Emerging from a
matrix of Old Left, black nationalist, and bohemian ideologies and
institutions, African American artists and intellectuals in the 1960s
coalesced to form the Black Arts Movement, the cultural wing of the
Black Power Movement. In this comprehensive analysis, James Smethurst
examines the formation of the Black Arts Movement and demonstrates
how it deeply influenced the production and reception of literature
and art in the United States through its negotiations of the
ideological climate of the Cold War, decolonization, and the civil
rights movement.
Taking a regional
approach, Smethurst examines local expressions of the nascent Black
Arts Movement, a movement distinctive in its geographical reach and
diversity, while always keeping the frame of the larger movement in
view. The Black Arts Movement, he argues, fundamentally changed
American attitudes about the relationship between popular culture and
"high" art and dramatically transformed the landscape of
public funding for the arts.
