This was a time described by a 1968 essay by Larry Neal stating that the Black Arts Movement to be the aesthetic and spiritual sister of the Black Power concept. In the literary world the Black Arts Movement was a group called BAM ran by Stokely Carmichael & Willie Ricks who were promoting being armed and self-defense, separation from racist Americans discrimination and pride in and assertion of goodness and beauty of blackness.

      There would have been no multiculturalism movement without the Black Arts. Latinos, Asian-American and others all say they began writing and embracing their cultural aesthetics as a result of the example of the 1960’s. Blacks had The Black Arts Repertory Theater/School (BARTS), The Umbra Workshop, On Guard for Freedom and The Harlem Writers Guild (all these organizations were promoting the new sort-to-speak Black Arts). The Black Arts Movement produced an organization called RAM Revolutionary Action Movement who called for “poems that killed”, their slogan was “arm yourself or harm yourself”.

      Detroit played a major role in this time period. There was David Rambeau’s Concept East and Ron Milner and Woodie King’s Black Arts Midwest. One of the two major Black Art Presses were Dudley Randall’s Broadside Press who published poets like Gwendolyn Brooks, Sterling A. Brown, Nikki Giovanni, Etheridge Knight, Sonia Sanchez, Amiri Baraka and spoken word artist The Last Poets and Gil Scott-Heron.

    So we have this going on in the Black Arts world of literature, and in the world of paintings and mixed media we have the emerging artistry of Faith Ringgold. Faith Ringgold was born in 1937 Harlem and educated at the city college of New York. Faith Ringgold is known for her painted story quilts which blur the line between high art and craft, by combing painting, quilted fabric and storytelling. She was greatly influenced by her mom, who was a fashion designer. Her works, her art have influenced some of the greatest African-American artist such as Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence and Betye Saar. One example of her work is her 1967 painting oil on canvas Die and Aunt Edith & Bessie her 1974 life-size mixed media can be viewed on page 164 of the textbook. Ringgold uses in her artwork a unique style she termed as “black-light painting” Ringgold expresses the emotional tension of ethnic struggle and violence and the struggle for equality for women. She is an activist and considered a feminist. Ringgold states, “as long as sixty-percent (the female sector) of African American population continue under (its) double oppression people of color will not be free.” It reminds me of what I heard Malcolm X and the Nation say, “A Nation can raise no higher than its woman”.

The Flag: A Symbol of Repression  

          The 60’s was also a time of unrest, there were riots in a lot of the larger black cities and communities and the national flag became for a lot of African-American artist a visual symbol of their disappointment of all the social injustices. I will cover three of these artists Cliff Joseph, David Bradford and Bertrand Phillips.

         Cliff Joseph b.1927, which is today known as an Art Therapist, Pioneer, Activist and finally Artist. He is the co-chairman of the Black Emergency Cultural Coalition which was started in protest to the Metropolitan Museum’s “Harlem on My Mind” show. In the textbook it quotes Joseph as saying, “the power of art belongs to the people” and his central themes are racism, war and sexism. His art just like the writer’s group RAM is confrontation. Joseph states, “I must continue to move between analysis, militant pride and revolutionary suggestion in my search and struggle for true humanity. Cliff Joseph art can be viewed on page 165, My Country Right or Wrong, where it portrays Americans who’s blinded by flag standing oblivious to the skeletons of those fallen around them.

            David Bradford b. 1937 is introduced by his 1968 painting entitled “Yes, Leroi”, which can be seen on page 166 of the text. The text states, it provides a penetrating example of the flag used as a symbol of social & political repression. Bradford uses the flag uses the flag as a backdrop for his compositions humble figure. If you notice on the tee shirt of the humble figure there is a man, I couldn’t have it confirmed or denied that the face is the image of a very voiciourous literay figure by the name of Leroi Jones whom later changed his name to Amiri Baraka. Mr. Baraka along with Larry Neal edited a 1968 book entitled Black Fire which is described as a massive collection of essays, poetry, fiction and drama featuring the wave of Black Art writers and thinkers. Black Fire stands as a definitive movement anthology.

       Bertrand Phillips b. 1938 a Chicago painter and graphic artist stated in our text, that is another whose work projects anger over the broken promises of the flag. Phillips is quoted as saying, “that as an artist and a sensitive human being whose historic roots bear witness to America’s genocidal atrocities, I will not fall victim to the myth that art should not concern itself with social and political problems.

     Phillips like Bradford and Joseph doesn’t do art for the art critics he says a favorable reaction from the viewer needn’t follow. His art just as the movement of the 60’s portrayed symbols and forms related to history, experience and aspiration of African American and other suppressed people. His works he said is dedicated to the freedom and liberation of humanity.

      The 1960 – the mid 70’s was about liberation, the red, the black, the green.