context and definitions that shaped the UK’s community arts movement. International manifestations of socially responsibly art are considered alongside this case demonstrating that community arts as a movement was a product of its time, a cultural expression that emerged from cultural upheaval and professional community development practices initiated after World War II. This leads into a discussion of “community cultural development,” a lens through which contemporary international community music practice can now be seen. This broadens the historic perspective to include developments particularly representative in the US and Australia.Less
This chapter examines the community arts scene in the UK and community cultural development from the US. As an initially Western enterprise, community arts grew from the development of new artistic expressions that offered a challenge to the dominant culture, cumulating in the counter-revolution of the 1960s and 1970s. Using this as a starting point, the chapter plots the ideology, context and definitions that shaped the UK’s community arts movement. International manifestations of socially responsibly art are considered alongside this case demonstrating that community arts as a movement was a product of its time, a cultural expression that emerged from cultural upheaval and professional community development practices initiated after World War II. This leads into a discussion of “community cultural development,” a lens through which contemporary international community music practice can now be seen. This broadens the historic perspective to include developments particularly representative in the US and Australia.
Tru Leverette
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- January 2022
- ISBN:
- 9781800859777
- eISBN:
- 9781800852488
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781800859777.003.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This introduction to the volume begins by tracing a common image within the iconography of social justice movements, the raised fist, and argues that the symbols, aesthetics, and practices of ...
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This introduction to the volume begins by tracing a common image within the iconography of social justice movements, the raised fist, and argues that the symbols, aesthetics, and practices of contemporary movements are often rooted in earlier eras, demonstrating a continuity of image and effort against oppression. Before turning to the collection’s exploration of revolutionary art from the late 1960s and 1970s Black Arts movement (BAM), the introduction discusses contemporary antiracist activism and its rootedness in that earlier moment, specifically in BAM’s “sister movement” of Black Power.Less
This introduction to the volume begins by tracing a common image within the iconography of social justice movements, the raised fist, and argues that the symbols, aesthetics, and practices of contemporary movements are often rooted in earlier eras, demonstrating a continuity of image and effort against oppression. Before turning to the collection’s exploration of revolutionary art from the late 1960s and 1970s Black Arts movement (BAM), the introduction discusses contemporary antiracist activism and its rootedness in that earlier moment, specifically in BAM’s “sister movement” of Black Power.
Erin Kendrick
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- January 2022
- ISBN:
- 9781800859777
- eISBN:
- 9781800852488
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781800859777.003.0014
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This chapter discusses the dilemma faced by black female visual and performance artists Faith Ringgold, Barbara Jones-Hogu, Dindga McCannon and Ntozake Shange – at the height of the Black Arts ...
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This chapter discusses the dilemma faced by black female visual and performance artists Faith Ringgold, Barbara Jones-Hogu, Dindga McCannon and Ntozake Shange – at the height of the Black Arts movement. It is questioned that if the goal of the Black Arts movement was to reclaim and redefine what it was to be black in America - was it propagated at the expense of black women's mental, physical, and emotional health? The chapter chronicles the efforts of each of these black women artists to use their works of art to center their authentic lived experiences collectively and individually as a vehicle for critical thought and critique, policy change, and inclusion. Lastly, writer Erin Kendrick, discusses how the contributions of these black women artists created an opportunity for both self-discovery and self-preservation in her own contemporary body of work.Less
This chapter discusses the dilemma faced by black female visual and performance artists Faith Ringgold, Barbara Jones-Hogu, Dindga McCannon and Ntozake Shange – at the height of the Black Arts movement. It is questioned that if the goal of the Black Arts movement was to reclaim and redefine what it was to be black in America - was it propagated at the expense of black women's mental, physical, and emotional health? The chapter chronicles the efforts of each of these black women artists to use their works of art to center their authentic lived experiences collectively and individually as a vehicle for critical thought and critique, policy change, and inclusion. Lastly, writer Erin Kendrick, discusses how the contributions of these black women artists created an opportunity for both self-discovery and self-preservation in her own contemporary body of work.
Paul Von Blum
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- January 2022
- ISBN:
- 9781800859777
- eISBN:
- 9781800852488
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781800859777.003.0011
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This chapter presents an extensive overview of the African American artists who played significant roles in the history of visual arts of the Black Arts movement. It focuses on those creative women ...
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This chapter presents an extensive overview of the African American artists who played significant roles in the history of visual arts of the Black Arts movement. It focuses on those creative women and men who were the historical precursors to the Black Arts movement of the mid 1960s to the mid 1970s and those artists who were directly involved in that time period. The chapter addresses multiple artistic forms including murals, assemblage, photography, painting, and posters. The vast majority of these artworks reflected strong visual statements against racism and positive statements about African American life, history, and culture. The chapter includes three illustrations that are especially representative of the thematic focus of the Black Arts movement, including iconic works by Betye Saar and Black Panther Party artist Emory Douglas.Less
This chapter presents an extensive overview of the African American artists who played significant roles in the history of visual arts of the Black Arts movement. It focuses on those creative women and men who were the historical precursors to the Black Arts movement of the mid 1960s to the mid 1970s and those artists who were directly involved in that time period. The chapter addresses multiple artistic forms including murals, assemblage, photography, painting, and posters. The vast majority of these artworks reflected strong visual statements against racism and positive statements about African American life, history, and culture. The chapter includes three illustrations that are especially representative of the thematic focus of the Black Arts movement, including iconic works by Betye Saar and Black Panther Party artist Emory Douglas.
Tru Leverette (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- January 2022
- ISBN:
- 9781800859777
- eISBN:
- 9781800852488
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781800859777.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
There are deep black nationalist roots for many of the images and
ideologies of contemporary racial justice efforts. This collection reconsiders the Black Aesthetic and the revolutionary art of the ...
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There are deep black nationalist roots for many of the images and
ideologies of contemporary racial justice efforts. This collection reconsiders the Black Aesthetic and the revolutionary art of the Black Arts movement (BAM), forging connections between the recent past and contemporary social justice activism. Focusing on black literary and visual art of the Black Arts Movement, this collection highlights artists whose work diverged from
narrow definitions of the Black Aesthetic and black nationalism. Adding to the reanimation of discourses surrounding BAM, this collection comes at a time when today’s racial justice efforts are mining earlier eras for their iconography, ideology, and implementation. As numerous contemporary activists ground their work in the legacies of mid-twentieth-century activism and adopt many of the grassroots techniques it fostered, this collection
remembers and re-envisions the art that both supported and shaped that earlier era. It furthers contemporary conversations by exploring BAM’s implications for cultural and literary studies and its legacy for current social justice work and the multiple arts that support it.Less
There are deep black nationalist roots for many of the images and
ideologies of contemporary racial justice efforts. This collection reconsiders the Black Aesthetic and the revolutionary art of the Black Arts movement (BAM), forging connections between the recent past and contemporary social justice activism. Focusing on black literary and visual art of the Black Arts Movement, this collection highlights artists whose work diverged from
narrow definitions of the Black Aesthetic and black nationalism. Adding to the reanimation of discourses surrounding BAM, this collection comes at a time when today’s racial justice efforts are mining earlier eras for their iconography, ideology, and implementation. As numerous contemporary activists ground their work in the legacies of mid-twentieth-century activism and adopt many of the grassroots techniques it fostered, this collection
remembers and re-envisions the art that both supported and shaped that earlier era. It furthers contemporary conversations by exploring BAM’s implications for cultural and literary studies and its legacy for current social justice work and the multiple arts that support it.
Seretha D. Williams
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- January 2022
- ISBN:
- 9781800859777
- eISBN:
- 9781800852488
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781800859777.003.0002
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This chapter describes Margaret Walker as a literary inspiration for the Black women writers of the Black Arts movement and positions Walker, a member of the Black Chicago Renaissance of the 1930s ...
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This chapter describes Margaret Walker as a literary inspiration for the Black women writers of the Black Arts movement and positions Walker, a member of the Black Chicago Renaissance of the 1930s and 40s, as an active participant in the Black Arts movement. Walker’s support of the Black-owned Broadside Press and founding of the Institute for the Study of the History, Life, Culture of Black People (now the Margaret Walker Center) at Jackson State University are two examples of Walker’s aesthetic praxis for centering Black life and culture. Additionally, Walker’s poem “For My People” served as a model for Black Arts movement poetry that spoke unapologetically to Black audiences.Less
This chapter describes Margaret Walker as a literary inspiration for the Black women writers of the Black Arts movement and positions Walker, a member of the Black Chicago Renaissance of the 1930s and 40s, as an active participant in the Black Arts movement. Walker’s support of the Black-owned Broadside Press and founding of the Institute for the Study of the History, Life, Culture of Black People (now the Margaret Walker Center) at Jackson State University are two examples of Walker’s aesthetic praxis for centering Black life and culture. Additionally, Walker’s poem “For My People” served as a model for Black Arts movement poetry that spoke unapologetically to Black audiences.
Jiri Salamoun
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- January 2022
- ISBN:
- 9781800859777
- eISBN:
- 9781800852488
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781800859777.003.0012
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This chapter argues for reconsideration of Ishmael Reed’s position to Black Arts movement. It shows that in his novel Japanese by Spring, Reed nurtures a key theme of the movement (reconnection to ...
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This chapter argues for reconsideration of Ishmael Reed’s position to Black Arts movement. It shows that in his novel Japanese by Spring, Reed nurtures a key theme of the movement (reconnection to Africa) even at times when the movement itself could not connect to Africa and when such a goal was perceived as outdated. The chapter is grounded in contemporary research on BAM and ultimately argues for a closer connection between Reed and BAM. In doing so, it updates the common misconception regarding Reed’s relationship with BAM and claims that his works should be included in the recent research on the Black Arts movement.Less
This chapter argues for reconsideration of Ishmael Reed’s position to Black Arts movement. It shows that in his novel Japanese by Spring, Reed nurtures a key theme of the movement (reconnection to Africa) even at times when the movement itself could not connect to Africa and when such a goal was perceived as outdated. The chapter is grounded in contemporary research on BAM and ultimately argues for a closer connection between Reed and BAM. In doing so, it updates the common misconception regarding Reed’s relationship with BAM and claims that his works should be included in the recent research on the Black Arts movement.
Barbara Goff and Michael Simpson
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199217182
- eISBN:
- 9780191712388
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199217182.003.0004
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
Rita Dove's The Darker Face of the Earth examines the process of building ‘America’ out of partly African materials. Incest becomes a sign for the forced amalgamation of cultures that characterized ...
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Rita Dove's The Darker Face of the Earth examines the process of building ‘America’ out of partly African materials. Incest becomes a sign for the forced amalgamation of cultures that characterized plantation slavery, and the oedipal tropes of knowledge, parentage, desire, and narrative are made newly relevant by the particular racialized history of the United States. The politics of the Greek drama, whereby the hero is pitted against the community, are also interrogated by the various choices made by figures such as Augustus, the chorus and the conspirators. The issue of oedipally competing traditions is scrutinised via African-American tropes such as Esu, the talking book, and the tragic mulatto/a. Also examined is the cultural position of the dramatist herself, as a black woman writer and a member of the generation immediately after the Black Arts Movement.Less
Rita Dove's The Darker Face of the Earth examines the process of building ‘America’ out of partly African materials. Incest becomes a sign for the forced amalgamation of cultures that characterized plantation slavery, and the oedipal tropes of knowledge, parentage, desire, and narrative are made newly relevant by the particular racialized history of the United States. The politics of the Greek drama, whereby the hero is pitted against the community, are also interrogated by the various choices made by figures such as Augustus, the chorus and the conspirators. The issue of oedipally competing traditions is scrutinised via African-American tropes such as Esu, the talking book, and the tragic mulatto/a. Also examined is the cultural position of the dramatist herself, as a black woman writer and a member of the generation immediately after the Black Arts Movement.
Nathaniel Frederick II and William Schulte
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- January 2022
- ISBN:
- 9781800859777
- eISBN:
- 9781800852488
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781800859777.003.0006
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
The Black Arts movement developed as a counterpart to the Black Power Movement in the 1960s and 1970s, and African American cartoonists incorporated Afrocentric themes in their work. The most ...
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The Black Arts movement developed as a counterpart to the Black Power Movement in the 1960s and 1970s, and African American cartoonists incorporated Afrocentric themes in their work. The most prominent periodical during the Black Arts movement was Black World magazine. Formerly called Negro Digest, Black World featured original essays, short stories, poetry, and cartoons. This chapter discusses how gag cartoons in Black World from 1970 to 1976 featured intra-racial and interracial commentary between African American and White characters that affirmed, criticized, and challenged racial assumptions. The humor in these gag cartoons reflect a shift in racial class and gender attitudes during the Black Power and Black Arts movements. The chapter includes commentary from cartoonists featured in the magazine who were in a dominant position as creators of images that challenged racial assumptions and interrogated the signs, symbols and substance of the Black Arts movement.Less
The Black Arts movement developed as a counterpart to the Black Power Movement in the 1960s and 1970s, and African American cartoonists incorporated Afrocentric themes in their work. The most prominent periodical during the Black Arts movement was Black World magazine. Formerly called Negro Digest, Black World featured original essays, short stories, poetry, and cartoons. This chapter discusses how gag cartoons in Black World from 1970 to 1976 featured intra-racial and interracial commentary between African American and White characters that affirmed, criticized, and challenged racial assumptions. The humor in these gag cartoons reflect a shift in racial class and gender attitudes during the Black Power and Black Arts movements. The chapter includes commentary from cartoonists featured in the magazine who were in a dominant position as creators of images that challenged racial assumptions and interrogated the signs, symbols and substance of the Black Arts movement.
Indira Etwaroo
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780252042959
- eISBN:
- 9780252051814
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252042959.003.0003
- Subject:
- Music, Dance
Reinterpreting the works of choreographers Kariamu Welsh and Ronald K. Brown as ethnographies of Brooklyn, New York’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, Indira Etwaroo situates Welsh’s and Brown’s ...
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Reinterpreting the works of choreographers Kariamu Welsh and Ronald K. Brown as ethnographies of Brooklyn, New York’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, Indira Etwaroo situates Welsh’s and Brown’s respective bodies of work from two historical periods as artistic expressions shaped by the Great Migration, the Black Arts and Black Power movements, and the daily realities of mid and late 20th Century African-American urban life. As examples of “Neo-traditional African dance,” Etwaroo explores how Welsh and Brown recalibrated traditional African dance aesthetics for North American and European performance contexts that were quite distinct from those rooted in traditional African societies. As Welsh and Brown addressed current African-American political events in their works, they secured a contemporary relevance for the historically rooted dance aesthetics they pioneered. Etwaroo also places Welsh and Brown within a long tradition of African-American dance choreographers and explores Welsh’s influence on Brown as evidence of an established neo-traditional African dance ethos in the United States, which constitutes a tradition in its own right.Less
Reinterpreting the works of choreographers Kariamu Welsh and Ronald K. Brown as ethnographies of Brooklyn, New York’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, Indira Etwaroo situates Welsh’s and Brown’s respective bodies of work from two historical periods as artistic expressions shaped by the Great Migration, the Black Arts and Black Power movements, and the daily realities of mid and late 20th Century African-American urban life. As examples of “Neo-traditional African dance,” Etwaroo explores how Welsh and Brown recalibrated traditional African dance aesthetics for North American and European performance contexts that were quite distinct from those rooted in traditional African societies. As Welsh and Brown addressed current African-American political events in their works, they secured a contemporary relevance for the historically rooted dance aesthetics they pioneered. Etwaroo also places Welsh and Brown within a long tradition of African-American dance choreographers and explores Welsh’s influence on Brown as evidence of an established neo-traditional African dance ethos in the United States, which constitutes a tradition in its own right.
LeRoi Jones and Amiri Baraka
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199609291
- eISBN:
- 9780191731723
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199609291.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 20th Century Literature
This chapter examines a range of Baraka's writings (poems, plays, and essays) from 1960 to 1979, during which time he changed from being a Beat‐affiliated writer (named LeRoi Jones) to a Black ...
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This chapter examines a range of Baraka's writings (poems, plays, and essays) from 1960 to 1979, during which time he changed from being a Beat‐affiliated writer (named LeRoi Jones) to a Black Cultural‐Nationalist, then a Pan‐Afrikanist, and finally a Third‐World Socialist. The opening discussion is of how Baraka in poetry collections like Black Magic (1969) and It's Nation Time (1970) developed a Black Arts potentialism that contrasts with Ginsberg's. Various plays that Baraka wrote in the 1960s are also examined—notably, A Black Mass (1966), Slave Ship (1967), and Great Goodness of Life: A Coon Show (1967). Drawing on Howard University's Amiri Baraka Archive (which includes FBI reports on his plays and speeches), the chapter presents new scholarship on his drama and his cultural activism with groups like the Republic of New Afrika. After examining how Baraka's potentialism reaches a spiritual apogee with his poetry collection Spirit Reach (1972), the concluding discussion contrasts such spiritualism with the didacticism of his Third‐World Socialist writings such as the poetry volume Hard Facts (1975).Less
This chapter examines a range of Baraka's writings (poems, plays, and essays) from 1960 to 1979, during which time he changed from being a Beat‐affiliated writer (named LeRoi Jones) to a Black Cultural‐Nationalist, then a Pan‐Afrikanist, and finally a Third‐World Socialist. The opening discussion is of how Baraka in poetry collections like Black Magic (1969) and It's Nation Time (1970) developed a Black Arts potentialism that contrasts with Ginsberg's. Various plays that Baraka wrote in the 1960s are also examined—notably, A Black Mass (1966), Slave Ship (1967), and Great Goodness of Life: A Coon Show (1967). Drawing on Howard University's Amiri Baraka Archive (which includes FBI reports on his plays and speeches), the chapter presents new scholarship on his drama and his cultural activism with groups like the Republic of New Afrika. After examining how Baraka's potentialism reaches a spiritual apogee with his poetry collection Spirit Reach (1972), the concluding discussion contrasts such spiritualism with the didacticism of his Third‐World Socialist writings such as the poetry volume Hard Facts (1975).
Elizabeth Smith
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- January 2022
- ISBN:
- 9781800859777
- eISBN:
- 9781800852488
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781800859777.003.0005
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
Despite sharing many of the beliefs and values of the Black Arts movement (BAM) African American playwright Alice Childress (1916-1994) is rarely mentioned in the context of the BAM. This essay ...
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Despite sharing many of the beliefs and values of the Black Arts movement (BAM) African American playwright Alice Childress (1916-1994) is rarely mentioned in the context of the BAM. This essay explores why she was omitted from BAM’s narrative given her consistent questioning of racial identity, and her embrace of a Black Aesthetic. The study asserts that Childress’s foregrounding of Black women differentiated her politics and art from BAM’s and the Black Power movement’s male leadership. She did not use the iconography widely associated with them: the raised fist, militarist clothing and guns for example. Rather she chose iconography and settings that told of the Black community she lived in: the kitchen, the iron, the mop bucket, the backyard, the stage. Childress was often pigeon-holed as a “protest” writer, a label that set her apart from BAM whose theorists argued that “protest” writing addressed a white audience and could not speak to the needs of Black people. This essay analyses three of Childress’s plays to make the case that her absence from the BAM narrative was to the detriment of both, contributing to what is often a monolithic and gendered account of that movement, and impacting on Childress’s unwarranted artistic neglect.Less
Despite sharing many of the beliefs and values of the Black Arts movement (BAM) African American playwright Alice Childress (1916-1994) is rarely mentioned in the context of the BAM. This essay explores why she was omitted from BAM’s narrative given her consistent questioning of racial identity, and her embrace of a Black Aesthetic. The study asserts that Childress’s foregrounding of Black women differentiated her politics and art from BAM’s and the Black Power movement’s male leadership. She did not use the iconography widely associated with them: the raised fist, militarist clothing and guns for example. Rather she chose iconography and settings that told of the Black community she lived in: the kitchen, the iron, the mop bucket, the backyard, the stage. Childress was often pigeon-holed as a “protest” writer, a label that set her apart from BAM whose theorists argued that “protest” writing addressed a white audience and could not speak to the needs of Black people. This essay analyses three of Childress’s plays to make the case that her absence from the BAM narrative was to the detriment of both, contributing to what is often a monolithic and gendered account of that movement, and impacting on Childress’s unwarranted artistic neglect.
Nancy Duvall Hargrove
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813034010
- eISBN:
- 9780813039367
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813034010.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
Before Eliot went to Paris, he was already endowed with some basic knowledge of the visual arts as he had been able to take courses such as the History of Ancient Art and Florentine Painting when he ...
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Before Eliot went to Paris, he was already endowed with some basic knowledge of the visual arts as he had been able to take courses such as the History of Ancient Art and Florentine Painting when he was still at Harvard. Paris, with a combination of past and future, was also big in the visual arts scene since the city housed many works of art that ranged from those of the ancient Greeks to those of the more recent nineteenth century. Also, the city was recognized for accommodating developing new movements. Eliot was engrossed with the Parisian art scene and in addition he visited various exhibits and museums in London, Bergamo, Venice, and Munich. This chapter attempts to provide descriptions of classical art works as well as the contemporary art movements that influenced Eliot's immediate and future works.Less
Before Eliot went to Paris, he was already endowed with some basic knowledge of the visual arts as he had been able to take courses such as the History of Ancient Art and Florentine Painting when he was still at Harvard. Paris, with a combination of past and future, was also big in the visual arts scene since the city housed many works of art that ranged from those of the ancient Greeks to those of the more recent nineteenth century. Also, the city was recognized for accommodating developing new movements. Eliot was engrossed with the Parisian art scene and in addition he visited various exhibits and museums in London, Bergamo, Venice, and Munich. This chapter attempts to provide descriptions of classical art works as well as the contemporary art movements that influenced Eliot's immediate and future works.
Tru Leverette
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- January 2022
- ISBN:
- 9781800859777
- eISBN:
- 9781800852488
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781800859777.003.0015
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This conclusion offers a summation to the collection, noting that the chapters therein investigate the aesthetic and ideological currents of the Black Arts movement and demonstrate that it was a ...
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This conclusion offers a summation to the collection, noting that the chapters therein investigate the aesthetic and ideological currents of the Black Arts movement and demonstrate that it was a nuanced and complex sociopolitical and artistic endeavor. It also acknowledges that the chapters bear witness to the fact that the concerns of the BAM are not far removed from our contemporary concerns regarding race, class, gender, and other social justice issues. Thus, it draws parallels between that earlier moment and our contemporary era.Less
This conclusion offers a summation to the collection, noting that the chapters therein investigate the aesthetic and ideological currents of the Black Arts movement and demonstrate that it was a nuanced and complex sociopolitical and artistic endeavor. It also acknowledges that the chapters bear witness to the fact that the concerns of the BAM are not far removed from our contemporary concerns regarding race, class, gender, and other social justice issues. Thus, it draws parallels between that earlier moment and our contemporary era.
Zoë Thomas
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781526140432
- eISBN:
- 9781526155511
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7765/9781526140449
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
Women Art Workers constitutes the first comprehensive history of the network of women who worked at the heart of the English Arts and Crafts movement from the 1870s to the 1930s. Challenging the ...
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Women Art Workers constitutes the first comprehensive history of the network of women who worked at the heart of the English Arts and Crafts movement from the 1870s to the 1930s. Challenging the long-standing assumption that the Arts and Crafts simply revolved around celebrated male designers like William Morris, this book instead offers a new social and cultural account of the movement, which simultaneously reveals the breadth of the imprint of women art workers upon the making of modern society. Thomas provides unprecedented insight into how women – working in fields such as woodwork, textiles, sculpture, painting, and metalwork – navigated new authoritative roles as ‘art workers’ by asserting expertise across a range of interconnected cultures so often considered in isolation: from the artistic to the professional, intellectual, entrepreneurial, and domestic. Through examination of newly discovered institutional archives and private papers, and a wide range of unstudied advertisements, letters, manuals, photographs, and calling cards, Women Art Workers elucidates the critical importance of the spaces around which women conceptualised alternative creative and professional lifestyles: guild halls, exhibitions, homes, studios, workshops, and the cityscape. Shattering the traditional periodisation of the movement as ‘Victorian’, this research reveals that the early twentieth century was a critical juncture at which women art workers became ever more confident in promoting their own vision of the Arts and Crafts. Shaped by their precarious gendered positions, they opened up the movement to a wider range of social backgrounds and interests, and redirected the movement’s radical potential into contemporary women-centred causes.Less
Women Art Workers constitutes the first comprehensive history of the network of women who worked at the heart of the English Arts and Crafts movement from the 1870s to the 1930s. Challenging the long-standing assumption that the Arts and Crafts simply revolved around celebrated male designers like William Morris, this book instead offers a new social and cultural account of the movement, which simultaneously reveals the breadth of the imprint of women art workers upon the making of modern society. Thomas provides unprecedented insight into how women – working in fields such as woodwork, textiles, sculpture, painting, and metalwork – navigated new authoritative roles as ‘art workers’ by asserting expertise across a range of interconnected cultures so often considered in isolation: from the artistic to the professional, intellectual, entrepreneurial, and domestic. Through examination of newly discovered institutional archives and private papers, and a wide range of unstudied advertisements, letters, manuals, photographs, and calling cards, Women Art Workers elucidates the critical importance of the spaces around which women conceptualised alternative creative and professional lifestyles: guild halls, exhibitions, homes, studios, workshops, and the cityscape. Shattering the traditional periodisation of the movement as ‘Victorian’, this research reveals that the early twentieth century was a critical juncture at which women art workers became ever more confident in promoting their own vision of the Arts and Crafts. Shaped by their precarious gendered positions, they opened up the movement to a wider range of social backgrounds and interests, and redirected the movement’s radical potential into contemporary women-centred causes.
Amy Woodson-Boulton
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804778046
- eISBN:
- 9780804780537
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804778046.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
Why did British industrial cities build art museums? By exploring the histories of the municipal art museums in Birmingham, Liverpool, and Manchester, this book examines the underlying logic of the ...
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Why did British industrial cities build art museums? By exploring the histories of the municipal art museums in Birmingham, Liverpool, and Manchester, this book examines the underlying logic of the Victorian art museum movement. These museums attempted to create a space free from the moral and physical ugliness of industrial capitalism. Deeply engaged with the social criticism of John Ruskin, reformers created a new, prominent urban institution, a domesticated public space that not only aimed to provide refuge from the corrosive effects of industrial society, but also provided a remarkably unified secular alternative to traditional religion. The author raises provocative questions about the meaning and use of art in relation to artistic practice, urban development, social justice, education, and class. In today's context of global austerity and shrinking government support of public cultural institutions, this book is a timely consideration of arts policy and purposes in modern society.Less
Why did British industrial cities build art museums? By exploring the histories of the municipal art museums in Birmingham, Liverpool, and Manchester, this book examines the underlying logic of the Victorian art museum movement. These museums attempted to create a space free from the moral and physical ugliness of industrial capitalism. Deeply engaged with the social criticism of John Ruskin, reformers created a new, prominent urban institution, a domesticated public space that not only aimed to provide refuge from the corrosive effects of industrial society, but also provided a remarkably unified secular alternative to traditional religion. The author raises provocative questions about the meaning and use of art in relation to artistic practice, urban development, social justice, education, and class. In today's context of global austerity and shrinking government support of public cultural institutions, this book is a timely consideration of arts policy and purposes in modern society.
Nadine M. Knight
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780252042775
- eISBN:
- 9780252051630
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252042775.003.0006
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Movements and Social Change
Black women’s cultural production in the 1970s gained popular audience and critical acclaim for its frank disclosure of violence and inequity within black communities and by championing black ...
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Black women’s cultural production in the 1970s gained popular audience and critical acclaim for its frank disclosure of violence and inequity within black communities and by championing black feminist agency. This chapter situates black women’s literature and art in response to three intersecting sociopolitical movements roiling the nation: Black Power and Black Arts Movements, the emergence of second-wave feminism, and American involvement in Vietnam. The works in this chapter overturned long-standing expectations and stereotypes of respectability politics in depicting graphic, militarized violence; sexual openness; and skepticism about motherhood. In doing so, these works explored the attractions and shortcomings of militancy as a defense against domestic and national violence and promoted mutual respect between genders, sexual freedom, and the possibility of collaborative protest.Less
Black women’s cultural production in the 1970s gained popular audience and critical acclaim for its frank disclosure of violence and inequity within black communities and by championing black feminist agency. This chapter situates black women’s literature and art in response to three intersecting sociopolitical movements roiling the nation: Black Power and Black Arts Movements, the emergence of second-wave feminism, and American involvement in Vietnam. The works in this chapter overturned long-standing expectations and stereotypes of respectability politics in depicting graphic, militarized violence; sexual openness; and skepticism about motherhood. In doing so, these works explored the attractions and shortcomings of militancy as a defense against domestic and national violence and promoted mutual respect between genders, sexual freedom, and the possibility of collaborative protest.
