Black Art (poem)

"Black Art" is a poem written by African-American poet Amiri Baraka. It was written in 1965 after the assassination of Malcolm X, soon after the poet (formerly LeRoi Jones) had taken on a new name.The poem issued a clarion call for art by and for Black people:

We want a black poem. And a
Black World.
Let the world be a Black Poem
And Let All Black People Speak This Poem
Silently
or LOUD

The poem sparked the beginning of the Black Arts Movement in poetry.^[1] "Black Art" was published in The Liberator in January 1966, and subsequently re-published in numerous anthologies.^[2]^[3]

^ Smith, David L. (1986). "Amiri Baraka and the Black Arts of Black Art". boundary 2. 15 (1/2): 235–254. doi:10.2307/303432. ISSN 0190-3659. JSTOR 303432. One of Baraka's most controversial poems, it rapidly became a central icon of the Black Arts Movement.
^ "From a 'Black Art' Poem to 'The Black Arts Movement'". www.culturalfront.org. September 8, 2011. Retrieved March 20, 2018.
^ Rambsy II, Howard (December 27, 2015). "Amiri Baraka and two consequential poems from 1965 | H-Afro-Am | H-Net". networks.h-net.org. Retrieved March 20, 2018.

[1] Smith, David L. (1986). "Amiri Baraka and the Black Arts of Black Art". boundary 2. 15 (1/2): 235–254. doi:10.2307/303432. ISSN 0190-3659. JSTOR 303432. One of Baraka's most controversial poems, it rapidly became a central icon of the Black Arts Movement.

[2] "From a 'Black Art' Poem to 'The Black Arts Movement'". www.culturalfront.org. September 8, 2011. Retrieved March 20, 2018.

[3] Rambsy II, Howard (December 27, 2015). "Amiri Baraka and two consequential poems from 1965 | H-Afro-Am | H-Net". networks.h-net.org. Retrieved March 20, 2018.

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