Black Arts Movement Research Paper

The Black Arts Movement was seen as a positive and proactive force that was used to help blacks gain full equality as whites. In addition, others saw it as a militant and violent movement whose primary goal was to create a wedge between whites and blacks. This movement was focused on the creation of poetry, novels, visual arts, and theater to reflect pride in black history and culture. This caused a shift that would enable African American artists to free themselves from the white standard. The Black Arts Movement was a new emphasis on autonomy for black artists to create black art for black people. This new meaning was to awaken black consciousness and obtain liberation.
According to the editors of The Norton Anthology of African-American

They no longer had to wait to be liberated because this movement raised awareness on different things. The Black Arts Movement ignited something in the African American community to adapt the African roots and don’t transform to white America. This movement called for African Americans to stand up and fight. These artists wanted to open the eyes of African Americans with a new radial aesthetic meaning. The Black Arts movement wanted to do art that was meant for the African American community to help change them as a whole. They didn’t want their art to continue to go with the “white standard” but they wanted to create their own art that was relevant just to the African American community. Even though the Harlem Renaissance was a movement meant to evoke this change, it didn’t quite make the change it needed to. The Harlem Renaissance focused more on the artists and appealing to white America, while the Black Arts movement did the opposite. This movement focused on the African American people, arts, politics and social changes. It incorporated the new black aesthetic and the artists to make the cultural and social change needed for African Americans to see themselves