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An Analysis of the Artistry of Black Women in the Black Arts Movement, 1960S-1980S Abney Louis Henderson University of South Florida, [email protected]

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An Analysis of the Artistry of Black Women in the Black Arts Movement, 1960S-1980S Abney Louis Henderson University of South Florida, Ahender9@Mail.Usf.Edu University of South Florida Scholar Commons Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 7-10-2014 Four Women: An Analysis of the Artistry of Black Women in the Black Arts Movement, 1960s-1980s Abney Louis Henderson University of South Florida, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd Part of the Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies Commons Scholar Commons Citation Henderson, Abney Louis, "Four Women: An Analysis of the Artistry of Black Women in the Black Arts Movement, 1960s-1980s" (2014). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/5236 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Four Women: An Analysis of the Artistry and Activism of Black Women in the Black Arts Movement, 1960’s–1980’s by Abney L. Henderson A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Liberal Arts with a concentration in Africana Studies Department of Africana Studies College of Art and Sciences University of South Florida Major Professor: Cheryl Rodriquez, Ph.D. Kersuze Simeon-Jones, Ph.D. Navita Cummings James, Ph.D. Date of Approval: July 10, 2014 Keywords: Black Revolution, Cultural Identity, Creative Expression, Black Female Aesthetics Copyright © 2014, Abney L. Henderson DEDICATION “Listen to yourself and in that quietude you might hear the voice of God.” -Dr. Maya Angelou April 4,1928-May 28, 2014 For my mother, Germaine L. Lorelus, a beautiful Black Haitian woman who overcomes her struggles one day at time and expresses her love with a mighty, yet graceful force. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT iii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER TWO: THE CRITICAL CONNECTION BETWEEN RACE, ART, AND POLITICS Black Women’s Art, Politics, and Racial Uplift 6 Black Women's Political Art and Activism 7 The Art and Activism of Black Women: Historical Foundation 8 Four Women: Simone Giovanni Catlett and Shange 14 CHAPTER THREE: THE BLACK ARTS MOVEMENT— HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 17 The Black Arts Movement (Defining the Black Arts Movement) 17 The History – The Harlem Renaissance and The Civil Rights Era 19 The Black Arts and The Black Power Movements 26 Conflicts that Challenged the Movements: Racial Discrimination, Cultural and Gender Issues 28 CHAPTER FOUR: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 36 Revolution and Cultural Identity 36 The Black Aesthetic 38 The Black Female Aesthetic 41 CHAPTER FIVE: METHODOLOGY 44 CHAPTER SIX: FEMALE REVOLUTIONARIES, THE RADICAL EXPRESSION AND ACTIVISM OF SIMONE AND GIOVANNI 45 The Black Revolution and the Roles of Black Women and Activism 45 Nina Simone 47 The Revolutionary Music of a Influential Songstress 49 “I Am A Revolutionary Poet” – Nikki Giovanni 58 Nikki’s Rebellion 68 CHAPTER SEVEN: ARTISTIC VISIONARIES, THE CREATIVE AND LIBERATED EXPRESSION OF CATLETT AND SHANGE IN VISUAL ARTS 71 Cultural Identity 72 Elizabeth Catlett: The Foremother of the Black Arts Movement 74 Catlett’s Women Art 77 Art forms: Realism and Abstract 78 The Body of the Female Sculpture 78 Catlett’s Activism in Three Movements 80 Ntozake Shange’s Visions of Rainbows, Love, and Triumph 85 The Choreopoem “for colored girls” 87 Language and Black Woman’s Song 89 Shange’s Activism 93 i The Feminist Perspective 95 CONCLUSION 98 Analysis and Major Questions 98 REFERENCES 113 ii ABSTRACT This project honors and recognizes the art and activism of four Black woman—Nina Simone, Nikki Giovanni, Elizabeth Catlett, and Ntozake Shange that contributed to the revolutionary movements of the 1960s through the early 1980s. This thesis examines the works and political challenges of Black women by asking what elements in their artistry/activism addressed issues specifically related to Black women’s unique position in America during the Black Revolution and feminist movements? Both primary and secondary sources such as literature from advocates of the Black Arts Movements and the lyrics, poetry, and visual art of the four Black women artists were used to gain perspectives to answer the thesis major questions. The creative visions and activism of these Black women expressed the dire need for the issues of Black women to be heard and also to address all forms of oppression that Black women experience with race, gender, social or economic status, and even cultural identity. The works of these Black women were radical and were also cultural reflections of Black women embracing their idiosyncratic position as Black women despite the climate of perpetual deceptions used either by White Western ideologies or Black male chauvinism. This thesis concluded that when the concerns of Black women are attended to by their own strengths of character and merits, they are also able in return to contribute to their own self-empowerment as well as to the development of racial, gender, and community uplift. iii INTRODUCTION This thesis is about the creative expression of four Black women and the political implications of their work. These four women—Nina Simone, Nikki Giovanni, Elizabeth Catlett and Ntozake Shange—were prominent artists during the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s through the early 1980s. They were also activists during the revolutionary years of the black freedom struggles. Art and politics came together in these women’s lives in unique ways to produce music, visual art, performance art, and poetry that reflected the political, social and economic status of Black people in America. This project highlights the significance and distinctive expressions of Black women who desired and struggled to find their own voice despite the difficulties and varied oppositions during the Black Revolution. During the 1960s -1970s art and politics played a role in African Americans’ resistance to Jim Crow segregation and other forms of racial oppression in the United States. A paradigm shift occurred in the way African Americans perceived themselves, especially how they viewed themselves as American citizens. According to Hoyt W. Fuller the shift was “a rediscovery of heritage” and “a method to defeat the power of prolonged and calculated oppression” (Gayle 1971). For Fuller the artists of this era were at war with White American society and anticipated self-expression through a new shift that allowed them to identify themselves as Black artists with the use of the “Black Aesthetic, a system of isolating and evaluating the artistic works of Black people which reflect the special character and imperatives of the black experience” (Gayle 1971). They sought a way to combat their struggles by combining distinctive art forms and politics. This thesis recognizes four individual women of this time who used art as a medium to question and confront forms of social and gender subjugation. 1 More specifically, the purpose of this research is to illustrate how art and politics was and can be used to educate, motivate, and depict a visual and/or an auditory history of a group of people and their political efforts towards power and liberation. This research also identifies the contributions of these four women to three specific movements: the Black Arts, Black Power and the Black Feminist movements. Another purpose of this study is to acknowledge some of the challenges and their subsequent these four women overcame to express themselves through art and activism. Consequently, this contributes to the knowledge about Black women’s genius in Black Studies and American History. This research also contributes new knowledge on the Black Female Aesthetic, by first identifying four specific Black women activists who used forms of creative expression to explore methods of creating a female revolution and who acknowledged Black cultural identity to empower the rights of Black women. And second, this research provides knowledge on the works of these four women that are not commonly known to their current audiences or are not addressed in the history of the various Black movements. Many know Nina Simone as a singer but not many people are aware that her music was influential during the Black Arts Movement. One can look at the sculptures and lithographs of Elizabeth Catlett, but many do not know there is a reason why she depicts the images of poor Black women. For this project, the theoretical framework of the Black Female Aesthetic explores the different forms of these Black women’s identities that were expressed visibly and invisibly in the cultural aspects, ideas and expressions of their creative works that in turn reflected the many voices and struggles of Black women during a revolutionary era. Essentially, both art and politics were used to address the objectives and goals of these four women against forms of oppression. As there is no clear historical definition of the Black 2 Arts Movement, this introduction reviews the published studies that have addressed the broad vision and purposes of the movement. This project also discusses the connections to art and politics of the time. Leroi Jones (Amiri Baraka) and Larry Neal are the editors of Black Fire: An Anthology of Afro-American Writing (1968), which is a collection of essays, poetry, fiction, and drama that first depicted the artistic and political works of literary artists of the Black Arts Movement. This anthology provided a space for artists to confront their issues with Western politics, social views, and artistic values. The anthology represented a creative response to White oppression and also addressed how the artists used various art forms to advance their political agendas. In search of a Black culture, these artists such as Sun–Ra, Carole Freeman, and Sonia Sanchez also expressed the need for social and political change in America. In the essay, “The Development of the Black Revolutionary Artists” James T.
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