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R VI FE STIVALS & FU HERALS: BLACK I'O ETRY (JF TH[ 1 96 0 s & 1970 :; Th e y v.1 in g e d h .i !~ sp irit & wound ed l i s ton g ue but death was slow comin;>, · 1"1110 kill e d Lumu mba Wh a t ldll c J Jlal colm festivals & funeral s festivals & funeral s festivals & funer a ls & f e stiv als & fun eral s ---- Jayne Cortez Ov e i:-vi c \·.': The space betwe en f0stiv a ls a nd fuu c rals c a n be infinite or it: d e :ith] y s hort. her pol:111 . ,::m<l tr j ,, t' , 111 · he So Jayn e Cort ez s ay s thr o ugh the twistin gs a n d Lurnin g s . 1n But wh a t e ver the s pace, or th e pace, we a ll slip, slide, s o..1r ·, as we mak e o ur way b e tween th e pol a ril ie s (a ss l ~ n e <l c ,ic-lt at· lilrt l_t ) of life we live and the kind of d e ath 1✓ e die. 1970s o f t e n faces life and d e ath "stra i g ht up": Tilack po e tr y o f th e· 1960s a nd th o u gh, ns we have s e en, Bla ck po e t s in oth er time s did not cring e from th e br e ach es of racial nightmar e s, violence, sexua lity, u11bca u t i f ul lan Bu ag e, wickc J o r reli g ious folkis ru s, an d - th e~ Jc1 nands o f mu sic vihich e a ch of them seemed to h e ar--albeit from "Jiffer e nt drununers." To attempt a discussion of c ontempor a ry BL 1ck poetry is to turn others' t o n g ues into· flam e s: 11 b] .:1sph emy ! ," 11 1 wa s th e first!," �"We started it!," "That anthology was incornplele since it didn't inl'.lude me!," "It all started in this place or that pl~1ce! ," "llis/her poetry is not Black enough!," and so on. Nevertheless, the "smoke" from the sixties is beginning to cl~ar and, while more hingsir,ht is · neeJed, there arc important observations that should be made. llence in tlii s ch:1pter, the format will follow preceding ones-- will1 a notlceable dc-emrhasis in biographical-critical n ~ on individual ~ poets. Most serious poets who began writing in the late 1ifties--;- sixties and seventies, still !1ave much growing and threshing to do. volumes really contain earlier poetry. Also many recent So it i n not easy to evaluate (or even list) Black poetry produced over this peri id. Yet, historically speaking , certain undeniabl(' trends have occurred, and t li ,·y look roughly like this:· Black Poetry since the Harlem Renaissance (see Brown, Redding, Henderson, Jackson) has had cycling currents of "rage and "fire" though not the sustained gush witnessed in the mid and late sjxties; Black poetry after 194 '> expressed a belief (see Ray Dure111) that white liberals were no ; really interested in mounting the "final" chariots of fjre on behalf of Blacks (despite CommunistSocialist pronounceme1 t s); Black poetry of the J '1 50s and e arly 1960s provided a Civjl Rights groundswell for the volcanic burst of the later sixties; In Black poetry of th ,· early sixties ther ~ was planted the anvil Hhich shared the styl j stic., attitudinal and linguistic character �o f what is known as the New Black Poetry ; Current Black po e try , despi te " evolu t ion s " and "chan ges, " has not radically altered or laid to rest the best work of Hu ghes , Johnson (both), Davis, Toor1e · , Halker, Hayden, Brooks, Tol s on and Dods on: Exce pt for what Stephen ll encle rs on call s "tent a tiv e" ;inswers, Black poetry de fies all definitions (like Hari Evans ' s " Black Woman" )--splintering of f into ennumb e rble directions, s tyles , for ms , th eme s, cons i de r..itions nnd icll!as. This ch;:ipt e r, al l ab ove co nside red ( !) will. brjefly ske tch the of poetry from tile fiftie :-:; int o the mid-s i xties . co ntinuit y · Again , chronolo ~y wil.). be related since man y of th e po et s list ed we r ~ writing in the forti es and fif~ie s ; but most d ld not receive atten t ion until the sixtie s. µ The sk e tch will inclu<le general look at transitional poets (ol<ler and younger) a s th e i r \:Or k ·app e ars primarily ln about a half dozen anthologies ( from I Sm, l!0\1 lHack -1 Wa s., 19.58 , to Kal e i dosc ope, 1967) and wha t ' f ew volum0s were being brou ght out a t the time. Fr om this j uncture ·, th e exn1,1ination (see Locke I S anJ Bontemps I S di.v ision of the lle1w is s anc e ) takes up the po e t s wl1u came to recor,nit i on unde r the banner o f t he Black Arts Movement and Hho loo s ly fall into the category of New Black Po e t ry . Ol der poet s --ll ay den, Brook s , Randall, Walker , and others--will be briefly re-visit ed to see if the " new" mood wrou ght any significant chang e s in their vie1vs and/or their poetry . Thou gh also a critical history , this book is prima rily a historical guide--Jesigned to a id stud e nts, Le ac hers, and l a y re ade rs i n t he ir LXploration of Black poetry . Only a na iv e person 1 �would a ttempt, at this sta ge, a f ull critique o f th e poetry of the 1960s and 1970s. However, there are styli s tic patt e rns, similaritie s, and th ematic clusters which will be pinpointed and assessed from time to time. Some of the most provocative of recent stud ies of contemporary Black poetry a re Henderson' s The llilir an t !Hack Writ -: r in Af ric a and th e United States (1969, with Merc er Cook); Joy Flasch's l!elv in Tolson (1972); ,m Ne w Black Poetry (1973); Shirley Williams' s Giv e Birth to Hrichtn e ss (1972); Gibson's Moc rn Modern Black Poets (1973) and J a ckson's an d Rubi~'s Black Poetry in America (1974) (also see !J i. bliography). Lit e rary an d Social Land s cape: Assassinations, high political corruptio1 1, uph eava l, violenc e , c ha nge, · t en t i·ct eo 1 ogies, · fl amin~ · · --- 1 persis r h etoric ~ e tern1s used to de s c r1·b,.,~ t·l1e 1 ' ~t t,{;cfo,,1,,J.µ.JL. i:-. --, contemporary pe riod. Revolutions (of all kinds) mock and mold the world. _, From Cuba to Vie tnam, Har lem to Chile, Pakistan to Watts, Nigeria tu . Indonesia, Kenya to Berke ley, Jackson State to Kent State--the facts · and symbols of change have been dramat ic and violent. Meanwhile in th e Black spher e , Ile Bop w:1s declining (by the micl-fifties) and J a zz's great e st livin{ interpr e ter, .Charlie P~rker, was de ad . Musicians and vocalists began probing new for ms unJ c r the leadership of Mile s Davis, John Coltr a ne, the Mode rn Jazz Qu a rt et , Wes :tfonL gomery, Duke ElliugtOfl, Ray Charle s , ~ . Orn ett e Co l emn n, Billy Eckstine, ~ . Ella Fit zgerald and Billie Holiday, who died in 1959. Miss Holiday's name and ,. fam~ a Rain r e ach ed a worldwide audi e nce when, in 1972, Diana Ross, formerly of the Supr emes, starred jn the controversia l movi e , Lad y Sin gs th e Blues. Saxophonist Coltrane, a m:. jor influ e nc e on the current e en c ration of musicians and poe ts, d ied in 1967. An innova t o r, he sparked new interest in music with .l \..X �his " s h ee ts of sound" .:ipproach to pl.:1 yi. n g , influencing poets as well as musicians . The Fifties also witnessed th e maturation of Rhytl1m and Blues, popularized primarily by IH.ick radio disc jocb~ys \;ho developed lar g e followin gs . Inter- weaving with lively Black ·social n e1-rn nnd commentaries with the news, th ey anticipated the new oral poetry of the Sixties. Spin-offs from these broad- casting s tyles were pro ;; rams like 1\a nd s Land (started in the late Fifties). Young white America watched BJnc ks c.lanct, listened t o Little 1ii c hard ,:rnd Ch ub b y Checker, and trieJ to imitate it ~111 on TV and in their homes . This perio<l r,ave birth to th e first white su 1 c rstar Soul artis t-- Elv.i.s Prei,lcy . Black critics and social histo c.i.a ns not t that the new Black social 1:1usic, and the dances acco10panyi1 ; ; ii , fre ed 1li 1ite Arner lean you11~s tcrs fnw1 the prudish and self-righteous inhll>itions ,i [ their forep are nt!:>. Generally , America n science and i.n,l ustry developed more rapidly tha_n in previous periods. Russia launcl1e<l Sp utnick, a feat which was followe<l ~ by Arnerican-Russian science an<l space-exploration race which still co11ti11ues. I\ Tele;:,tar paved the way for televis ed covera ge of g lobal activities .while biochemical warfare and atomic res earch became th e ni gh tmar es people lived daily. · The Ar aer ican literary scene was ·swamped with political novels, sa tire, writin)jS on the war and experi1nental j ou rn a listic prose . The "underground" nc1vspaper eme rged ;:is a major v ehi cle for this new writing. psycho] o n ~ nploycd in ea rlier writing , is s till pr esent. The s ymbolism anc.l However, the influenc e of the writers from the Depression and war years is giving w-ay to ga d)jetry and a new wave. of existential concern. I Black, Jewish, Chicano, Iwlian anJ Asian writers are g rabbin g more of the lit e rary stage. �Contemporar y wl1ite anJ third worJ , writ e r s of influence in c lu de : John Cheever , H. Scott Homa J ay , Ralph Ellis r,n, Be rn c..1 rd Ma l amud , Fr a nk Chi n , John Hersey, Saul Bellow, Norman Mail e r, Ch i u a Ache be, Erne s t c ~i in es , J ame s Baldwin , Paul Chan, Flannery O' Connor, .\lbert Hurray , Ishmael Rc~ d, Hillia m Styron, J ames tjg ug i, \·/il l i am Demby, Shn -m llsu \fon g , J ohn Da rth , William _Me lvin Kell e y, a nd Irvin Wa ll ace . Dlack writ er s are includ ed in th e genera l listin g b eca us e during tlie cont e mporary pe riod . many of them achieved reco gnition on par with the b e st writ e rs everywhe re . ( Reed, for exampl e_,, was nomina ted in two categories for The National Bo ok Awa rd in 197L, . ) tempor a ry poets are: Some important con- Stanle y Ku r it z , Cyn Zarco, Robert Hayde n, Ri chard Eberhart , Robert Penn Warren, J os e }!onto ya , Gwendolyn Brooks, Laws on I na <l a , Theodor e Ra ethke, Karl Shapiro , i:obert Var gas , Melvin Tolson , John Berryman, Henry Dumas, Victor llernan<lez Cruz , Robert Lowe ll , Daniel Halp e rn, Rich a rd Wilbur, Paul Ve sey, James Jickey, Imamu Bar aka , Sylvia Plat It, Willia m Be.1 1 and Jame s \-!right. Hayden received a ational Book AwarJ nomina tion in . 1972 . 1 Many of the Black prose writers a nd poe ts (some from the pre- and post-war schopls) <lied durin g the contem~or a ry pe riod (Tolson, Bontemps, Hu ghes, \Jright, Durem, Dumas , DuBois, Horne, Rivers, To omer, Malcolm X, etc.). Ind·e ed de.:i th, in one wa y or another , not only preoccupied writers (white and Black) , but w.i s often r omantically pursu e d. Bea t poe t Kenneth Rexroth asked "Why have JC 1 Ame ric a n po e ts committed s uicid e . s i n ce 1900? " Those poets not concerned wi tl1 death we r e investigatirig deca de nce or the deathne ss of society. The development of contemporary poetry cannot be viewed prop e rly witl1out understanding the 11 Be at 11 per iod. As a partial product of th e Be Bop era in Black music, Beat poets emulated t!te hip mannerisms a nd aped the "man alone" (drop-out ) image) associated with musicians . us ed to f i ght the comme rcialization of .his Be Bop 11as one way the Blackman ar( He al s o us ed it in playing I �"Somethin;~ ," in th e words of Thelonious Monk, "they can't play." meaning whites). (They, Important among Beat poets were Lawren ce Ferhlinghetti, Rexroth, Allan Ginsberg, ancl Gregory Corso, amon~ the whit e s; and Bob Kaufman, Leroi Jones and T d Joans among the Blacks. Anotl1er Black poet writing c:it the time and loosely aligned with the Beat image was Russell Atkins who founded Fre el;ince in 1950. The neat Movement, which nurtured I occultism, rejection of the Establishment and an existential view of life, I was centered in Ne\/ York's Greenwich Village and the San Francisco Bay area. I The movement died in the early Sixties. I Kaufman is viewed by many as the unsuni: patriarch of the neat era . '-. JHac k cri_tics say major white poets of the movement entliusinstica lly t oo k their cues fro111 Kaufmnn ' s innovations, but were not so passionate in re- . cognizin8 l1is influence. his two volumes: Sardine (1967). Kaufman's poetry is found in c:inthologies and in SolituJes Crowded with Loneliness (1965) nnd GolJen As a kind of spir i.tual heir to Toomer, Kaufmtln is a ·complex, sometimes fra gmented, but brilliantly original poet. Ilis work, like tlint of m~ny of l1is contemporaries, ~s influenc e by Eastern religious thought and the occult. Stylistically, Kaufman has the "sweep" of Whitman coupled wi_th the best techniques of modern po~try . Ile passionately experiments 1vith jazz rhythms in poetry and often invokes jazz themes, moods c:ind musicians . Hany Beat poets and cnthusi.Jsts later joined or were spawned by the . ~ vVA-tS Civil Ri ghts str uggle whlc1t·wc1s int ens lfi~d by several things: Martin Luther King's Montgomery bus boycott ·in 1955-56; sit-ins and other dramatizations of segre ga t:ipn and discrimina tion; the challenges of Jim Crow in travel in 1961 (CORE); th e widening activities in '. ;NCC (1%1-64) and the tlarch on \-Jashing ton (196 3 ). Other significant act Lvi ties enflamed and ..j �inspireJ the hearts and imaginntion of Black Arn,~rican youth especially. The l'luslims' (tlation of Islam) growth to 50,000 members by 1963 and the Congressional action on Civil Rights Legislation were two seemingly unrelated but strategically important events. The growing influenc e of the Huslims s ugg<2s tcd tli il t many Black : no longer believed America was )(~ sincere in its pledges to implement c en when they be.::ame law. Abetting their Jistrust were the continued kiJ ings, night-ridings in the south and harrassment of Blacks in public p l aces and their homes. \Jith the bitter taste of Enunitt Till's murder still on their tongues , Blacks reeled under the killings of Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner, Malcolm X, Med gar I Evers, King, the Kennedy brothers, and the three Black Panthers (gunned down by police in their sleep in a Chicago apartment) . By 1966, however, - lllack Power signs and slogans began to replace the "We shall overcome-lllack and White Together" exclamations. Young Dlack America, adorning Afro hairdos and African jewelry, attended cultural festivals, back-t~Africa rallies, poetry readings, and began reading community news published ·n revolutionary broadsides and tabloids. Rhetorical forays by H. Rap Brown and Stokely Carmichael, youn g SHCC officers, set off a flurry of state and national laws against inciting to riot and the- transportation of weapons across state boundaries. 1.arc e and small cities ignited in flames that set the stage for gun batil~s between police and the often "imagined" snipers. These C:onfla13rations were repeated in scores of cities after Dr. King was assassinated in 1968. Watts poet Quincy Troupe captured the shock and horror, and chronicled the official reaction, in his poem 11 \.Jhite \.JeekenJ ": �The deployed military troo ps surrounded the llhite House an<l on the steps of the S, 11n te bu LJdin,; a soldier behind a machi1H gun 12,000 in.Washington & Ch ca go 1,900 in Baltimore }bryla 1d 76 cities in flames on th ~ lan<lscape and the bearer of peace still lying in Atlanta ... / In the last stanza, Troupe nptes with curdling irony : Lamentations! Lamentations! T.ament.:itions! lforldwide ! But in New York, on Wall Street the stock market went up 18 points At this writing, fallout from the Black Revolution reverberates a rounJ tl1e · globe. Black journalist Thomas Johnston reports Irish revolutionaries sinr, "He Shall Overcome." Posters and emblems commercialize everything from African hairstyles to the raised clenched fist--the initial sy~bol of Blac~ unity and defiance. A wave of . Black movies-- called Blaxploitation-- beginninr, with "white" experimental f licks like Putney SHope (1969) is capturing a multi-million dollar theater patronage. Dlack movies retrieved the crippled movie industry from tlie 'brink of disaster. Heanwhile, the murder, incarceration an<l political harra s swenl of Black ~en and women made them heroes and heroines in Blacl~ conu,1unities-- yct ironic:1lly symbolized the toriilenl an<l what some BLtck journalists cal led the " genocidal schemes" of ~ uerica (sec Samuel Yette 's The Choice). �Cri s s-crossed by paradoxes, politi cal c on.t ra<lictions, s ocial r evolts and relig ious and ambivalences, th e DL:1ck com1,1unit y i s nev<~r th e l ess r egene rated by it s singer s and pe rforme r s . Bl a ck popular mu s i c l1as not only r eached unpr e cedented aud ~nc es , but unprecedented money-making cap ab ilitie s. Rhy thm and l\ l ues , s.:.i i d t o have died ab out 1965, gav e way t o "Soul"-"I' m a So ul Nan," Sam a nd Dave announc ed in the lat e Sixtie s. The Impressions t o lJ lovers that you " gotta have soul" and Bo bby Womack r eminded listeners v that the 11 \foman' s Got ta llg.ve it"--presumably "Soul." Dl~k re cordin G cor,1 panies are in a boo1r, the two' largest on es be in g Mo Town (Detroit) nnJ \fa tts-St ax (Memphis). The current pe ri,od ha s also seen the np pea rance o f th e Bl ac k sup e rs tar--of ten called "super Nlgg er"--in e ver y th i ng from sport s to t!1ovi es . Curtis Hayfield's soundtr ac k album Superfly (1972) sold more th a n 22,000,000 copies and Marv Ln Gay's Hlw t 's Goin g On (1 971) set records for album sales: Recently, however, Stevie Wond e r has surpa ssed th em all. Lit e rally dozens of singing groups--mo<leled on the quartets a nd ensembles of th e fi fti es -are releasing albums re gularly. These folk or "soul" poets have be come. · more "conscious" in recent years and many now imbibe their songs with po1itical message s and exaltations of Blackness. Much of this new wave came on the heels of s e vere criticism by Barak/40 .::i dmonished the sin ge rs f or doting on unrequit e d love. Too ma n,. a re preoccl!pied with "my baby's gone, gone" themes, he said. Black consciousness activity--anJ cr e ativity in c eneral--now flourish e s. · Rela ted involvement includes: develop ment of Black acting ensembl e s; opening of fre e schools and Black universities; es t a bli s hmen t of Bl a ck Nationalist/ cultura l communes; increase in the numher of Black bookstores and African boutiques; establi s ~ nent of Black Stu<l{es programs on white and Black �campu ses and, in some cases, quota systems for enrolling Black stud ents; the escalation of Black demand f or "cream of t he c r op" job s s uc h ns tv announcing and the hos tin g of va ri e t y shows; expansion an d c r ea tion of new roles for Black newspap e rs, maga zin es .: :i nd r a dio s tations; for mat i on of ~ nat-i-ena~l - a-nct~s t-a-t e Hlncl~ Con gressi ona l caucu es and simil a r unit s in cw.-&.. l-eq ;d . ., . ;;c o~b H!G-5+- boo. t-e ( profe ss i ona l a-s -soelatie1. ·and , fin a lly and impo rt ~mtly, new enga ~ement with Afr ica a nd he r problems and possibilities. Ind eed, futur e trips to Africa-- to the "Moth e r country" or "llomelancl"--are discuss ed a t a ll a ge and s ocia l \ levels. Much of this renewed interest is understandable in li ght of the emergence during tl1 e contemporary period of sev e ral Afri ca n na tion stat e~ and the increased fraternization amon ~ Afr i cans and Afro-Ame ri can s . H.:1 l c olm X, , cannonized today by g r eat numb e rs of young Blacks and Bl a ck int el l ec tu a l s , did much t o foster this current int e rest in Africa. Shot to death at a · rally in Ha rlem in 1965, Malcolm (El Hajj Nalik El Sha bazz) had alr eady _be en expell e d fr om th e Nation of Islam, and had formed a splinter gr oup known as the Or ganiz a tion of Afro-American Unity. llis Autobiograph y of Ma l c olm X (wit.h Alex Haley, 1965), which (a s he pr edicted) he did not get to . see in print, chronicl e s his odyssey as Ha lcolm Little , hustler "De tr oit Re d," 'Malcolm X, and El-Hajj Malik El Shabazz. Halcolm w.:1s lioniz ed by Carmicha el; ll. lfop Brown , Oss ie Davis, lk1raka and v a rio us oth e r shc ol a rs, a c t .i vists and ar t i s ts . Bl ack po e t s , es pec i a lly, ha ve fo und Ma lcolm (aml Coltrane) a limitl es s s ourc e o f i nsp ira 't ion. c a n be see n in For lfa l colm : A pa rti nl in<l 1cu t ion of hi s i mpac t O ll I ·! :. peel s Po ems on tlie Life on d Dea th o f Ma lcolm X (1967) ,' e dit e d by Dudley Rand a ll and Mar gar e t G. Burroughs . Shaba zz " Rob e rt Hayd e n noted that: In " El-lfa jj Malik El .. �lie X1 d his name, became his peopl e 's anger, exhorte<l tl1em to vengence for their pi.1st; rebuked, .'.ldmonished them, The.i.r sc ouq_; er who \vOul(l shame Lhe111 , drive thern from the lush ice gardens of their servitu<le. At the First World ?estival of Negro Arts, held in Dakar, Senegal, in 1966, Hayden was awarded the Grand Prize for Poetry. ,\ major event, the festival was attended by experts, scholars, art.i.sts and enthusi.asts of the l, L1cl ~ Arts who gathered f:or 24 days to hcnr papers and J.i.scussions, view art exh.i.bits an<l cultural performances, and give prelimanary direction to the lllack Arts Movement. I 1 I 1 Presiding over the festival was Leopold Sedar Senghor, Senegalese I President, and one o[ the architects (with Aim~ Ccsair~ anJ L~on ]);_unas) of He~ritudc. I Negritude is a pl1ilosophy of Black Humanism which ensconces, according to its originators, the Black mystique or religiosity. .I The term grew~ut of tl1e associations of Black African intellectuals, French writers an<l artists, and Black American expatriates. I African-oriented publicatio~s ·. I such as Prtfoence Africaine and Black Orpheus have renewed their interests in Bi'ack Arncrican writers. ·I Likewise, · l'>L., ck American journals and popular ma~azincs (Il lack World, Journal of BlDck Poetry, Tl1e Black Scholar, Essence, ·1 Encore, Ebony, Jet, etc.) ha·v e be gun to publ.i.sh r.10re mater.i.als by and about I Africans. I The revolution in the Black Arts was signaled by many cvc11ts including the F.i.rst Cunferenct! of Negro Writers in March of 1959. Langston Hughes was I an important ilgure there--as he was at the D.:ikar gathering seven years later . I The First A,1 ~r.i.can FesUval o[ Negro Art was lk ld in 19 65 ilnd the Second AFNA I °'.lo r· ' ·11 \Y �took place in Nov12mber of 1969 in Buffalo, N.Y. Interlacing Lhcse and other conferences, symposi.:1 and conventions, were exc i.ting developments and experirnents in tlew York, Chicar,o, l.Jatts, Philadelphia, Atlanta, B,1ton Rou g e, St. Louis, Cleveland, Detroit and llashin :~ton, D. C . Durinr, thes e periods of social turn oil and artistic upsurge 1,riters and poets often ali8ncd themselves wit! movements. ideological positions and reg i onal Consequently , Black Ar t s coJmunes and regional brands of Black consciousness grew concurrently. Split s between older Civil Rights workers a nd ll]ack Nationalists were paralleled liy splits between older writers and yo unger prnctioners of "Black Arts ." Tlie splits were not always clear- cut, h owever , for many older activ ists and poets joined the new mood in spirit, thematic concern and personal life styJc, while some of Lhe youn ;:,e r wri.ters retained the influence of the earlier uwods. Complicatin~ things even more were the variants on the domil n ant themes of each camp. GwendoJ yn Brooks ., Duc.lley Randall, MarL'.,arct Danner, H.:iq;aret 1/alker and John Oliver !~.ill.ens are amont the older group of writers who vigorously took up the banner the new mood. o( Younf,er ,,riters \~ho :;e \.JOrks imbibe some "tradition" · include Henry Dumas (Poetry For My People, 1970 and Play !•: bony Play lv, l ry, 1974), Conrad Kent Rivers ('l'li 0 Still Voice of llarlem , 1963 , etc-. ) , Julia Fields (Poems , 1968), Al Young (Da11cin1! , 1960, L!tC . ) , and Jay \frir,ht ('l'l1c llomecorning_ Sing er, 1972) to name just cl few. Tl1e crent i.ve prolilise of this perioc.l was dealt a severe bl0\,,1 by the untimely deaths of Dumas and Rivers in 1963 . These poets are deeply influenced by the moods and preoccupations of the period (self-love, racial injustice, violence, war, Black Consciousness Gnd History) hut they \vork alone, test e d Jines and e xperi11ent within careful and tliou i~ht-out frames of referencer; . l!ost of the writers of the JlL~riod ·• o.' \ /J._ \7 �(th e ir s Lyles and id c ol.01.;i e s notwithstanding ) ha ve found thems e lves engulfed at one tir.1e or another in heated debates ov e r questions related Lo the "Black Aesthetic," the relationship of writer to reader , Bl ack vs white audiences, a nd the part politic s should play in their lif e and work. At this writi n3 , Lhc se cU sc ussions continue in most section s of the Black 1-lorlJ. The flurry of ideoloBical and aesthetical debate amonB the poets (and 0Ll1er writers) has often been precipitated or attended by critical writings, historical s~clies, social essays and public politica] s t .-i teml.!nts. Some of the individuals associated with initiating the plethora of rhetoric on the questLon of a "Black" ilt: sthetic (and re]ated i ss 11 e:-5 ) a re l~on Kar c n~a , Gwendolyn Brooks, llarak.:1, Addison Gayle , Jr., lloyt H. Fuller (Black World), l~dward Spriggs, J. Saunders Reddin ~ , Ralph Ellison, Larry Neal, Ernest Kaiser, r!el \fatkins, Ron Welburn, Dudley Ran<lall, Lerone Bennett, .Jr., Nathan Scott, James Ema nuel, Toni Cade-B<.1mbara, John llenrik Clarke, Don _L. Lee, E<l Bullins, and Stanley Crouch. A number of important studLes, liter~ry -1 and cultural, by Black and white writers, aided in wl1etting or prolongin~ the criticnl thirsts. are: Some of ·t he important and/or controversial vtritin gs The Militant Black Writer: in Africa and the Unite<l States (1969)~ - Cook and Henderson; Blacl: Expression (1969) and The Black Aesthclic (1971) Gayle Jr., ed,; Muntu: Literature: The New African Culture (1961) and Nee-African /\. History of Black Hritin,; (1968), Jahn; Lan ~ston Hughes: Black ~enius (1971), O'Daniel, ed.; Hlnck Poets of the United States: Paul J,a0ren ce Dunbar to Langston Hughes (1963, Fren c h edition; 1973 Enclish trans., Dougla s), Wa gner; Before the ~~yflower (1962), Bennett, Jr.; Shadow and Act (1966, Ellison; Unders tm1Jing th e New Black Poetry (197 3), Hend e rson; Collo quim on Ne gro Art: I First World Festival of Ne ~·. rn Arts, 1966 (] 968), .. ' �Editions Presence Africaine; The Nc P, ro Novel in America (] 965), Bone; Mother is Cold: A Study in West African Literature (1971), Rosco e ; The _C_r_i_s_i_s_o_f--t--h-e_N_e_p_,r_o_I_ . n_t_,__e_l_l_e_c_t_u_a_l__(_l_9_6_7_)_,_C_r_u_s_e_;_N_a_ti ve So,J A Crit-;c~l- { Study of T1-1enticth-Ccntury tlcgro 1\.rnerican Authors (196 8 ), Hargoll cs ; Dyna1:llle Voi cos : eL1cl~ J'oe ts of th e 1 9 60 1 s, vol. I People (1%J), IHacL 1'lu s l c (1967), llo,~ie: (1971), Lee; lllut2s Social Essays (1966), am! l~ai se l{ace Rays J~aze (1971), lfaraka; and Give Birth to Brightness (1972), 1-lilliams. A number of Black critics, artists, and activists heatedly de- nounce Hhites who re s earch or criticize Black liter.:iture, saying tlw t only those who have lived the Black Experience can write a b o ut it. Another group holds that whites can report on Black writin cj if they are sl.ncere and sylllpathetic. The Bl.J.ck Arts Hove1aent, as the contemporary period is sometimes called, took place in the sh.:idows of what many Black social critics hav e called the "second Reconstruction." Hence, much of the writing is a revolt a g ainst politicc1l hypocrisy and social alienation. In the angriest poetry, authors showGred disdain ancl obscenities on the "system" and whites in general. llefusing "integration" even if offered, younger poets derided Americc1n values and attitudes. I "Unlike the Harlem group," llnydcn noted,-"they rejected entri into the mainstream of American· lit e rature as a desirable g oal. 11 Of course, more than a f ew of the older poets \Je re writing in the Sixties and are writing today. Mnni of them, however, were sometimes laid aside by youn g readers who were unable to separate "poetry" from the fiery declamations of Cnrrnichael, Brown and innumerable local spokesmen and. versifiers. Of ten Ll1 e poets exchan g ed super _f icial indictments, indul ~eJ in name-calling and, as groups or individuals, began ratinr; each other on their "levels of Dlackn c ss'' e ven thou g h no criteria existed then and none exists tod a y for ~--- . \ .i �such ju<lgin~. Huch uf the <li.spute centered arournl tlle question of who "started" tlte IHack Arts or New Black Poetry movements. 1971, issue of Confrontation: In an article in the Spring , A Journal of Third \Jorl<l LiteraLure, Eugene Redmond stated: While it i s t.rue thut there are lea<li.ng lights of tlle Dlack Arts Hove1. ent , it is rtn emphatic lie to say one geogr;iphica1 region of the country is solely responsible for either the 1&ain (an<l Major ) writing outpu t or kicking off any tradition of Blacks \ffitlnr, about themselves . To · take such a contemp- tuously arrogant stand would be to write off the Black musical past . Aggression has been the rone in much of the contemporary poetry. This is partially <lue to tl1e presence of some who selec t ed poetry as a medium j of expression because of its deceptive simplicity nn<l briefness . HanU of .-::-(._ the new "poets" obviously have no genui ne i n terest in becoming good or . excellent craftsmen . On the other hand , the current period continues to witness a growing and wide-ranging concern for poetic craft and knowl6J ~e . During the sixties and into the seventies, literally hunLlreds of Black poets starte<l \ffiting and publishlni;--in ta.bloicls , mag.:nincs, bt·oadsides, antholoriies and indivi<lual collections . 1vere the ne\J publications: of Black Poetry. regions . Also showcasing tl1e new poetry Umbra, Black Dialogue, Soulhook, and The Journal Si gnificant ~lusters of poets develope<l in geographical And the atmosphere was enhanced by a number of African thinkers, ,"rt urtists , poets ;:ind novelists who arrived to America to teach, lecture, perform and travel . Tlte importance of this interaction amon g Blacks from vnri.ous parts of the ~lobe cannot be overemphasized . Black writers and students now read African, West Indian and Afro-Latin writers . Langston �llughes ncCJuainted American audiences with Afric..in literc1ture in his nnthologies: An African Trensury : Essays , Stories, Poems by Black Africans (19 60) ancl Poems from !Hnck Africa (1963). Whisners from a Continent: In 1969, Trinidadfon l!ilfreJ Cortey edited The Literature of Contemporary Black Africa. Narie Collin s c01,1pile<l Llnck Poets in Frencl, (1972) und Keorepetse Kgositslle eulteJ The \Jord is !Jere (1973). Other scho] ars and writers also wrotr critical studies or editcd ·antholog ies of A[ricnn and Caribl1ean literature. Black writing received a significant boost when in 1971 Senghor nnJ Afro-Cuban I poet Nicl1olas Guillen were nominnteJ for the Nobel Prize for literature--thus I I fulfilling James Weldon Johnson's 1922 prophecy that tl1~ first Black writer I to achieve substantial international fame would not come from America. ·1 Heightening the feeling 01. th e period was Charles GorJone's winning of the Pulitzer Prize [or drama (t!o Place to Be Somebody, 1970). Hany non-American Black writers now publishing or living in tl1e U.S. are Nigerinn novelist-poet Achebe, exiled South African poet Kgositsile, Nigerian poet-playwright Wole Soyinku, Ghanaian poet Kwesi Brew, South African critic Ezekiel Hphahlele, ., Nigerian poet-play11rir,ht Ifeanyi Henkiti, Martinique poet-playwright Aime I I Cesaire and Cuianese poet~scholar Leon Damas. chanBe ideas and compare styles. The writers fraternize, ex~ tl~hahlele, for example , has written criiical studies of Black American writing (Voices in the IJhirlwind, 1972) while Hiss Brooks has praised African r1ritini:; (Introduction, Kgositsile's Hy Name is Afrika, 1971). South African poet, Hazisi Kunene, wrote the Introduction I foi Cesaire's Return to•~ Native Land (1969 translation). Several Afro-American expatriate artists and writers returned to America during the current period for eithe r temporary or permanent residency. Added to this flurry o[ activities ancl changes were the establishment of � 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_51 Title A name given to the resource Copy of Drumvoices: The Mission of Afro-American Poetry: A Critical History, typed partial manuscript, p. 85-101 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.