| Overcoming Boundaries |
| "The young writers of the black ghetto have set out in search of a Black Aesthetic, a system of isolating and evaluating the artistic works of black people which reflect the special character and imperatives of Black experience," writes Hoyt Fuller in his essay, "Towards a Black Aesthetic" (Gayle, The Black Aesthetic). The Black Aesthetic is a way of perceiving the world through the unique experiences of a militant, self-aware African America. It is a way of perceiving form as more than simply aesthetic beauty. It is also a set of criteria by which readers can judge whether a particular work or art is truly 'black'. According to Fuller the Black Aesthetic is the realization that after hundreds of years of being told they are not beautiful, Black Americans have stood up to realize and reclaim their beauty through different art forms. It goes further than any afro or dashiki, further still than any hip lingo or mystique. The Black Aesthetic reflects the Black Experience. Likewise, the Black Aesthetic reflects the need for change. |
| The Black Aesthetic |
| Zelda Beckford AFAM 398.01 March 26, 2002 |
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| Both inherently and overtly political in content, BAM was the first American literary movement with a national reach to advance social engagement as its primary mission. The �revolutionary� literature of the depression era (1930s) such as the communist-led John Reed clubs which promoted the work of Richard Wright and other Black writers of that period, did not have the national reach that the BAM had. The focal points for the production of most of that Marxist-oriented work were Chicago and the Northeast corridor (particularly the New York area). BAM on the other hand was produced in the far west and in the Deep South as well as in the Northern urban areas*.I have learned however through research, that the BAM did have a national reach. The Black Arts Movement was neither a one-city nor one-region phenomenon. Individuals and organizations nationwide were actively involved and accounted for both its vitality and its diversity. The BAM broke from the immediate past of protest and petition (Civil Rights) literature toward an alternative that initially seemed unthinkable and unobtainable: Black Power. As a political reference, the phrase "Black Power" was not new. The slogan had earlier been articulated by Richard Wright specifically in his 1954 book Black Power: A Record of Reactions in a Land of Pathos, which described the mid-fifties emergence of the independent African nation of Ghana*. The more familiar, sixties use of the term originated in the Civil Rights movement in 1966 with SNCC (the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) which was often described as the most militant of the major Civil Rights organizations*. |
| Fuller, Charles H. "Black Writing is Socio-Creative Art." Liberator 7.4 (1967): 8-10. |
| Gayle, Addison. The Black Aesthetic. Garden City, New York: Doubleday Publishers, 1971. |
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| Watts Daniel H. "Cong. Powell-HARYOU-ACT." Liberator Magazine, no.5, (June 1965), 27. Levy, Peter B. The Civil Rights Movement. (Greenwood Press, CT, 1992), 188 & 73. |
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