"Separating the Substance from the Noise": A Survey of the Black Arts Movement. by Yvette Hutchinson. Thesis submitted to the University of Nottingham for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, October 2002 Contents Abstract Acknowledgements Dedication Introduction Chapter One: The Development of the Black Aesthetic Chapter Two: Representation of a Black Hero : William Styron's Nat Turner and a Black Critical Response Chapter Three: Black Aesthetic Critics and Criticism. Chapter Four: Critical Approaches to Blackness and the New Black Poetry Chapter Five: Building Black Institutions: The Development of Black Theatre Chapter Six: "When State Magicians Fail, Unofficial Magicians Become Stronger"Dissent and Aesthetic Variations Chapter Seven: The Second Stage: Revolution and "Womanist" Essentialism in Black Women's Poetry and Fiction Conclusion: "Relanguaging" Black People in a Black Consciousness. Bibliography: Works Cited Works Consulted Abstract This thesis will survey the Black Arts Movement in America from the early 1960s to the 1970s. The Movement was characterised by a proliferation of poetry, exhibitions and plays. Rather than close textual analyses, the thesis will take a panoramic view of the Movement considering the movement's two main aims: the development of a canon of work and the establishment of black institutions. The main critical arguments occasioned by these literary developments contributed to the debate on the establishment of a Black Aesthetic through an essentialist approach to the creation and assessmentof black art works. This survey considers the motivations behind the artists' essentialism, recognising their aim to challenge white criticism of black forms of cultural expression. Underpinning the Movement's critical discourse was the theme of blackness, a philosophy of racial consciousnessthat blended a rather crude biological determinism with the ideology of a unique black experience. Physical blackness, the racial identity shared by black-skinned hues determined their people of all and shades, social , economic and educational opportunities. It was from these shared factors that a philosophy of blackness was pursued and the thesis assessesthe attempt by black writers and thinkers to develop a theory of black cultural expression for their creative and critical works. The impact of blackness and the Movement's success in achieving its aims are evaluated through an analysis of the debate on black aesthetics, the New Black Poetry Movement, dissent in the work of Amiri Baraka and Ishmael Reed and womanist essentialism in the poetry and fiction of black women writers. The thesis concludes by acknowledging the influence of the Black Arts Movement on future black writers particularly in the discourse of the "New Black Aesthetic". Acknowledgments I would like to thank my supervisor Richard King, for his insightful comments and astute critical guidance. Thanks too, to Graham Taylor who also read, re-read, criticised and challenged my work. In addition, Graham provided humour, friendship, a listening ear to my rambling anecdotes and then, reminded me to get back to work. Thanks also to Ethelbert Miller and Kalamu Ya Salaam who kindly agreed to be interviewed. Kalamu also sent me a draft copy of his book The Magic ofJuju. -The Black Arts Movement which assistedme enormously in my research. At the risk of sounding like a self-indulgent soul singer, I really must say thanks to God, not only becausemy faith has infonned my life and work but also because that faith has been the bedrock of my relationship with my personal trinity; my father Victor, my mother Una and my sister Viv. Thanks also to my many friends and family members who asked how things were going and sensitively knew when not to ask. Finally, this thesis has been written because and in spite of the sudden death of the man I loved dearly. Yvette Hutchinson 3Oth September 2002. Dedication To my sister Viv whom I love beyond words. Introduction The Black Arts Movement was a vibrant cultural movement. It blended music, drama and poetry in a loosely organised arts, political and black nationalist commitment to black arts by black men and women. There were a variety of events and activities taking place in America during the 1960s that contributed to the development of the Black Arts Movement. The Civil Rights Movement's activism and community development programmes inspired young black men and women to make demands for freedom in all aspects of their lives. In music, after Bebop and Hard Bop, the new jazz, led by such musicians as John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman seemedto represent a new age of black music. In 1964, the musician Bill Dixon led what was dubbed the "October Revolution in Jazz", a series of concerts by avant- garde players in New York. In the literary arts, the poet and playwright Amin Baraka (then LeRoi Jones) won an Obie Award for his play Dutchman, and Sidney Poitier, an Academy Award for his performance in Lilies of the Field. All of these events representedthe buzz of activity taking place across the black arts scene in America. However, the Black Arts Movement loosely began in 1965, the year in which Malcolm X was assassinatedand the Black Arts Repertory Theatre and School was established. It was driven by ideological, political and cultural concerns that inspired people to write and perform and the black artists saw themselves as part of a larger movement for black liberation. Larry Neal highlighted this view in his seminal essay "Black Art": Black Art is the aesthetic and spiritual sister to the Black Power The Black Arts the Black Power concept ... and concept both relate broadly to the Afro-American's desire i for self-determination and nationhood. Both concepts are nationalistic. i The between determined the form relationship art and politics style , content, and critical objectives of black artistic and cultural production from the 1960s until the mid-1970s, as was manifested in the flurry of meetings and symposia taking place at the time. A series of writers conferences fed the excitement. The gatherings occurred so frequently that Negro Digest carried a special column dubbed, "On The Conference Beat."... Organized by different groups, the meetings came in Berkeley, California, during 1964; rapidly ... occurring in New York City, 1965; in Dakar, Senegal,1966 (First World Festival of Negro Arts); in Detroit and Newark, 1966; in Detroit, 1967; in New York City, 1968; at Fisk University, 1966,1967, and 1968; at Howard University, during 1974, 197691977, and 1978; and in Lagos, Nigeria, 1977 (called the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture). 2 The Black Arts Movement could be described as an extemporised jazz session, without sheet music or the guidance of a conductor, where various musicians met and began playing a fanfare that drew the attention of the black community looking on. Throughout the Movement musicians, dancers, writers met together, shared venues and experimented with different artistic forms. Arthur Mitchell's Dance Theatre of I Larry Neal, "Black Art", The Drama Review Vol. 12 No. 4 (Summer 1968): 38. 2 Abby Arthur Johnson and Ronald Maberry Johnson, Propaganda and Aesthetics: The Literary Politics of Afro- American Magazines in the Twentieth Centu (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1979)170. Ironically, notwithstanding the role of conferences in promoting an international black arts agenda, Harold Cruse, who had advocated the inclusion of black culture in any black revolutionary movement, was very dismissive of such conferences."Negro conferences settle nothing, solve nothing, pose nothing, analyze nothing, plan nothing, create nothing - not even a decent new literary review - which is the least any bunch of serious, self-respecting writers with a gripe ought to do. " Harold Cruse, The Crisis Of The Negro Intellectual: From its Origins to the Presen (New York: William Morrow & Co., Inc. 1967) 498. Cruse was particularly scathing about the New York conference in 1965, describing it as "painfully frenetic" and citing The New York Tinies report of how the delegates 'hissed and hollered and debated". These conferences in New York and Fisk were led by John 0. Killens and attended by both black and white writers. The conferences, particularly in the early to mid- I 960s, attracted both young and more established black writers and critics and Killens, unlike the organisers of some other writers conferences, tried to maintain a policy of equality and inclusion. However, as black writers became more radical in their demands, the inter-age, intercultural mix of these conferences diminished. After 1968, with a distinct move among writers towards blackness and a black aesthetic, there was a break until 1974 when a new series of conferences were held at Howard University, led by Stephen Henderson, Howard's Director of Arts and Humanities. ii Harlem, the Harlem School of Arts, the Studio Museum in Harlem and groups like Rhythmaton, a percussive ballet troupe, were just some of the successful initiatives of the period. There was an increase in poetry and perfon-nance workshops at which new audienceswere exposed to black consciousness,a black aesthetic ideology and revolutionary black writing. It was not the first time that black artists had developed a political agenda through the arts; the Movement followed in the traditions of the New Negro Movement, during the Harlem Renaissanceof the 1920s and 1930s. That movement had brought together artists, critics and intellectuals in a fusion of political and cultural thinking. Some of the concerns of the Black Arts Movement, such as the development of a Black Aesthetic. were prefigured in discussions during the Harlem Renaissance.However, the Black Arts Movement differed from the Harlem Renaissanceas it did not have white patrons, the political imperative was more striking and there was less unity between the Black Arts Movement writers and their literary predecessors. The Black Arts Movement can be divided into two strands; community engagement and intellectual discourse.3 The two strands were linked by the intellectuals who led the activities for community engagement and generated intellectual discourse.