The Cultural Roots Of The Black Arts Movement

“The Black Aesthetic is a cultural ideology” that came about during the civil rights movement to promote Black power and Black independence. During the period of 1954 to 1968, Blacks were fighting for the equality of racial injustices within America’s borders. This political movement allowed Blacks to see who they were really are, instead of what white America sees them as. Blacks gained a newfound sense of pride. This Black Pride gave birth to the Black Arts Movement. This happened right after the Civil Arts movement, which was around 1965 to 1976. The Black Arts Movement was a way for Blacks to express themselves to the Black culture as unique and prideful. Coming straight from Harlem, Black artists wanted to represent Black culture through
Sonia Sanchez is a poet and an activist. She wrote dozens of poems, books, and essays that focused on a variety of topics, including the lives of Black people. Amiri Baraka was widely known for his poetry, essays, dramas, fictions and more. He is considered as one of the founders for the Black Arts Movement. Nikki Giovanni is also writer. She expressed her racial pride through writing and activism. She came from a family that was prideful about their heritage. Maya Angelou was an activist that expressed her black culture and pride through her writings. She was the first Black woman to have her screenplay produced. Zora Neale Hurston was a novelist that contribute to the Black culture through her writing. She expressed the wonders and struggles of being a black woman through many of her books. Haki Madhubuti, or previously known as Don Lee, is known as an African-American poet and educator. He is the publisher and operator of a black-themed black store too. Many contributed to the Black Arts Movement, not just through writing, but through drawings, graffiti, music, and media. The goal, in the back of everyone’s mind was to bring Black people together and fight against the common enemy. White
Through his writing, Madhubuti related to millions of African- Americans inside of white America. Madhubuti not only wrote about their pain, their distress, their anxiety, but about the pride, the love, the traditions and history. Madhubuti wrote about the culture, which was expressed in all three of the poems above. The goal to open up the Black culture’s eyes and make them realize how worthy and beautiful they were being was completed. Without the start of Madhubuti, and the other artists that were pro-black, would Blacks really know how much a necessity they are to humankind? Would they know their worth and the pride that stands amongst us? The world may never know, but we do that the gratefulness it was for these artists to open up the eyes of Black