Tyler Mace

Giving my outlook and insight on the works of African American literature.

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As we look to connect several of the author’s and their works during the Black Arts Movement, Sonia Sanchez, Audre Lorde, and Nikki Giovanni played critical roles for both African-American people and more specifically, African-American females everywhere in having their voices be heard. Looking first at Sonia Sanchez, she pioneered the black feminism movement and acted as an exemplar of creativity for black communal values and self-transformation.  This then ties into Audre Lorde’s role of activism on both racism and homophobia. Her works of poetry played a massive role in these movements and she made a great change to the minds of many during her years of life.  After passing, she was given recognition not only in America but worldwide for her efforts of acceptance for people of different races and sexual orientation.  Finally, looking at Nikki Giovanni, she was an advocate for violent militancy as a proper black response to white oppression. By doing so in her works, she became extremely popular, not only amongst her African-American readers but also with whites.  She was recognized and awarded woman of the year by Ladies’ Home Journal in which Giovanni felt was closing the gap in race relations.  The three of these women made influential movements and acts to improve the lives of so many through their works of literature and voicing of their thoughts. 

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Toni Cade Bambara was born Miltona Mirkin Cade on March 25, 1939, in Harlem, New York.  Bambara’s mother refused to raise her and her brother in a way where girls were supposed to learn one way and boys another, she wanted them to cultivate their own judgement.  Her mother also ensured that black history was taught properly to her children at the schools they were enrolled in.  This helped pave the way for who Toni Cade Bambara was going to become.  Bambara was an activist writer who took great pride in African American communal traditions, especially spoken language and storytelling patterns.  This came from her first encounters of “speakers on Speaker’s Corner in Harlem.”  Although Bambara was a great writer, she did not take her talent seriously until after editing The Black Woman, which included works from Nikki Giovanni, Audre Lorde and Alice Walker, to name a few.  From her, Bambara published several works but like other artists of her generation felt that a global political activism was an essential component of her contribution to the literary world.  

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Haki Madhabuti was born on February 23, 1942, in Little Rock, Arkansas.  Madhabuti is recognized as a poet, essayist, publisher and also an educator. He is also one of the most widely read and anthologized writers of the Black Arts Movement.  Madhabuti more so than any other artist during the Black Arts era fused theoretical ideas with literary and social practice.  He rejected aesthetic activity and argued that art served as the end of the community from which the artist arises.  Madhabuti’s journey started by going through the Army before then working clerical and retail jobs.  Some say this is what fueled his satirical anger.  In 1967, Madhabuti published his first work Think Black, but instead of following traditional publishing, he decided to print his work on single sheets, bind them by hand and sell them through barbershops, bus stops, etc.  Madhabuti went on to see the black poet as someone who was a cultural preservationist and prophet.  Someone who was capable of restoring fundamental values on a new nation.  Critics were not a fan of Madhabuti’s writing. It was defiant of aesthetic and social norms and had a mixture of popular idioms and grand themes. Although this may have been the case, Madhabuti captured the imagination of generations of readers.  

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Eldridge Cleaver was born on August 31, 1935, in Wabbeska, Arkansas to Thelma and Leroy Eldridge Cleaver.  His family moved to Phoenix and then Los Angeles but Cleaver ran into trouble at a young age.  In 1954 he was convicted of drug possession and this was just the start of a long journey through the California prison system.  Similar to Malcolm X, Cleaver decided to turn to the Muslim faith and self-educate himself. Once he was released from prison, Cleaver began to write.  His best selling essays Soul on Ice (1968)made him quickly one of the most revolutionary celebrities of the 1960’s.  Cleaver wrote and embraced the ethos of contemporary black culture, fusing politics and public stances that culminated with his candidacy for the presidency.  In 1970’s Cleaver fled to Cuba, Algeria and then Europe to avoid criminal charges from earlier that year.  The way Cleaver wrote provided style, tone, and ideologies that gave young writers during the Black Arts Movement motivation.  

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Born with the name Yolande Cornelia Giovanni Jr., Nikki Giovanni was born in Knoxville, Tennessee on June 7, 1947.  Giovanni was one of the Black Arts movement poets that first reached stardom. Giovanni was an extremely bright student, passing high school with ease. From here she moved on to Columbia University but this is where she felt like her professors did not understand or respect her writing and she decided to leave and pursue writing on her own.  In Giovanni’s writing, she made proclamations that quickly put her at the forefront of the Black Arts Movement. Through the 1970’s, Giovanni's popularity grew between both black and white audiences. In 1973, she was awarded the Woman of the Year by Ladies’ Home Journal,an award in which she said showed progression in race relations.  She wrote twelve books, Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day (1978),being her last.   Giovanni stood for violent militancy as a proper black response to white oppression and this brought her instant fame.  She appeared on many talk shows, received honorary degrees and brushed off consummate ease inquiries about an incompatibility between her fame as a poet and as a revolutionary to destroy white America. Her continued commitment to seeking a better future for all will always be recognized.  

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Ishmael Reed was born on February 22, 1938, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, taking the surname of his mother’s second husband.  Reed worked in multiple areas such as novels, poetry, dramas, songs and collages.  His work was often displeased due to it being controversial politically and it also was contradicting.  This did not appeal to Reed’s readers and came back to hurt him.  Reed interrogated norms of the literary genre and cultural belief.  He took narrative and poetic forms, combining fragments of a broad range of things such as tradition, religions and other languages in order to challenge the established module.  People didn’t like their thinking to be challenged in such a sense and therefore it deterred them.  Reed eventually moved to New York where he felt as though he found his voice.  From here, he began to make things happen.  Reed began to publish his works and construct organizations like The Before Columbus Foundation, which supported innovative and neglected American writers of any race.  Where Reed began to run into controversy is when in his works he began to attack Christianity and Western art and morality, subjects very sensitive and subjective to many people and their ideologies.  Reed’s writing playfully explored the genealogies of different cultures’ systems of belief, then juxtaposing their current systems and proposing new ideas and thoughts.  A unique writer that was extremely effective in his work.  

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Larry Neal was the oldest of five sons, born in Atlanta, Georgia on September 5, 1937, to Woodie and Maggie Neal. Neal was recognized as a poet, essayist, theorist, editor, playwright, teacher and musician.  Larry Neal was exposed to a rich background in cultural inheritance from the teachings of his parents.  The family moved early to North Philadelphia and this was where Neal’s mother was determined that her sons were going to be well educated.  Neal was driven and very focused on his work.  He found himself deeply engaged in the radical of black politics and soon discovered he was at the heart of the black nationalist struggle.  Writing about politics, Neal wrote criticism on figures such as Ralph Ellison, Albert Murray, Baraka, and Archie Shepp, while still trying to establish his own ideas. Neal wrote the anthology of prose and poetry called Black Fire with Bakara was defined by an essay titled “The Black Arts Movement.”  The late 60’s and early 70’s came with continued production from Neal as he focused on the Black Arts Movement but also refining his relationships with aesthetics and politics, identity and community, and art and philosophy.

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Audre Lorde was an essayist, poet and one of the first feminist theorists.  From a young age, Lorde displayed an extreme amount of self-determination that would later on characterize the poetry in which she worked on. Lorde was born in Harlem, New York, on February 18, 1934.  Lorde’s childhood played a large role in her development as both a poet but also a theorist.  In addition to this, Lorde’s schooling played a pivotal role in her discovering who she was not only as a person but finding acceptance as a writer. Lorde went on to publish nine volumes of poetry.  Her identity when she wrote, a black, lesbian, feminist, mother, lover and poet all brought together as one.  Lorde also became an influential voice in the Black Arts Movement that was ongoing.  Lorde’s activism and hunger would not only be confined to her work in poetry but she also lectures widely on racism and homophobia. After she passed, every major U.S. journal and newspaper eulogized her due to the massive changes she made throughout not only America but worldwide.  

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           Sonia Sanchez is an African-American poet, author and essayist. She was born on September 9, 1934, in Birmingham, Alabama.  She also played a critical part in the Black Arts Movement.  Sanchez became a pioneering champion of the black feminist movement during this time.  She became the voice for spiritual evolution that encompassed ancestral African religiosity and Eastern modes of meditative discipline.  Sanchez remained consistent and acted as an exemplar of creativity rooted in respect for black communal values and insistent on self-transformation as foundation of collective realization.  Although Sanchez played such a critical role in the Black Arts Movement, it did not stop with just her works.  She embedded herself in the mainstream education system, insistent to transform its mission and identity.  Regardless of the work, Sanchez offered her audiences the practice of speaking in tongue.  She continually confronted the possibilities of renewal within searing legacies of the traumatic history to better the future for others to come.  

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Amiri Baraka was a very decorated and prolific poet, playwright, essayist and educator.  He also was a teacher, actor and theater director as well.  Baraka was born on October 7, 1934 in Newark, New Jersey.  He established himself as one of the most intriguing, controversial and influential figures when it came to modern letters.  Many say that Baraka was the driving force behind the Black Arts Movement.  Throughout his career he wrote numerous volumes of drama, poetry, musical analysis and literary and cultural criticism.  Baraka’s trajectory as a writers and social activist was marked by dramatic departures of place, theory and personal association. He was a man not afraid to put himself into harms way in order to achieve a bigger goal.  Baraka went to Howard but left at nineteen to enroll in the Air Force and serve for the United States of America.  During his time sanctioned in Puerto Rico, he felt he was exposed to racism and racial degradation.  He took this time to further his knowledge in European, American and African American literature.  After serving in the Air Force, Baraka came home and began to publish his works.  He first did work as a music analyst with piece such as his Jazz Review, before then moving onto poetry Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note (1961).  Finally, Baraka did a phenomenal job of committing to a revolutionary aim where he took to focus on uncompromising black liberation.  Throughout Baraka’s career, he attempted to mold a style of expression that could enable him to dissolve the differences between history and self. 

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Mari Evans was born in Toledo, Ohio on July 16, 1919.  She was an African-American poet, writer, and dramatist associated with the Black Arts Movement.  The simplicity in her lyrics complimented the directness of her themes. Evans writes focusing on the theme of loss: lost Africa, lost love, failed relationships and friendships, all thins along the lines of loss.  She felt when she wrote that loss was summoned from courage to struggle.  After graduating from the University of Toledo, Evans wanted to make a change to people’s lives.  Her television shows The Black Experience, made her widely recognized throughout the African-American community. In addition to creating a show, Evans also wrote several collections of poetry as well.  Her collections consisted of Black Woman Writers (1950-1980) and A Critical Evaluation (1984).  These collections held Evans best work.  Her coveted piece was I Am a Black Woman (1970) which linked the theme of black enslavement and impoverishment with ongoing global oppression.  

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As a review, taking a look back I am going to connect three chapters and hyperfocus them in order to make things a little more relatable.  In relation to The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez, I am going to hyperfocus the posts of revision and remembrance, toward a black gay aesthetic and (ph)allusies of interpretation.  These three chapters not only tie in and relate to The Gilda Stories but also make up what the story consists of.  The first chapter of revision and remembrance ties together how characters were made up to construct an image but also to create a setting where characters development makes sense.  What I mean by this is Gomez does a great job of layering her characters and the setting to develop underlying meanings which the reader slowly picks up on as they progress.  It helps send subliminal messages throughout. Secondly, toward a black gay aesthetic, Gomez brings out the image of lesbian vampires, during a time where not only was it looked down upon to be gay but also to be a minority, especially African-American.  By bringing these factors out, Gomez eliminates oppressing factors from her writing, but rather highlights them.  Lastly, the (ph)allusies of interpretation touch on the risk of sacrificing power for pleasure.  This does not necessarily tie in directly to Gilda but nonetheless, it is still prominent in the sense that the passing of power did, in fact, happen this way.  The three of these chapters and their meanings all connect and give a more in-depth understanding of what the meaning(s) of the story is.  

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Reading through the chapter that was titled ‘Black (W)holes was an interesting read in a variety of ways.  It helped establish a better understanding of black women’s sexuality through queer theory. What helped me come to this was the thorough explanation of what exactly it all meant as a writer, writing about topics like this but also through a lens like this.  One of the best quotes that helped bring this to life for me was, “The work of black feminist critics is to find ways to contest the historical construction of black female sexualities by illuminating how the dominant view was established and maintained and how it can be disrupted” (Napier, 494).  This quote signifies that in order for the aspect of a queer lens to be established, it took a great deal of time and effort to get to the point we are at now in society and in literature.  This also highlights how quickly this can be changed with the disruption of the works that are in place.  

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As I began chapter thirty-nine, the problems with silence, I was intrigued by the title of the chapter.  It left me with so many questions yet to be answered: What silence are they referring to? Why are people not being heard? Who is not being heard? Is there a particular problem or reason they are not? All of these things rushed my brain as I started reading.  Once I had started it became clear it was in regards to the silence of African-American scholars in the literary community.  As I read, I came across an exert which put things into perspective for me, “The silence of African-American scholars exist for several reasons: 1) more Black books are being published today than ever before in American history, 2) there are more Blacks teaching in predominantly white institutions than ever before; there are more Black critics of African-American literature than ever before; and thus, we have more Black faculty” (Napier, 476).  Now all of this sounds promising but these writers are following the lead of an adopted language and ideology of contemporary theory that devalues the importance of race.  What this is doing is essentially dismissing the issues that are lying at heart.  By doing so, it leaves out a key component of this form of literature.  

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As I read this chapter, it left me slightly confused but yet intrigued by what exactly it meant.  After completing this reading, the focus is towards the phallus but also how we interpret this interaction with someone.  The idea of power and pleasure comes with great interest.  Essentially, during an act of sexual activity as so, it is correct, you are so vulnerable but one does not think of this due to the fact of pleasure that is ongoing.  The person performing these acts is doing so because of what may feel like an obligation or because they want their partner to feel a sense of pleasure.  Regardless of the reason why it is something I never have thought of. The risk of sacrificing it all just to get the feeling of pleasure.  A quote that I like from the book which really hits it home is “It remains to be seen whether the woman writer’s sword is mightier than the pen is” (Napier, 457). 

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The next reading that came was a chapter titled Toward a Black Gay Aesthetic also in the book African American Literary Theory by Winston Napier. In this chapter, it highlights the oppression and overcoming of stereotypes that occurred as African-American writers who were gay wrote literature.  For so long, being gay was extremely frowned upon in society.  This continued for many, many years, making it difficult for writers who would create stories or pieces of work in relation to this.  Focusing on African-American gay writers, they faced both racism and heterosexism. They fought and struggled for not only equal rights but also to love who they so wished, what sex did not matter. As time went on and things began to change in society, writers that were African-American and gay were doing everything they could to revise the oppressive forces in which they faced when they wrote. In order for this to happen these oppressing factors needed to be eliminated from social, scientific, critical and imaginative writings for the betterment of society.  In The Gilda Stories, we see Jewelle Gomez add aspects of the lesbian connection between main characters during times where people would be very against this going on and in addition to it all, it occurs with an African-American girl as the main character.  Gomez way of writing brings forth a beautiful way of eliminating these oppressing factors.

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The next part of my blogs is going to be diving into a deeper understanding of the literature in which I am reading.  These readings are coming from the book African American Literary Theory by Winston Napier.  The first chapter which I am focusing on is based on revision and (re)memberance.  In this chapter, it discusses how works are written in terms of formatting as well as what goes into the writing itself.  One of the early focuses is recursive structures and how African-American female writers create a multiplied text.  This essentially means a text which is layered with a variety of things such as characterization, events, settings, and symbolism.  These layers go on to provide more depth to a piece of writing rather than making it one dimensional in ways.  In addition to this, the (re)memberance aspect is exactly what one might think, the looking back upon the past. Both these aspects of writing can tie into The Gilda Stories.  The way that they tie in is by how Jewelle Gomez has great ability to layer her work with so many underlying meanings but also bringing back historical events and time periods subtly within the story.  Gomez does an unbelievable job of this and it continually amazes me by just how connected she is when she writes.