Galvanized by the post-World War II decolonization of African nations and the civil rights, Black power, anti-war, and feminist and womanist movements, African-descendant cultural producers in the United States began claiming a Black aesthetic that emerged from the lived experience of Black people. The Black Arts Movement (BAM) permeated rural and urban areas, drawing on blues, jazz, Black folk culture, and Black idiomatic expressions as its foundation.
Spend a day with Michele L. Simms-Burton, scholar of African American and Africana studies, to explore the Black aesthetics and Black pride that define BAM and how this movement converged with and diverted from political, economic, and social landscapes of the 1960s and 1970s. Examine a number of Black cultural producers during this period, from the music to the literature to the Black-owned presses.
10–11 a.m. The Music
Listening to the music of protest social-conscience artists like Gil Scott-Heron, Nina Simone, Curtis Mayfield, Marvin Gaye, Sweet Honey in the Rock, and Sun Ra reveals the movement’s soundtrack and the prescient warnings that these artists issued about American society.
11:10 a.m.–12:10 p.m. The Literature
Central to the movement is the literature of Gwendolyn Brooks, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Ntozake Shange, and Nikki Giovanni, Simms-Burton says. Examine their works within the context of a changing Black aesthetic and how each writer contributed to a shift in the American literary canon.
12:10–12:40 p.m. Break
12:40–1:40 p.m. The Art
Defining a Black aesthetic also permeated Black art of the 1960s and 1970s as artists used Black culture as their muse. Understanding this period, Simms-Burton says, involves viewing the work of artists such as Charles White, Emory Douglas, Faith Ringgold, Elizabeth Catlett, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Alma Thomas, and Emma Amos.
1:50–2:35 p.m. Theater and Film
As one tenet of the Black aesthetic was that culture should be accessible to the public, theater became a viable venue for delivering literary and performative culture, thus giving new life to Black-run theaters. Black filmmakers, from Melvin Van Peebles to the members of the L.A. Rebellion film movement, turned to narratives that drew from U.S. Black and diasporic cultures. They worked against the Hollywood aesthetic as well as stereotypical and often racist portrayals of African Americans in film, says Simms-Burton.
2:45–3:30 p.m. The Presses
Black presses like Broadside Press, Third World Press Foundation, the Black Panther Party, and Drum and Spear Press provided a mechanism for Black writers to reach their audiences, Simms-Burton says, when many white-owned presses and publishers deemed Black writing a liability and unprofitable. Crucial to understanding BAM is delving into the role that the Black-owned presses played in expanding the readership for Black writers, she argues.
Simms-Burton is a writer and former professor.
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