The Influence of The Black Arts Movement

The Black Arts Movement proved to be a very pivotal, and much needed moment in African-American literature to disrupt a past tradition of humble, prim, “decorous ambassadors” African-American novelist have been categorized as (Wright 1403). During the movement a shift occurred in the perspectives and understanding of African-American novelists and poets. The conscience of the those in literature seemed to have been awakened as they became aware of their social responsibility and influence in the African-American community. The range of the views held by those of the Black Arts Movement varied significantly from the social function of African-American art to a more narrow perspective of what it means to be a black individual and or writer. A great deal of the work created at this time was very opinionated and designed to empower and uplift African-Americans. The movement holds a tremendous effect and influence on writers that have come in the later part of the on-going insurgence. The themes, concepts, and social questions that the Black Arts Movement artists had influenced a new generation of writers who extended and related to the Black Aesthetic in more contemporary times.
Conscientious novelists now write with the purpose to communicate the definition of blackness and the variety of the “Black Experience” correlating with writers of the movement. Natasha Tretheway‘s poem “Help 1968” is one that was subsequently influenced by the logic and perspectives of the movement. Artist and works of the Black Arts Movement made a significant impact on not only the American literary world, but future African-Americans and African-American writers. The early Black Arts Movement artist created a sudden shift within literature, deviating fro...

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Works Cited

Baraka, Amiri. "The Revolutionary Theatre." The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. Ed. Henry L. Gates, Jr. and Nellie Y. McKay. Second ed. New York: Norton, 1969. 1960-63. Print.
The Diane Rehm Show." U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey. N.p., 23 Jan. 2013. Web. 28 Mar. 2014.
Wright, Richard. "Blueprint For Negro Writing." The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. Ed. Henry L. Gates, Jr. and Nellie Y. McKay. Second ed. New York: Norton, 1937. 1403-10. Print.
Tretheway, Natasha. "Why I Write: Natasha Tretheway on Poetry, History, and Social Justice." Interview. Youtube.com. Emory University, 15 Feb. 2010. Web. 28 Mar. 2014.
Fuller, Hoyt. “Towards a Black Aesthetic.” The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. Ed. Henry L. Gates, Jr. and Nellie Y. McKay. Second ed. New York: Norton, 1968. 1853-59. Print