Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Post #5

Part of my essay:

Larry Neal’s manifesto, “The Black Arts Movement,” is manly about what art should express. He believes that art should be about ethics instead of aesthetics. It should be about what is going on in society, values, and morals. He argues that art shouldn’t be about beauty. He explains how Western society tends to use art as entertainment instead of art that is useful for people in the community. This art enforces the idea of the white people’s way of looking at the world. As he states in the second paragraph:
Therefore, the main thrust of this new breed of contemporary writers is to confront the contradictions arising out of the Black man’s experience in the racist West. Currently, these writers are re-evaluating Western aesthetics, the traditional role of the writer, and the social function of art. Implicit in this reevaluation is the need to develop a “black aesthetic.” It is the opinion of many Black writers, I among them, that the Western aesthetic has run its course: it is impossible to construct anything meaningful within its decaying structure.
In this part he is saying that western aesthetics does not value African Americans and that it is racist and alienates them. New writers are questioning this art and they are acknowledging that this art doesn’t support them. Therefore, they believe that this art is done and that they will create new art that represents them. He want African Americans to create new art that would stand for what they believe in and value. As Neal states, “The Black artist must create new forms and new values, sing new songs (or purity old ones); and along with other Black authorities, he must create a new history, new symbols, myths and legends (and purify old ones by fire).” Since western ideas of art don’t represent them, they should create art that does.

The Black Panther Party was an African American organization trying to improve the conditions of the black people during the mid 1960’s and 1970’s. Their “10 Point Platform” is a manifesto where they are calling for extreme change for the black community. Their Platform includes political and economical change. Some of their requests are power to determine their own destinies. They wanted to have their own representatives that had the interest of the black people. They wanted freedom for all the African Americans that were help in prison because they did not receive a fair trial and wanted all African Americans to be free from from the military service. They wanted the right to a dissent education. They also wanted economical rights, such as decent housing and employment. As the 10th point explains, “We want land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice and peace. And as major political objective, a United Nation-supervised plebiscite to be held throughout the black colony in which only black colonial subjects will be allowed to participate for the purpose of determining the will of the black people as to their national destiny.”

1 comment:

  1. This is a great start and a good, clear overview of these two texts. Now work on going past summary to analysis: use some of the follow up questions on the handout to help with this: for example, how would you more specifically describe an action and/or work of art that either would be in favor of?

    Then work on getting the two texts into more of a dialgoue with one another.

    Look forward to reading more!

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