The Black Arts Movement

This course will be an introduction to the radical, experimental art of the 1960s and early 1970s Black Arts Movement (the movement that was the artistic counterpart of the Black Power Movement). We will examine theories of the “black aesthetic,” the role of performance in cultural movements, the power of global black consciousness, the promise and limitations of black cultural nationalism, and the emergence of “Black Power feminism.” The course’s interdisciplinary approach will break the boundaries between disciplines such as literature, art history, and black studies.

We will analyze poetry, drama, essays, paintings, sculpture, and music. Artists such as Nikki Giovanni, Sonia Sanchez, Amiri Baraka, Sun Ra, Faith Ringgold, Jeff Donaldson, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Haki Madhubuti will be our focus. The course will be an intensive introduction to the types of questions, close readings, and critical thinking that shape the humanities. The anthology SOS—Calling All Black People: A Black Arts Movement Reader will be our text. 

 

Margo Natalie Crawford, Professor of English