The Black Arts Movement and Its Critics
Author(s): David Lionel Smith
Source: American Literary History, Vol. 3, No. 1 (Spring, 1991), pp. 93-110
Published by: Oxford University Press
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The
and
Black
Arts
Its
Critics
Movement
David Lionel Smith
Professionalcritics of the 1980s and 1990s generallyhold
writingof the BlackArts Movementin low esteem. Thoughthe
literaryoutput by black writersof the 1960s and early 1970s
was substantial,there is a paucity of scholarlyliteratureon this
body of work. Various characteristicscommon to Black Arts
writingmake it unappealingto many literaryscholars:it often
confuses social theory with aesthetics, failing to articulatethe
complex relationshipbetweenthe two; much of it is predicated
upon crude, strident forms of nationalism that do not lend
themselvesto carefulanalysis;and too often the workis marred
by the swaggeringrhetoric of ethnic and gender chauvinism.
The extremesof this writingare so egregiousthat we may come
to equate all the work of the movement with its worst tendencies.
By "paucity"I do not mean that the scholarlyliteratureis
weak or that theresimplyneeds to be more of it. I mean, rather,
that even the most rudimentarywork in this area is yet to be
done. We do not have a singlebook, criticalor historical,scholarly or journalistic,devoted explicitlyto the Black Arts Movement. Carolyn Fowler's extensive bibliographyon the movement is a valuableresearchtool, but it was publishedprivately
in an edition that is availableonly directlyfrom the author. A
fair amount has been written on Black Arts theater;many articles and severalbooks have been writtenon the workof Amiri
Baraka. Yet except for Eugene B. Redmond's useful, albeit
sketchy, history of black poetry, Drumvoices(1976), Reginald
Martin's intriguing monograph, Ishmael Reed and the New
Black Aesthetic Critics (1988), and a few notable articles,the
Black Arts Movement remains unresearched.A review of the
MLABibliographyforthe past 10 yearsgivesthe clearestpicture
of this dearth. Under the cross-indexedheadings "Black Aesthetic," "Black Arts Movement," and "Black Poetry Movement," one findsseldom more than three or four listingsin any
given year. Because roughly a third of those articles have appearedin Europeanor Australianjournals,in most yearsthere
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94
The Black Arts Movementand Its Critics
are only a couple of articlesunderthese headingsthat one can
easily obtain throughnormal channels.Furthermore,many of
the movement's basic documents, such as Black Fire (edited
by LeRoiJonesand LarryNeal) and TheBlackAesthetic(edited
by Addison Gayle, Jr.),are now out of print.The workof some
poets, suchas Haki Madhubuti(Don L. Lee)and SoniaSanchez,
remain available from small presses, but books by Carolyn
Rodgersand many others are long out of print. Thus, even the
materialsfor studyingthe movement are increasinglyscarce.'
Basic questionsabout the Black Arts Movement--such as
whendid it beginand end, whichwritersand stylesdid it include
and exclude, what were its cultural origins and characteristic
tendencies,who were its factions, and how were its works developedand disseminated-await seriousdiscussion.And clearly, a single, authoritativeanswer to such questions will not
suffice. Instead, we need an ongoing critical discoursearound
these issues.Scholarship,afterall, is a processof learnedcritical
discussion,not merelya seriesof unconnectedpublishingevents.
At present,the silence regardingthe Black Arts Movement is
deafening.
I want to identify some of the basic issues raisedby Black
Aestheticliterarytheoristsand to suggesta continuinginfluence
of Black Aesthetictheory in the work of some currenttheorists
of black literature.I also want to indicate certaininadequacies
in BlackAesthetictheory.The BlackArts Movementsuggested
exciting creativepossibilitiesthat have not yet been fully realized, but it also fostered certain habits of thinking which we
would do well to abandon.My purposehere is to describeboth
tendencies and to note the role of several critics in the development of these ideas.
1. What is the Black Aesthetic?
The concept of "the Black Aesthetic"has been integrally
linked with the Black Arts Movement, yet even at the height
of that movement,therewas no realagreementaboutthe meaning of this term. In his introductionto one of the centraldocuments of the movement, TheBlackAesthetic(1971), Addison
Gayle remarked:"The Black Aesthetic, then, as conceived by
this writer,is a corrective-a means of helpingblackpeople out
of the polluted mainstreamof Americanism,and offeringlogical, reasoned argumentsas to why he [sic] should not desire
to join the ranks of a Norman Mailer or a William Styron"
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AmericanLiteraryHistory 95
(xxii). For Gayle, the Black Aesthetic is an ideological tonic
that cures misguidedassimilationisttendencies.
By contrast,Hoyt Fuller,in the lead essay,definesthe Black
Aesthetic in terms of the cultural experiencesand tendencies
expressedin artists'work. He notes: "In Chicago, the Organization of Black American Culturehas moved boldly towarda
definition of a black aesthetic. In the writers'workshopsponsoredby the group,the writersare deliberatelystrivingto invest
their work with the distinctive styles and rhythms and colors
of the ghetto, with those peculiarqualitieswhich, for example,
characterizethe music of a John Coltraneor a CharlieParker
or a Ray Charles"(9). Interestingly,when Fullerelaborateson
what he means by black style, he does so by quoting several
paragraphsfrom an essay by a white writer, George Frazier,
who grudginglypraised black style in an essay he wrote for
Esquire.
By focusingon rhythmand style as the essentialaspectsof
a black literary aesthetic, Fuller identifies themes central to
discussionsof what is distinctiveabout blackexpression.Nonetheless, his essay reveals certain peculiarities.Though he does
not follow Gayle in defining aesthetics as a form of political
enlightenment,Fuller'saccount takes musiciansas models for
literaryexpression.Furthermore,thoughhe stresses"stylesand
rhythmsand colorsof the ghetto,"none of these musiciansgrew
up in "the ghetto." Coltranewas from North Carolina,Parker
from Kansas City, and Charles from Georgia. Fuller's long
quotation from Fraziercites musicians, athletes, dancers,politicians,but not a singlewriter.This reflectsa common problem
among Black Aesthetic theoristsin findingliteraryprecedents
for BlackArts Movement writing.Indeed,many of these critics
assertedthat no priorwritingexisted that deservedto be called
"blackwriting."But the greatestirony hereis that Fullerresorts
to a white writer-a writerwhom he identifiesas hostile to "the
likes of LeRoi Jones" (10)-in order to illustratethe quintessence of black style.
The difficultiesthesewritersexperiencein definingthe Black
Aesthetic exemplify a dilemma that writersof that movement
never resolved,one which, I argue,could not be resolved.The
concept of "blackness"was-and is-inherently overburdened
with essentialist,ahistoricalentailments.An adequateaccount
of African-Americanaestheticpracticeswould call the concept
of "blackness"into question, and the failure to question this
concept would inevitablylead to muddledtheories.The nature
of the problem can be readily illustratedin semantic terms.
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96
The Black Arts Movementand Its Critics
Consider the difference between "the Black Aesthetic" and
"BlackAesthetics."The formersuggestsa singleprinciple,while
the latterleavesopen multiplepossibilities.The formeris closed
and prescriptive;the latter,open and descriptive.The quest for
one true aesthetic correspondsto the notion of an essential
"blackness,"a true naturecommon to all "black"people. This
is the logic of race, a logic createdto perpetuateoppressionand
not to describe the subtle realities of actual experience. The
choice of "the BlackAesthetic"ratherthan "BlackAesthetics"
representsa fundamentaltheoreticalfailure of the Black Arts
Movement. Yet erroneousor not, this is the choice that Black
Aesthetic theoristsmade, nor is it difficultto understandwhy,
given the social imperativesof the time. Nevertheless,while we
must assessthe historicalrecordas it stands,we might consider
what it means to envision the African-Americanculturaltradition as plural, not singular.After all, most currenttheories
of black culture are just as singularas "the Black Aesthetic,"
though less forthrightlypolitical. A black pluralisthistoriography remainsto be explored.
The problem of historicalunderstandingis a centralissue
Both writersand critics for Black Aesthetic critics.How writersconceive themselvesin
of the Black Arts Move- relation to their literary antecedents is important for several
mentfrequentlyarticu- reasons.It defineswhat
they explicitlyembraceand reject,but
lated the notion that
even
more
it
important, defines that broader field of works
they hadfew if any anwhichthey feel an obligationto know-in otherwords,the basis
tecedents.For them,
of their literaryeducation.Both writersand criticsof the Black
past black writingwas
Arts Movement frequentlyarticulatedthe notion that they had
mostly a chronicleof
evasions:failures or re- few if any antecedents.For them, past black
writingwas mostly
fusals to discoverand
a
chronicle
of
failures
evasions:
or
refusals
to
discoverand exexpressauthenticblack
press authentic black consciousness.In The Way of the New
consciousness.
World(1975) Addison Gayle concludeshis discussionof early
black fiction by declaring:"The inability of the black novelist
to build upon the foundation laid down by [Martin]Delany
meant that no viable literarytraditionwas possible until after
Native Son" (29). For Gayle, "viable" black writing is that
which expressesrage at and rejectionof white people. Consequently,except for Delany, the firstcenturyof blackfictionwas
entirelyan exercisein falseconsciousness.A criticor writerwho
holds such a view is unlikelyto learn much from those generations of writers whom he has dismissed. In effect, such an
attitudeembraceshistoricalignoranceas a criticalpremise.
The consequenceof such thinkingis egregiouslyapparent
in LeRoi Jones'sessay, "The Myth of a Negro Literature."First
published in 1962, this essay is an important articulationof
Jones's early aesthetic thinking. He begins with a starkdecla-
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AmericanLiteraryHistory 97
ration: "From Phyllis Wheatley to Charles Chesnutt, to the
present generation of American Negro writers, the only recognizableaccretionof traditionreadilyattributableto the black
producerof a formal literaturein this country, with a few notable exceptions,has been of an almost agonizingmediocrity"
(Home 105).Jonesproceedsto dismisssubsequentblackwriters
as well, with a sneeringcondescension:"[O]nlyJean Toomer,
RichardWright,Ralph Ellison, and James Baldwinhave managed to bring off examples of writing,in this genre, that could
succeed in passing themselves off as 'serious' writing, in the
sense that, say, the work of Somerset Maugham is 'serious'
writing.That is, serious,if one has never readHermanMelville
or James Joyce. And it is a part of the tragic naivete of the
middle class (brow)writer, that he has not" (107). According
to Jones, all Negro writers("with a few notable exceptions")
have aspiredto middle-classrespectability,which he sees as a
quest for mediocrity.It is furthermorea rejectionof these writers' own black identity and of their honesty in renderingtheir
own experience, because the black middle class has always
spumed honesty as perniciousto its hopes of being acceptedby
white people. "High art,"Jones declares,"must issue from real
categoriesof human activity, truthfulaccounts of human life,
and not fanciedaccountsof the attainmentof culturalprivilege
by some willinglypreposterousapologistsfor one social 'order'
or another"(Home 109).
The claim to be a defenderof truthagainsta horde of liars
is most interestingfor how such a postureuses ideas about race
as a groundingfor aestheticclaims. Jones's black neoromantic
equation of art, truth, and beauty entails two conceptualproblems. First,Jones definesmiddle-classexperienceas inherently
dishonest.Hence, any art,no matterhow accomplished,dealing
with middle-class experience would be false and mediocre.
Among other things, this formulationreveals a wholly inadequate understandingof the class perspectiveof the writersJones
claims to admire.Second, Jones equatesblack with lowerclass.
Hence, by Jones's prescription,for middle-classblack writers
to produce"highart," they must repressthe truthof their own
actual experienceand write instead as though they were lower
class. Though Jones claims that his aesthetic is a rejection of
class bias in favor of truth, it is in fact a rejectionof one classperspectivein favor of another. Needless to say, fair-haired,
white-skinned, upper-class African Americans like Chesnutt
and Toomer cannot become more authenticas artistsby masqueradingas Lightnin'Hopkins. What Jones really articulates
here is the familiarposture of the bohemian, who always flees
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98
The Black Arts Movementand Its Critics
from class origins in quest of an aesthetic realm perceivedas
the marginsof society.2
In this gospel accordingto Jones, black writershave failed
because they have not been blues people. That is, they were
doomed to fail by being real AfricanAmericans,not idealized
exotic Negroes, and by being writers,not musicians. Interestingly, Jones does not acknowledgethe effortsof writerssuch as
LangstonHughes and SterlingBrown-one of his teachersat
Howard-who did in fact embracethe folk and the blues. Perhaps they rank among his unnamed "notable exceptions,"
though, actually, his comment appearsto refer to himself. In
any case, the most conventionalracial notion in Jones's argument is the assumptionof black inferiority.Negro writing,he
argues, is inferior writing. Negro writersare not honest, and,
furthermore,they areignorant.Americanracialdiscoursemakes
assertions of Negro ignorance inherently credible. Still, how
could anyone readthe first 10 pagesof InvisibleMan and claim
that Ellison has not read Melville and Joyce? How could any
readerof Cane dismiss it as a defense of middle-classvalues?
Jones's comments suggestthat he probablyhad not read the
workof these authors.In accusingthem of ignorance,he reveals
his own, but to be ignorantof Negroesis no sin in our culture.
After all, we assume Negroes to be unworthyof seriousattention. Being black does not necessarilyexempt us from the condescendingmodes of race thinking.3
Quite the contrary,race thinking exists to perpetuatehierarchicalclaims to privilege. These claims of superiorityto
"the Negro" are available to anyone who participatesin this
discourse, regardlessof race. Thus, much of Jones's self-vindicationin this essaydependsupon his claim to be an exception
to the Negro rule. Though Gayle and Jones are distinct individuals,they are splendidexamplesof the tendencyin the Black
Arts Movement to dismiss the accomplishmentsof previous
black writers and to define blackness as a quality that other
blacks have failed to realize.
Black Arts theorists consistently refused to acknowledge
literary antecedents, and this refusal is closely linked to the
movement's peculiartendencyto cite nonliterary(mostly musical) models as antecedentsin a tradition of authentic black
expression. In one sense, the movement's theorists correctly
observedthat black musical forms such as the blues and jazz
are more profoundexpressionsof black particularitythan most
black writinghas been. But their attemptsto explainwhy have
usually depended upon claims, in one form or another, that
black writershave erred in attemptingto be white or to use
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AmericanLiteraryHistory 99
white models. This argumentis inadequatefor many reasonsmost of all becauseit fails to distinguishbetweenquite different
aestheticmodes and to considerthe social means of producing,
communicating,and perpetuatingparticularaestheticforms.4
Black music is a strong aesthetic force because it belongs
to a traditionmany centuriesold, importeddirectlyfromAfrica
and developedcontinuouslyin the New World.Unlike writing,
music is accessibleto virtuallyanyone in a culture,without a
requirementof formal education, though certainlylearningto
perform requirestraining, and appreciationexists at various
levels of sophistication. The black musical tradition is thoroughly incorporatedinto the social lives of black people as a
vehicle of self-expression,worship, dance, socializing, artistic
performance,and entertainment.Music is an integralpart of
African cultures and of African-Americancultures as well. It
is as fundamentaland as ubiquitousto black people as speech.5
Though writinghas existed in Africa at least as long as in
Europe,probablylonger,the cultureof the book has been, until
this century,more importantfor Europeansthan for Africans.
In any case, an African book culturecertainlydid not survive
the Middle Passage,and even if it had, slaveholderswould have
extirpatedit. Consequently,if we speak of black literature,we
must necessarilyspeakof a traditionbasedon Europeanmodels.
Therefore,it makes no sense at all to compareblack literature
to black music, because the two have differentsocial origins
and differenthistories. Black literaturemust necessarilybe a
mixed mode, growingout of Europeanlanguageand European
literarymodels. The example of the spirituals,which derived
largely from Europeanhymns, should indicate to us that authentic black models can develop from Europeanmodels. Similarly, Sidney Bechet, Coleman Hawkins,Parker,and Coltrane
took the instrumentpatented by the FrenchmanAntoine-Joseph Sax in 1846 and made it into an instrumentthat is now
inseparablyassociated with jazz. Black musical expressionis
not limited to forms or instrumentscreatedin Africa, and this
need not be the case for black literatureeither.
If we take Africanmusic as the quintessentialform of black
culturalexpression,one interestingimplicationseemsclear.The
aestheticimplied in the relationshipbetweenthe music and the
people is a very egalitarian,participatoryone. The model does
not stressroles of performerand audiencebut ratherof mutual
participationin an aestheticactivity.How such an Africanparticipatoryaesthetic might be transferredto the realm of literature is a challengingproblem. And perhaps the impulse to
approximatesuch an aesthetichelpsto explainwhy the creative
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100
The Black Arts Movementand Its Critics
energy of the Black Arts Movement was directed disproportionatelyinto theater;forcommunity-basedwriters'workshops,
such as OBAC in Chicagoand The Watts Writers'Workshop,
and the emphasison live performancesof poetry, and on publishing broadsidesand chapbooks were products of this spirit
of inclusiveness.Although we cannot pursue here the social
history of the movement, it should be clear that such a participatoryaestheticis radicallyat odds with the essentiallymodernist,elitist,and exclusionaryaestheticpromotedby Jonesand
otherblackbohemians.Of course,Jonessoon changedhis name
and modified his rhetoric.Whetherthat transformationled to
a more African aestheticremains a matter of contention.
Among the Black Arts theorists,LarryNeal was perhaps
the most discerningabout the implicationsof "the Black Aesthetic."6Neal was willingto declareexplicitlythat literatureas
we know it is inadequateto the requirementsof a black aesthetic. He remarksin his afterwordto Black Fire:
Black literaturemust become an integralpart of the community'slife style.And I believethatit mustalso be integral
to the myths and experiencesunderlyingthe total history
of black people. New constructswill have to be developed.
We will have to alter our concepts of what art is, of what
it is supposedto "do." The dead formstaughtmost writers
in the white man's schools will have to be destroyed,or at
best, radicallyaltered.We can learn more about what poetry is by listeningto the cadencesin Malcolm'sspeeches,
than from most of Westernpoetics. Listento JamesBrown
scream. Ask yourself,then; Have you ever hearda Negro
poet sing like that? Of course not, because we have been
tied to the texts, like most white poets. The text could be
destroyedand no one would be hurt in the least by it. The
key is in the music. Our music has always been far ahead
of our literature.Actually, until recently,it was our only
literature,except for, perhaps,the folktale. ... Our music
has alwaysbeen the most dominantmanifestationof what
we are and feel, literaturewasjust an afterthought,the step
taken by the Negro bourgeoisiewho desiredacceptanceon
the white man's terms. And that is preciselywhy the literaturehas failed. It was the case of one elite addressing
anotherelite. (Jones and Neal 653-4)
Like Gayle,Jones/Baraka,and others,Neal sees almostnothing
of value in past black writing, and he goes a step fartherto
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AmericanLiteraryHistory 101
assert that "poets must learn to sing, dance, and chant their
works"(Jonesand Neal 655).7Up to this point the propositions
of music as a paradigmfor literaturehave been treatedas misguided;and indeed, such formulationsdo pose seriousconceptual as well as practical problems. Nonetheless, Neal's work
allows us to considerthis aspect of Black Aesthetic thinkingin
a differentlight. Neal obviously recognizesthe issues at stake
in his call for a new kind of literature.Gayle and Jones both
argue,with differentideals in mind, that previousblack writers
have erred in choosing the wrong literary models. For Neal,
literatureas we know it is an unsatisfactoryform.
What, then, would this mean as a mandate for writers?
Most obviously, it emphasizesperformance.Neal wants poets
to sing or to scream like James Brown. In addition to music,
he proposes oratory ("Malcolm's speeches")as another paradigm. The emphasis on vernacularperformanceimplies that
literatureshould become an immediate, communal form to be
experienced in public, contrary to the private experience of
reading a text. Indeed, much of Black Aesthetic theorizing,
especiallyNeal's, seems to want to replacereadingas the dominant mode of literary reception with listening. Theater and
poetry readings,once again, representmovement in this direction. Consequently,writersattemptingto take "the Black Aesthetic" seriouslywould be inclinedto rejectformalistaesthetics
and to think most seriouslyabout the sound of their work and
its effect upon a listeningaudience. They would be more concernedwith rhythmthan with stanzaicform, more with rhyme
soundthan with the formalpatternof rhyme,and, in particular,
they would be concerned with diction based upon conversational norms ratherthan upon literaryconventions.The use of
allusion as a device would not vanish from such an aesthetic,
but its focus would shift away from bookish referencesand into
the realm of black historical experienceand popular culture.
An obvious area for literary exploration would be modes in
which verbaleffect and narrativeconverge.A strikingexample
of the latter kind of innovation is Baraka'sritual drama,Slave
Ship.8 Thus, if Black Aesthetic theorizing proscribedwriters'
use of existingliterarytraditions,it also opened up excitingnew
possibilitiesof artisticexperimentation,and it soughtto redefine
the relationshipbetween writer and audience. In effect, this
meant both liabilitiesand opportunitiesfor writers,audiences,
and critics.Neitherthe liabilitiesnor the innovationshave been
adequatelyunderstood.Regardless,the commitmentto ground
literaturein black vernacularculture was a definitive characteristic of Black Aesthetic theory.
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102
The Black Arts Movementand Its Critics
2. The Black Aesthetic Critics
The relationshipof criticismto the Black Arts Movement
is complicated.Some of the most knowledgeableand discerning
criticsof the movement, suchas Neal, arealso importantfigures
within the movement. This is true even of many academically
orientedcritics,such as StephenHenderson.On the otherhand,
some influentialrecent black critics have been openly hostile
to the BlackArtsMovement-most conspicuouslyHenryLouis
Gates, Jr. The activists of a movement are not necessarilythe
ideal persons to assess the actual achievementsof that movement, though their comments can be illuminating.Similarly,
the ideological opponents of a movement are not the most
reliable sources of careful and dispassionateanalyses. Unfortunately, most criticism regardingthe Black Arts Movement
has been deeply partisan, for or against. The fierce polemics
surroundingthe movement have discouragedcarefuland balanced scholarship.Yet without such scholarship,the achievements and failuresof the movement can never be clearly understood.
A conspicuousdifferencebetween Black Arts writingand
the work of previousblack writerssuch as Wrightand Baldwin
is that Black Arts writingdirectlyaddressesa black audience.
Thus, it immediatelydemandsof its reader(or listener)a sympathy and familiaritywith black culture and black idiomsand in many cases, with black nationalistcultural politics as
well. In particular,since such writingaddressescommon black
people, it demandsthat the criticbe familiarwith the common
experiencesof black people-or more precisely,that the critic
sharethe kind of knowledgethat such an audiencewould likely
possess. Finally, since the Black Aesthetic claims to rejectEuropean literarymodels, it requiresthe writersto develop new
forms, new techniques, and new conventions. Therefore,the
critic must be preparedto recognize, understand,and assess
these new literaryforms and experiments.Needless to say, an
education in conventional literarystudies does not preparea
criticto face these challenges.Consequently,a criticwho wishes
to study Black Arts Movement writing must be preparedto
move beyond universitytraining,which can entail both establishing new criteriaand rejectingestablishedones. (Given the
familiarset of incentives,rewards,and punishmentswithin the
academy, such boldness could prove very costly to a member
of an Englishdepartment-especially an untenuredone.)
Poetry presents the most varied and difficult challenges,
and Henderson'swork is unique in its attempt to providenew
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AmericanLiteraryHistory 103
terms for understanding"the new black poetry."The long introductionto his aptlynamedtextbook, UnderstandingtheNew
Black Poetry,providesthe most detailedattemptto establisha
black critical vocabulary.This work is illuminatingin both its
strengthsand its weaknesses.Moreover,Gates'snegativecommentary on Henderson'swork clearly illustratesseveral sharp
criticaldisagreementsgeneratedby the Black Aesthetic.
The essential spirit of Henderson'swork is tellingly expressedin the openinglines of his essay "'SurvivalMotion':A
Study of the Black Writerand the Black Revolution in America":
To writeblack poetryis an act of survival,of regeneration,
of love. Black writersdo not write for white people and
refuse to be judged by them. They write for black people
andthey writeabouttheirblackness,and out of theirblackness, rejectinganyone and anythingthat standsin the way
of self-knowledgeand self-celebration.... The poets and
the playwrightsare especiallyarticulateand especiallyrelevant and speak directly to the people. (Cook and Henderson 65)
"'Survival Motion'" was writtenin tumultuous 1968, shortly
afterthe assassinationof MartinLutherKing, Jr., and while it
offers many insightfulcomments on the relationshipbetween
jazz and poetryand on particulareffectsachievedby the poems
underdiscussion,it is an elegiacessay, deeplypreoccupiedwith
the themes of death and survival.It is an eloquent meditation
on how music and poetry expressthe capacityof black people
to endure with style and with "soul" what they have suffered
in violent, racist America.
Henderson'sintroductionto UnderstandingtheNew Black
Poetry(1972) is much more technical.He beginsby explaining
what he considersthe inadequacyof previous anthologiesand
what he hopes this one will achieve:
Black poetry in the United States has been widely misunderstood,misinterpreted,and undervaluedfor a variety
of reasons- aesthetic,cultural,and political-especially by
white critics;but with the exception of the work of a few
establishedfigures,it has also been suspectby many Black
academicianswhose literaryjudgmentsareself-consciously
"objective" and whose cultural values, while avowedly
"American," are essentially European.... [A]n attempt
should be made in which the continuityand the wholeness
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104
The Black Arts Movementand Its Critics
of the Black poetic traditionin the United States are suggested.That traditionexistson two main levels, the written
and the oral, which sometimes converge.(3)
Unlike those polemical Black Aesthetictheoristswho consider
earlier black writingto be worthless, Hendersonis careful to
develop a historicalaccount stressing"the continuity and the
wholenessof the Blackpoetic tradition."Thoughhis anthology
focuses on black writingof the 1960s, he includesselectionsof
folk songs and rhymesand poetryby writersrangingfrom Paul
LaurenceDunbarto GwendolynBrooks.He also includesblues
lyrics by Ma Rainey, Leadbelly,and others. These inclusions
are important for Henderson, because in his view a literary
traditiondevelops out of a whole way of life. Since that way of
life is also expressedin nonliteraryforms, those forms can be
used both as sourcesand as heuristicmodels.
The significanceof this becomes cleareras Hendersonexplains his terms for understandingblack poetry. He specifies
three critical categories: theme, structure, and saturation.
"Theme" refers to the characteristicsubject matter of black
poetry, which for Hendersonmeans reflectionson the experience of being black in America. "Structure"is his most deceptive term, for it refersto the sources from which the work is
derived and not to the "form" of the work. The two essential
sources,accordingto Henderson,are "Blackspeech and Black
music" (31). In this section he gives eight categoriesof poetic
devices based on characteristicsof black speech, along with
examples of each, and ten ways in which black music is often
used in poems. "Structure,"then, refers to the poetic use of
vernacularmodels. Finally, "saturation"means "(a) the communicationof Blacknessin a given situation,and (b) a sense of
fidelity to the observed and intuited truth of the Black Experience"(62). This may seem no differentfrom "theme";but as
one reads Henderson'sbrief discussion of this category,it becomes clear that what he means is the authenticitywith which
a work conveys "the black experience."This is what he apparentlyintendsto underscorelaterwhenhe comments:"[W]hat
we are talkingabout then is the depthand qualityof experience
which a given work may evoke. We are also speakingabout
saturationas a kind of condition"(64).
Henderson'sconclusion demonstrateshis commitment to
link his criticalprojectwith a political agendaof black cultural
nationalism. The purpose of his essay is to send readersback
"to the poems themselvesand to the people who make them":
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AmericanLiteraryHistory 105
"This is the great challenge of our poets as they incessantly
proclaim their miraculousdiscoverythat Black people are poems. What this means for the teacher and the student and the
critic is that, like the poets, they must not separatethemselves
or theirwork,whateverit is, fromthe concernsof the people....
Blackpeoplearemovingtowardthe Formsof ThingsUnknown,
which is to say, towardLiberation,which, howeverI have stammered in the telling, is what it is all about" (69). Clearly,Henderson differsfundamentallyfrom conventionalacademiccritics regardingthe function of criticism. This differenceleads
Gates to caricaturethe Black Arts critics as "race and superstructure"critics,takingGayle, Henderson,and HoustonBaker
as the movement's chief exemplars.
Gates faults Hendersonfor failing to distinguishbetween
poetic languageand ordinaryspeech,for failingto acknowledge
that much of what he says about black poetry is true of all
poetry, and for making the tautological error of assuming
"blackness"in orderto make claimsabout "blackness."Gates's
remarkson the "ultimate tautology," or "saturation,"exemplify his generalrancor regardingBlack Arts critics:"[P]oetry
is 'Black' when it communicates 'Blackness.'The more a text
is saturated,the 'Blacker'the text. One imaginesa daishiki-clad
Dionysus weighingthe saturated,mascon lines of CounteeCullen againstthose of LangstonHughes,as Paul LaurenceDunbar
and Jean Toomer are silhouetted by the flames of our own
black Hades. The blackerthe berry,the sweeterthe juice" (Figures in Black 35).9 This is Gates's entire discussion of "saturation." He concludes that he has "belabored"Henderson's
theory not because it is the weakestof the three argumentsbut
ratherbecause Henderson's"is by far the most imaginativeof
the three and has, at least, touched on areas critical to the
explication of black literature."The others, by implication,
have not. Gates's conclusion that "his examination of form is
the first in a race and superstructurestudy and will most certainly give birthto more systematicand less polemical studies"
(35) constitutesfaint praise, indeed.
Gates'sharshtone reflectsthe bitterconflictbetweenmovement critics and conventional academics. Arguing from the
latter perspective,Gates describesa conference sponsoredby
the MLA at Yale in the summer of 1977. He remarks:"[T]he
conferenceitself, in short, representedan attempt to take the
'mau-mauing'out of the black literarycriticism that defined
the 'BlackAesthetic Movement' of the sixties and transformit
into a valid field of intellectual inquiry once again" (Figures
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106
The Black ArtsMovementand Its Critics
44). Gates clearly sees his work as implicatedin a strugglefor
authority-a struggleto displace Black Aesthetic critics as the
dominant authoritieson black literature.10
In a very direct sense, Gates's differencewith the Black
Aesthetic critics is summed up in his comment: "[W]e write,
it seems to me, primarilyfor othercriticsof literature"(Figures
56). This expressesthe conventional,academic understanding
of criticismas the specializeddiscourseof a professionalelite,
in direct opposition to the Black Arts vision of a populist,
communal discourse.Though Gates often assaultsBlack Aesthetic criticsfor having an ideologicalagenda,the real struggle
is betweenone ideology that rejectsthe institutionalstatusquo
and anotherthat embracesit.
Despite this antagonism,Gates's own criticism has been
deeply influencedby BlackAesthetictheory. When Neal wrote
his afterwordto Black Fire, he titled it "And Shine SwamOn,"
beginningthe essaywith a quotationfrom an urbantoast called
"The Titanic." Shine is a modem, urban equivalent of the
SignifyingMonkey, a figureGates has adoptedas the signature
of his own criticaltheory. Furthermore,Gates's acknowledgement of influencesin the prefaceto SignifyingMonkeyincludes
an homageto Baker:"[M]yreadingof his manuscriptconvinced
me that in the blues and in Signifyin(g)were to be found the
black tradition'stwo great repositoriesof its theory of itself,
encoded in musical and linguisticforms" (x). This, needlessto
say, is a conviction that Neal, Henderson, and other Black
Aesthetic critics have long shared.
Baker'sModernismand the Harlem Renaissance (1987)
might be understood as a new evolutionarydevelopment of
culturalnationalistpremises.With its emphasison "familyhistory" ("family" meaning both immediate family and race),
"sound"(the authenticstyle of black expression),"masteryof
form"(performativeskill),and "deformationof mastery"(turning the tables on the white oppressor),this book returnsto the
fundamentalthemes of the Black Aestheticcritics.Its manner,
however, clearly reflects Baker's painstaking study of poststructuralistcriticaltraditions.In Baker'swork, deconstruction
has not displacedculturalnationalism.Rather,the Black Aesthetic has absorbeddeconstruction.
Though one might voice many misgivingsabout Modernism and the HarlemRenaissanceas a generalmodel for literary
historiography,it is a fascinatingand movingperformativework,
one that dramatizesthe process of one critic's emotional and
intellectualcoming to terms with black culturaltraditionsand
contemporarycriticaltheory. It is perhapseven erroneousand
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AmericanLiteraryHistory 107
unfairto readthis book as a work of literaryhistory.Bakerhas
tried to create an altogethernew genre of writing,and in those
terms,this book makespowerfulclaimson its readers.His study
seems profoundly important because it representsa kind of
writingthat becomes possible by pursuingcertain Black Aesthetic premises to their logical conclusions. Baker has written
a book not for other critics,with theiracademicpreconceptions
of what a scholarlybook shouldbe, but ratherfor "the family,"
in celebrationof the family'sown survival,style, and traditions.
This book exemplifiesthe continuingimportanceof the Black
Arts Movement and of the intellectualand aesthetic opportunitiesand challengesit has created(see Smith, "BlackFigures").
3. Conclusion
Since the turn of the century many black artistshave envisionedthe developmentof new aestheticformsbasedon black
vernacularculture.Nor has this vision been exclusive to black
artists.In the nineteenthcenturyAntoninDvotatkchidedAmerican composersfor not utilizingAfrican-Americanmusical resources,and his New WorldSymphonystandsas a monumental
rebuke to Euro-Americanethnochauvinism.White American
writers of the 1920s such as Carl Van Vechten and Dubose
Heyward,while rejectingthe racisttraditionsof dialectwriting,
also regardedblackvernacularcultureas a richaestheticsource.
Among black writers, James Weldon Johnson and Langston
Hughes made pioneeringeffortsboth to incorporateblack vernacularmaterialsinto theirworkand to createnew formsbased
on blackculture.BlackAestheticwritersandcriticsoftenclaimed
that they were the firstgenerationto embraceblack vernacular
culture, but in fact, they simply representedthe triumph of a
consensus that had been developing throughoutthe century.
We need to understandBlack Aesthetic theory and aesthetic
forms in this historicalcontext.
Though I have concentratedon the relationshipof critics
Black
to
Aesthetic theory and on certain entailments of that
theory, the most compellingquestionspertainto the art of the
movement. At one historicalend, we need more study of the
movement's origins, not only in "the African-Americantradition" but also in "the European-Americantradition." To
what extent did the Beat movement, with its emphasison jazz
as an aesthetic model, influence the Black Arts Movementespeciallythroughpoets such as Ted Joans, David Henderson,
and Jones?What was the role of the black surrealistpoet Bob
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108
The Black Arts Movementand Its Critics
Kaufman in this process?In the other historicaldirection, to
what degree did the movement shape the literarysensibilities
of female writerssuch as Alice Walkerand Ntozake Shange?
Can the form and languageof Shange'stheater pieces be understood without referenceto Black Arts theater?And most
intriguingof all, how would our assessmentof the Black Arts
Movementbe affectedif its developmentsin literature,theater,
music, and the visual arts were all taken into account?
When we think of the Black Arts Movement, its polemics
and excesses are what we often remember. We regard it as
something that happened and ended in the efflorescent'60s.
Perhapsit is time to reconsiderthe substantiveachievements
of the movement. Perhapsthey are more significant,enduring,
and influentialthan we commonly acknowledge.It is certain,
in any case, that this movement poses a greatopportunityand
challenge for literaryand cultural historians. Though understandingthis particularmovement and its place in our national
historyis the immediateissue, meetingthis scholarlychallenge
may well lead us to create new ways of understandingour
collective past. If we do, our view of the presentcannot stand
unaltered.
Notes
1. Baker'sJourneyBack is probablythe best startingpoint for a scholarly
assessmentof the movement. Lee'sDynamite Voiceswas writtenas a general
introductionto black poets of the 1960s, but it remains useful-not least
as an expressionof the criticalideas of one of the movement'sleadingpoets.
Volume 41 of Dictionaryof LiteraryBiographyoffersdetailed discussions
of most poets consideredby Lee plus many others.Chapter6 of Propaganda
and Aesthetics,by Abby and Ronald Johnson,called "BlackAestheticRevolutionaryLittle Magazines, 1960-1976," is unique for the insight it provides into the ideologicaldebatesand factionswithin the movement. Aside
from the anthologies discussed in the body of this essay, two others are
notable: Brooks's A Broadside Treasuryand Parks's Nommo: A Literary
Legacy of Black Chicago. The latter is the only anthologyof writersfrom
the OBAC WritersWorkshop.Baraka'sculturalnationalistessays are collected in (Jones's)Raise Race Rays Raze, and his more recentviews on the
movement are presentedat length, often hilariously,in TheAutobiography
of LeRoi Jones. The recentpublicationof Neal's selectedwritingsin Visions
of a LiberatedFutureis a valuableaddition to the availablewritingsof and
about the Black Arts Movement.
2. Jones'sclass-basedaestheticsis most fully developed in his book Blues
People. Sollors's study of Barakais especially useful for its discussion of
Baraka'srelationshipto modernistand bohemian ideas.
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AmericanLiteraryHistory 109
3. Baraka'sliterary essays of the 1970s and 1980s demonstratethat he
has discovered earlier black writers. Some of these essays are virtual annotatedbibliographiesof a traditionthat he previouslyallegeddid not exist.
His more recent essays and poems, collected in The Music, adopt a celebratorytone towardthe black tradition.I have discussedsome of this latter
work in my essay "Amiri Barakaand the Politics of PopularCulture."
4. As a preferablemodel for culturalanalysis,I am thinkingof the example
provided by Williams in his later books, such as Marxism and Literature.
5. See Levine's pioneeringstudy of the centralrole of music and folklore
in African-Americanculture. In a more recent book, Stuckey provides a
strikingillustrationof how one music-dance-worshipritual(the "ringshout")
has sustaineditself from its Africanorigins to become a familiarfeatureof
black religious tradition in America. Unfortunately,black literaryhistoriographyhas never approachedthe sophisticationof such work in history,
anthropology,and religiousstudies.
6. Nealdiedin 1981 atthe age of44. AspecialissueofCallaloo(8.1[1985])
was devoted to Neal and his work, providingthe most thoroughdiscussion
we have of this importantfigure.
7. Neal later moderatedthis view. See, for example, his essay "Ellison's
Zoot Suit" in Visions.
8. Neal's comments on this play are astute. See Gayle Black Aesthetic
268-69.
9. "Mascon"is Henderson'sterm. It refersto the "massiveconcentration"
of black experiencein particularwords or images.
10. Baker offers his own account of this critical history in chapter 2 of
Blues.
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