Amiri Baraka- Black Arts Movement Essay Example

The Black Arts Movement Experience The spirit of the 1960s’ Black Arts Movement is captured in Amiri Baraka’s “AM/Trak,” which addresses the theory of the underlying relationship between art and culture. This simple theory of how culture works and how art reflects and influences the culture that produces it was the whole purpose of the literary movement led by Baraka. In order for one to understand their own experiences, they must acknowledge what factors have influenced how they have shaped their lives. By doing so, they will self-consciously discover and create themselves. The basis of Baraka’s poem, “AM/Trak” illustrates the defining concept of the Black Arts Movement; the notion of creating identity influenced by experiencing racial and social alienation.
The development of a modernized black culture is continually drawn to question because there are many outliers that can influence the basic fundamentals of experience. “What makes experience such an important concept for Baraka is how it frames the relation between the individual and the collective”(Punday 782). The Black Arts Movement was a period of an assembled reaction against several things including the Korean War, capitalism, and the assassination of Malcom X. Although Baraka incorporates these historical events into “AM/Trak”, the history of the Beats is approached more by expressing an individual’s reaction, rather than a single technical change or influence of history on society. The appreciation of the degree of exposure from an artist or individual models how the Beats linked the identity of black culture to specific trials and tribulations.
A desirable relationship between culture and society is a focalized theme in African American literature, but has been obliterated by the constant severance between historical transitions and the lack of ethical alertness (Quayson 1). Isolation of the African American population from white America has been influenced by harsh racism and inequality for