His work was a wonderful example of the New Negro movement. He responded to the need for African American writers, artists, and intellectuals to embrace their cultural heritage and define their own collective personhood through the arts. Also known as the father of African American art, Aaron Douglass played one of the leading roles in the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s. (Earle, Susan 2007) Aaron Douglas was born Topeka, Kansas in 1898 to Aaron & Elizabeth Douglas.
He is considered an important figure in the Harlem renaissance because his artwork explained in a deep way how african american life really was. Douglas’s art style was incorporating shadow art with cubist forms to create very deep and meaningful paintings. Some of his work includes his maybe most popular and first piece, The New Negro("Aaron Douglas." Biography.com). Other pieces include Let my People Go which is oil on masonite, Illustrations for The Crisis and Opportunity and Harriet Tubman, mural at Bennett College(Aaron Douglas." Biography.com).
Nicholas Pinto Professor Lynch 7/16/17 Analyzing How Jazz Changed African-American Society For The Better Jazz has been undeniably been tied to African American society since its creation. In her piece called the Social Effects of Jazz Zola Phillips tells us some of the origins of jazz, “Jazz developed from Afro-American music which included: work songs, spiritual music, minstrelsy, and other forms”. Another big contributor to the creation of Jazz is its direct descendant—the blues. The blues are a type of music created by blacks in America that includes the blues scale.
Artist have a unique way of getting messages of positivity around, some in paintings, poems, social media or in song. With protest songs, artist express their feelings towards worldwide issues to their audience but also to send awareness. First, In Cole’s song “Be Free,” explains the issue of police brutality towards the African Americans community.
Even though culture was booming everywhere during the 1920’s, nowhere was more exuberant than Harlem. The huge social, cultural, and artistic explosion in Harlem was called “The Harlem Renaissance” or “The New Negro Movement.” This movement’s main cause was to create a new black identity, to show blacks that they should be proud to be black. This movement gave light to many poets, authors, such as Langston Hughes, and gave birth to new styles of art such as Jazz. Jazz was described as “the essence of black music.”
His early articles, including "The Negro in the Theater" (1964) and "Cultural Front" (1965) asserted the need for separate cultural forms to develop Black artists in a racist society. In 1968, Neal’s "Black Fire" and "The Black Arts Movement" further developed this perspective. Neal argued that the purpose of Black arts was to effect a “radical reordering of the Western cultural aesthetic,” in part
One of the most influential figures in the Black Arts movement was Amiri Baraka, formerly known, LeRoi Jones. Baraka started the Black Arts Movement, the cultural arm of the Black Power movement, with the formation of the Black Arts Repertory Theatre after the assassination of Malcolm X. “The Black Power exhibit shares the rise and fall of one of the most influential, yet often misunderstood, movements in the civil rights struggle. Interpretation of the Black Power movement explains it as a continuation of the Civil Rights Movement rather than a radical new movement (web).” In the Black Power exhibit, one question asked “What do we want?”, and the answer was “To determine the destiny of our community”, and that’s what Baraka was stating
Some of them included Duke Ellington, Fletcher Henderson, and Jimmy Lunceford. Interestingly enough, because of the popularity of the music, African Americans were able to produce music and bring it into white society for them to listen to. These African American musicians also influenced many of the white musicians as well. White jazz musicians had taken inspiration from black jazz music for many years, but because of swing, they became even more deeply devoted to integrating this music to blacks and whites. Benny Goodman was one of these white musicians.
Therefore, Cone states that “the black experience means telling whitey what the limits are.” On the other hand, for Cone, the black history is black persons who can show the black power resisting to “every act of white brutality.” Related to those two sources, the black soul, in which implicates their joy and pain, expressed throughout all of black art activity of the black community which makes black culture as another and most valuable source. Even though Cone mentions the Scripture and revelation as other sources of the black theology, they are being interpreted only in a way of making harmony with the black condition oppressed by whitey. Inasmuch as the hermeneutical principle of the black theology, the Scripture and revelation must be valued for delivering the necessary soul for black liberation.
From singing old Negro spirituals around the plantations to now sharing their feelings, celebrations, problems, and struggles worldwide over the internet and hundreds of different radio stations. African Americans and their culture have come a long way over these pass decades. We all have borrowed aspects from the Afro-American culture whether it be fashion, literature, or music. The world famous Stax’s Museum of American Soul Music, located in Memphis, TN, is a wonderful museum that shares the stories of African American artist on the come up through the Civil Rights Movement to present day. Stax shows off their talented vocal abilities, groove lyric writing, and memorable style throughout the decades.
We went outside and looked into the streets, the buildings had gaping holes in them mostly at the bottom parts and a strong scent of gasoline with burnt wood was in the air. For a while we 've been searching for any survivors, food, or weapons and tools. We eventually ended up finding some medical supplies a little bit of food rations and a dog, the dog was found at a backyard tied to the fence he was lucky to survive the attack but his leg was broken. In our medical supplies where just some gaws and medical tape which made it difficult to fix not only that, the dog was scared and he was growling at us I could see his glimmering white teeth through his mouth. We did however fashion a cast out of a few thin sticks and the tape we aloes wipe the blood off with the gaws and , took the dog with us on the
In the 1920s and 1930s, a large movement of art and literature took place in the city of Harlem. Many African American authors express their thoughts and ideas through anyway possible. Whether it be music, art, or literature, its impact gave the African Americans a new place in society. One composer of music was very influential to all people. His name is Duke Ellington.
African American writers are unfairly being dismissed, their works of art being seen only for the content and not for the intellectual word play, brilliant use of literary devices, and any other factor displayed no matter the genius of it. Okri also brings to light that “You could not guess at the difficult lives of the ordinary people from the works of Shakespeare. Nowhere in his plays would you learn that in his time they emptied their lavatory buckets outside their windows and that the streets of Stratford-upon-Avon reeked with rubbish. Yet the works endure. They continue to illuminate the human spirit and awaken us to the strangeness and magnificence of the human estate”.
The Black Movement shaped African American Literature by urging blacks to assert themselves. Prior to the Black Power Movement, there were contrasting approaches that blacks took with regards to their aims to equality. Martin Luther King Jr. was an influential man and the leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. His approach was one of unconditional non-violence. Malcolm X, on the other hand, was an influential figure in the Nation of Islam, a black Muslim group that condoned self-defense.
The Black rights movement affected the black community in a positive way. It opened eyes to create equality for African Americans. The people that chose to stand up for the causes that were important to them had to be strong willed individuals. This holds true for the sports world as well. Equality can only come when prejudice and stereotypical barriers are broken down.
