Encyclopedia of the Black Arts Movement

Verner D. Mitchell is professor of English at the University of Memphis. He is the editor of This Waiting for Love: Helene Johnson, Poet of the Harlem Renaissance (2006) and coauthor (with Cynthia Davis) of four subsequent books on women writers of the Harlem Renaissance. His work has appeared in Studies in American Culture, African American Review, American Literary History,and other journals. Cynthia Davis is professor of English at San Jacinto College in Houston, Texas, where she specializes in Caribbean and African American literatures. Her publications include Where the Wild Grape Grows: Selected Writings by Dorothy West (2004), Western Echoes of the Harlem Renaissance: The Life and Writings of Anita Scott Coleman (2008), and Literary Sisters: Dorothy West and Her Circle (2011). Mitchell and Davis are the authors of Zora Neale Hurston: An Annotated Bibliography of Works and Criticism (Scarecrow Press, 2013).

• Acknowledgements Preface Introduction by LaToya R. Jefferson-JamesTimelineEntriesAfriCOBRAAllen, SamuelAngelou, MayaBaldwin, James“Ballad of Birmingham”Bambara, Toni Cade Baraka, Amiri Black Aesthetic, The Black Arts Movement in Algeria, The “Black Dada Nihilismus”Black Fire: An Anthology of Afro-American Writing Black Theatre Issue of The Drama Review Black Theatre MagazineBlack Women Writers (1950-1980): A Critical EvaluationBlack Women Writers and the Black Arts Movement“Blues Ain’t No Mockin’ Bird”Blues for Mister CharlieBroadside Press“Bronzeville Mother Loiters in Mississippi. Meanwhile, a Mississippi Mother Burns Bacon, A”Brooks, Gwendolyn Bullins, EdCaldwell, BenCaribbean Artists Movement Catherine CarmierChildress, AliceChisholm, ShirleyColeman, Wanda Collins, KathleenDavis, AngelaDeacons for Defense and JusticeDent, TomDodson, Owen Du Bois, W. E. B.DutchmanEvans, MariEvans-Charles, MartieFire Next Time, Thefor colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf Free-Lance Pallbearers, TheGaines, Ernest J. Giovanni, Nikki Gunn, Bill Hansberry, LorraineHayden, RobertHenderson, DavidHopkinson, Nalo Jordan, JuneKennedy, AdrienneKgositsile, Keorapetse WilliamKnight, Etheridge Last Poets, The“Lesson, The"Malcolm X Malcolm X, Poetry on Marginalization and the Black Arts MovementMarson, UnaMilner, Ron“Monday in B-Flat”Morrison, ToniMumbo JumboMusic and the Black Arts MovementNeal, LarryNegro Digest / Black World / First WorldNegro Ensemble Company, TheNo Place to Be SomebodyOne Day When I Was Lost: A Scenario Based on Alex Haley’s The Autobiography of Malcolm XOrganization of Black American CulturePolite, Carlene Hatcher Ra, SunRaisin in the Sun, ARandall, Dudley“Raymond’s Run”Redmond, Eugene B.Rodgers, Carolyn Ross, FranSanchez, Sonia Sexual Identity and the Black Arts MovementShange, NtozakeShepp, ArchieSlave, TheSmith, Jean Wheeler Society of Umbra, The“Sonny’s Blues”Soul on Ice Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Teer, Barbara AnnThis Child’s Gonna LiveThomas, LorenzoTill, Poetry on Emmett Touré, Askia MuhammadTupac Shakur and the Black Arts MovementUnderstanding the New Black PoetryVoodoo Aesthetics and the Black Arts MovementYour Blues Ain’t Like MineSelected BibliographyIndexAbout the Editors and Contributors

The Black Arts Movement (BAM) of the 1960s and early 1970s was the artistic and aesthetic side of the Black Power Movement. BAM was perhaps more global in scale and remains a subject of scholarly and intellectual interest to this day. Mitchell (Univ. of Memphis) and Davis (San Jacinto College), both professors of English and accomplished specialists in African American literature, have compiled an incisive, captivating history of this radical political and social movement, which raised race consciousness through art and was a unique 20th-century artistic movement. Arranged alphabetically, entries cover political and social leaders, artists, authors, works, and major themes of the movement; this compendium is an excellent introduction to and summary of BAM. Topics such as black women writers, marginalization, sexual identity, voodoo aesthetics, student nonviolence, poetry on Emmett Till, and the black aesthetic are cogent and well summarized. Influential longer works merit attention, but significant short stories and poems—for example, James Baldwin's “Sonny’s Blues" and Amiri Baraka's “Monday in B-Flat”—also have their own entries. Each entry includes suggestions for further reading. The encyclopedia includes a brief foreword and preface, a time line, and a helpful index.Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers.