Echoes of the Blues: A Study of the Aesthetic Thoughts of the Black Arts Movement

Yunli ZHAO

Abstract


The Black Arts Movement is also known as “the Black Aesthetic Movement” because of the distinctive aesthetic thoughts this movement advocated. During the years from 1968 to 1971, Larry Neal, Amiri Baraka, Addison Gale, Jr., Hoyt Fuller, Ron Karenga, and other key BAM members and leaders published numerous articles on black aesthetics in the periodicals such as Black Digest and Black World. The Black Aesthetic, edited by Addison Gale, Jr., contains theoretical essays by a number of BAM thinkers, many of which are recognized as seminal works of the study of BAM aesthetics. These writings cover the definition, functions, techniques, and evaluation of black aesthetics, and have become an important spiritual legacy of this movement. This paper aims to discuss the BAM aesthetics from three aspects in the light of some relevant theories and texts.


Keywords


The Black Arts Movement; Aesthetic Thoughts; Blackness

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References


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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/13488

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