The Black Arts Movement Research Paper

Elizabeth Grey

April 20, 2018

ENG 254

Donna Levy

Paper Two

Black Art consisted of African American artists, musicians, poets, playwrights, and authors that were governmentally inspired to arise in the rouse of the Black Arts Movement. The movement which took place during the 1960s and 1970s was a creative development that became center stage and demanded gradual social change activity of its advocates which promoted the principles of Black Power. The Black Arts Movement was led by Amiri Baraka who was considered the main originator and driving influence of the crusade. Baraka, formerly known as LeRoi Jones was a publisher, music critic, author, and poet. He was the greatest respected and extensively published Black writer of his

Wright went to Communism and began to discover a literary expression. “Wright would try his own hand at outlining a literary theory with broad claims for African American writers” (119). The outcome was “Blueprint for Negro Writing.” In this text, Wright believed African Americans were consumed with writing to satisfy White America and obtain social status. He felt Black writers spent more time contending for the black race instead of expressing ideas, beliefs, or attitudes common to African Americans. Amiri Baraka and Richard Wright were both exceptional writers. Baraka’s poem” Black Art” was more consistent with the Black Art movement while Richard Wright’s Blueprint for Negro Writing was symbolic of black power. Black Power was a radical slogan used by Wright to depict development of liberated African Nations. Wright considered the role that Negro writing played in America grew out of chance rather than purpose or intention. Wright believed ”Negro writing assumed two general aspects: (1) It became a sort of conspicuous ornamentation, the hallmark of “achievement.” (2) It became the voice of the educated Negro pleading with