of the Black Power Movement", the Black
Arts Movement stands as the single most
controversial moment in the history of
Black American literature...Although it was
fundamental in changing the American
attitude about the function and meaning of
Black literature...Black scholars still
considered it Black America's worst
cultural economic movements....
The movement itself targeted a number of
long-standing assumptions of literary critics
and historians; in particular, the role of the
text, the timelessness of art, the
responsibility of artists to their
communities, and the significance of the
spoken word as far as the various cultural
struggles...
is the link between the artist and his
community, the idea that art is for the
people and by the people. It is the
artist's responsibility to create his art for
the black people. The Black artist must
create new forms and new values... he
must create a new history... and must be
accountable for it only to the Black
people
Catlett, Elizabeth 1969
demands between cultural creation and
political commitment (i.e. the repetitive use of
the Black Panther Party icon).
one's own political views are inseparable...There is an integral relationship between the black
artist and the black community. Amiri Baraka points this out in a poem called "Black Art":
"Let Black people understand
that they are the lovers and the sons
of lovers and warriors and sons
of warriors Are poems & poets &
all the loveliness here in the world."
By LeRoi Jones
Amiri Baraka
Baraka called for a collective consciousness among Black America and an extinguishing of the
line between an artist and his people. In opening up his Black Arts Repertory Theatre/School
(BART/S), Baraka brought the artist smack into the streets of his community. Operating on
street corners, bringing poetry, plays, painting and music to the people and streets of Harlem,
Baraka accomplished the feat of making art accessible to the people and making artists
responsible to their community. Making it apparent that the artists and community were
inter-dependent and for artistic revolution to take place among the black community, that the
art had to come from and be for that very community. In the same way, Baraka encouraged
the notion of artists as political activists. Using their art to speak politically to the people
became an integral part of the movement. But as we have said, Black scholars feel the
effort fail to produce what it was intended to produce...
That is where The African Art Shop has found its place (or value) for our communities..
