Revisiting the Black Arts Movement

Given the current state of affairs, we must revisit the movements of the Civil Rights, Black Power and Black Arts. Today the movement will have to be relevant to our times, but it must be down. From the issues of gentrification, leaving children behind, poverty and health care, the movement is among us.

Arts and creativity will be a key role in engaging our communities of color given the rhythm and soul of the people. Combining the trends of the advertising and marketing world with the culture of the people we can revive the souls of the people to engage and empower them to make a difference in the current state of affairs.

To be effective will involve knowing our history of the 1960s and combine that with the tools and knowledge among us. I hope you can take time to learn more and share your knowledge.

The question is with all the intellect among our generation: how will we use that knowledge to serve the larger quest for equity in humanity. After reading the article on Sonia Sanchez, I decided to learn more about the Black Arts Movement, which I have provided a snippet:

The Black Arts movement is also credited with motivating a new generation of poets, writers and artists. In recent years, however, many other writers–Native Americans, Latinos/as, gays and lesbians, and younger generations of African Americans, for instance–have acknowledged their debt to the Black Arts movement.

Poets in the Black Arts Movement inlude: Amiri Baraka, Gwendolyn Brooks, Ed Bullins, Eldridge Ceaver, Jayne Cortez, Harold Cruse, Mari Evans, Hoyt Fuller, Nikki Giovanni, Lorraine Hansberry, Gil-Scott Heron, Maulana Ron Karenga, Etheridge Knight, Adrienne Kennedy, Haki R. Madhubuti, Larry Neal, Ishmael Reed, Sonia Sanchez, Ntozake Shange, Quincy Troupe, and John Alfred Williams.

The Black Arts Repertory Theatre/School (BART/S) was founded in Harlem by Amiri Baraka with the hopes of bringing music, poetry, art and performance to the streetcorners of the city.

On April 30, 1965 Baraka, (then LeRoi Jones), joined up with Charles and William Patterson, Askia Toure, (then Rolland Snellings), Clarence Reed, Johnny Moore and a number of other Black artists to open the school. The school was later granted funds through the Johnson administration’s Harlem-Youth Act (HARYOU), but despite the source funding, BART/S created, as Larry Neal put it, “plays that shattered the illusions of the American body politic and awakened black people to the meaning of their lives.”

The BART/S self-proclaimed mission stated that it would be, “a repertory theatre in Harlem, as well as a school. As a school it [would] set up and continue to provide instruction, both practical and theoretical, in all new aspects of the dramatic arts.” The hope of the BART/S was to open a channel between the artist and his people, as well as giving the people a chance to experience and create their own art.

The BART/S was short-lived because of lack of funding as well as internal issues, specifically disagreements between the founding members. Yet, its legacy spawned the opening of Black theatre/schools all over the nation including Black House as far west as California and Spirithouse in Newark. These organizations continued the BART/S’ commitment to concerted political, economic, and cultural activity at the service of the black revolution.