https://digitallis.isg.siue.edu/files/original/de2f56106a81ae4463b421983844115c.pdf aa3c9a7f05a4f4280b428f7aa8f2afae PDF Text Text .,. . BLACK POETRY OF THE POST-RENAISSANCE AND CONTEMPORARY PERIODS The psychological, social, political and economic issues that confronted Blacks after the Civil War and Reconstruction. persi-sTed through the Harlem Awakening. The collapse of the American economy in 1929 signaled, also 1 the collapse of white patronization of Black artists. However, several of the budding institutions)publications and social undertakings-begun before, during and after the Renaissance--have lasted up to this very day. And while the primary thrust of Black writing during the twenties was cultural reclamation and racial affirmation, the literature since that time has been dominated by variants on the theme of sociaJ/AA l1!9e~\hlflOS1; writings l~l 'inJ-uilu· . of the Post-Renaissance and Contemporary period~ protest is the most salient feature.~ 1,his factor, ~ ~ coupled with the appearance of new Black academic critics,~~~t off literary debates that still reverberate in Black letters. The two most vocal positions are l) or art remain free of overt 11 that Black literature protest 11 --thus avoiding "restrictions" which protest imposes on the creativity; and 2) that the Black artist's continuing responsibility is to engage in protest, to forge his work into weapons of liberation. These two views of the Black artist have always shadowed the developing Black literature. critical 11 But it was not until the emergence of a Black establishment 11 that the views received widespread attention or registered great influence. 96 At this writing, �I , • the issue of the writer's social responsibility constitutes one of the most vigorous on-going debates in the history of Black American literature.-----.... , fbe two major living Black • poets, Gwendolyn Brooks and Robert Hayden, are at sharp and critical odds on this particular issue. Hayden bas refused to place conscious racial concerns over the craft of poetry, holding that many of the new Black poets are minor versifiers with political ambitions. Miss Brooks, who stepped into the middle of the Black Poetry Movement of the late sixties, has shifted to the "Black first., poet second" position and holds the younger writers in high esteem. She noted that if she had died before she was fifty., she would have "died a Negro faction." In modern history., these debates have taken place in the midst., or on the heels, of treme~dous successes on the parts of Black writers. ¥et while the important Renaissance writers were prize-winners., it was not until the publication of Richard WrightJs novel.,Native Son., in 1940, that a Black writer received attention on par with the best white writers of his day. Wright's achievement was followed two years later by Margaret Walker's (Yale Poetry Prize for For My People), ten years later by Gwendolyn Brooks' (Pulitzer Prize for Annie Allen., poetry), and twelve years later by Ralph Ellison's (National Book Award, Invisible Man). Many of the Black writers of the 1930-1945 period sustained themselves by working for the Federal Writers' Project of the WPA. Some .:>f their own writings., as well as important 97 �cultural and historical studies, resulted from this work. During the same period, Black literary activity flourished despite the fact that, at times, ~lack unemployment reached up to fifty-six percent. Most of the Renaissance poets and fiction writers continued publishing, as did the historians and social critics (DuBois, Charles Johnson, Locke, Benjamin G. Brawley, and others). A new Black critic, J. Saunders Redding, had written a critical study in 1936. And in 1~41, poet-scholar Sterling Brown collaborated with Arthur P. Davis and Ulysses Lee on 0.:. monumental work, The Negro Caravan--the most ambitious anthology of Black literature yet published. Another pub- lishing landmark of the period was The Poetry of the American Negro (Hughes an.d Bontemps, 194 9). Both works carried earlie,r In-~ yer as well as contemporary poets. ~ween 1930 and· 1960Aanother group of poets, many of them teenagers at the close of the Harlem Renaissance, ~ , began to publish. In addition to Margaret Walker, Hayden and Gwendolyn Brooks, new names included Melvin Tolson, Margaret Danner, Dudley Randall (publisher of Broadside Press), Samuel Allen (also Paul Vesey), Frank :Marshall Davis, Ray Durem, Owen Dodson, James Emanuel, Bruce McM. Wright, Alfred Duckett, Myron O•Higgins (who colloborated with Hayden on a 1948 booklet of poems), M. Carl Holman, Russell Atkins (founder of Freelance in 1950), Donald Jef:frey Hayes, Richard Wright (who also wrote poetry), John Henrik Clarke(~ editor of ;EreeqQmk:!a~), Lance Je:ffers, Naomi Long Madgett , Gloria C. Oden, Zack Gilbert, Hoyt Fuller 98 �(editor of Negro Digest/Black World) and Lerone Bennet Jr. (historian ). pre o.rid. Many of these~post World War II poets were writing during the Renaissance but did not puhlish or achieve recognition at that time. Black poets writing before the sixties were recorded in Rosey Pool's Beyond the Blues (1962) -and Arna Bontemps• American Negro Poetry (1963). Some themes in Black Poetry of the post-Renaissance period are: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. ll. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20 .. 21. 22. Lynching Social injustice (discrimination, segregation, job bias) Paradoxes in Christianity The Black working-class man War Communism, Socialism, class struggle and other "left II movements Black ,Music (BeBop, Jazz, Blues, etc.) Black stamina and endurance Problems of the Black veteran Comparisons of Racism and bigotry abroad with similar situations in the U.S. Southern or rural Black life Black urban life Black women, especially mothers Patriotism Greek and Roman mythology and culture Racial slurs, stigmas and nicknames Black historical figures Academic pursuits Slavery Religion Poverty Status-climbing Many of these themes and preoccupations closely parallel political developments and pressures of the period. And. , Mt ove~atL ,are lthey};lioo removed from the "historical concerns of Black '• poets whom, Hayden notes, are "traditionally associated with protest." Nor are . these themes remote to the contemporary 99 �Black Poetry. For the student will note that while some of today's poets are not always well-read in either their own or the general literary tradition, they are usually politically-charged and often'relentlessly cynical in their appraisal of American society. Indeed, the contemporary poetry (which will only be alluded to here) ties all the loose ends of Black Poetry in to one amalgamating knot: A knot of stresses and twistings which constitute, in the words of Jane Cortez, Festivals and Funerals. For it is in the contemporary period that more poets than ever before are writing, publishing, and establishing unprecedented worldwide . recognition and distribution. . ('"r-tis) If Alain Locke could observe~that the Renaissance movement saw Black poets working as a grouphood, then an updated observation of Locke's reaction would acknowledge that Black poets are ini'luencing each other before our very eyes J--·o n television, on recordings, tapes, through a proliferation of printed collections and anthologies, via correspondence, through literary competition, at conferences and workshops, and through numerous new journals and other periodicals. The New Black Poetry movement--and its related ideological and aesthetical spin~outs--is, Hayden notes, one of the most "significant" developments of the contemporary era. The poets are not in agreement on the questions related to the Black aesthetic, to whom they (should?) direct their works, the use of racial consciousness, or the criteria for a "Black" poem. But most of them 1re discussing and examining these 100 �issues. James Baldwin (novelist, essayist, playwright), who succeeded Wright as the leading Black literary lion, has said that any Black man in the least perceptive "must be constantly on the verge of insanity." Indeed, LeRoi Jones (now Imamu Amiri Baraka, and an acknowledged leader of the New Black Poetry movement) appeared in the mid and late sixties as the embodiment of Baldwin's revelation. Like Baraka, many of the new Black poets "rage" in scalding lyrics that denounce American moral bankruptcy, send broadsides against "Uncle Toms" and the Black middleclass, and perform their poetry with a verbal vitality that rivals the old time preachers. More than ever before, Black poets are writing their poems to be read aloud--to move audiences to action. All contemporar Black poets, however, cannot be loosely lumped into the pattern ascribed to Baraka (who is an enigmatic, complex and multi-talented man). Indeed, many of the new poets align themselves with neutral writers, the "mainstream" of white poetry, "third world" acti vi ties 1 and other political, religious or ethnic co.Mp-;$•' · One · neiv and important factor in the new poetry is the sr..,-,,+e, of,.._ emerging ~African nations. Black Americans and Black Africans now fraternize in great numbers. S~k <U1 ~h1.11,~ . ' ,. . _ · hetS provided both subject matter and energy for the new poetry. Like the Beat poets of the fifties, many Black poets submerge themselves in everything from the occult to Eastern mysticism to private imagery 101 �and symbolism,. In general, however, the protest of earlier ~\llie,rt times continues to be /\ ; and the devices and referents are more often folk or cultural. Prevailing themes of con- temporary Black Poetry include: l. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. Black Music (including instruments and salutes to musicians themselves) Religion: Islam, Bahai, Voodoo, African ancestor cult, Christianity War Interracial dating and marriage Art (Black art, especially) Sensuality Violence Urban life Rural life Social injustice (denouncements of racism, colonialism, Imperialism, capitalism, etc.) Assessment of the "system, 11 the "establishment, 11 etc. Love (especially among Black men and women) Black pride (self-development, community development) Africa (names, places, dates, heroes) Christianity (support and satire) Whiteness as evil Blackness as good Attacks upon hypocrisy and artificial self-restraint: upon those who are not "for real" Forecast of doom (for the Western World; America especially) Astrology, numerology, ancient knowledge Black Nationalism, Pan-Africanism, Negritude, Soul, etc. Black History Rejection of drugs, alcohol and other so-called indications of Western "decadence" The list could go on ad infinitum. However, the student must respect the individuality of the poets and treat their works as separate flashes of power and creativity within the vast Web of the Black Experience. Much of the new poetry is avail- able in the numerous new anthologies, some of which are The New Black Poetry (Major, 1969), Black Fire (Jones and Neal, 1970), The Black Poets (RPndalL, 197J), New Black Voices 102 �I II , I, (Chapman, 1972) and The Poetry of Black America (Adoff, 1973). Today's poets have inherited the psychosocial ambivalences and complexes of America, seen the almost constant economic depression among Black masses, witnessed America's persistent lynch-vogue and recurring riots, and .felt the ~o.Me I '·· alienation and rejection known to their forefathers. >1hen,itttLt ~any observers sayAthe "break-away" strand in new Black America--and consequently in the New Black Poetry--was to be expected. Whatever the student's conclusions, it is evident Black Poetry is now an indelible part o.f man's literature. 103 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Eugene B. Redmond Digital Collection Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context EBRWritings_07_47 Title A name given to the resource Drumvoices: The Mission of Afro-American Poetry: A Critical History, typed partial manuscript, p. 96-103 Relation A related resource Eugene B. Redmond Digital Collection Language A language of the resource English Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource For digital rights and permissions, see <a href="https://www.siue.edu/lovejoy-library/about/policies.shtml">https://www.siue.edu/lovejoy-library/about/policies.shtml</a> or contact <a href="mailto:library@siue.edu">library@siue.edu</a> for direct inquiries. In copyright. <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Redmond, Eugene B.