Start a riot! : civil unrest in Black Arts Movement drama, fiction, and poetry / Casarae Lavada Abdul-Ghani.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Abdul-Ghani, Casarae Lavada, author.

Contributor:

Class of 1894 Fund.

Series:

Margaret Walker Alexander series in African American studies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Black Arts movement.

African American arts--Political aspects--History--20th century.

African American arts.

Arts--Political aspects--United States--History--20th century.

Arts.

Black nationalism--United States--History--20th century.

Black nationalism.

Arts--Political aspects.

Race relations.

United States--Race relations--History--20th century.

United States.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

x, 175 pages 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Jackson : University Press of Mississippi, [2022]

Summary:

"While the legacy of Black urban rebellions during the turbulent 1960s continues to permeate throughout US histories and discourses, scholars seldom explore within scholarship examining Black Cultural Production, artist-writers of the Black Arts Movement (BAM) that addressed civil unrest, specifically riots, in their artistic writings. Start a Riot! Civil Unrest in Black Arts Movement Drama, Fiction, and Poetry analyzes riot iconography and its usefulness as a political strategy of protestation. Through a mixed-methods approach of literary close-reading, historical, and sociological analysis, Casarae Lavada Abdul-Ghani considers how BAM artist-writers like Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones), Ben Caldwell, Gwendolyn Brooks, Sonia Sanchez, and Henry Dumas challenge misconceptions regarding Black protest through experimental explorations in their writings. Representations of riots became more pronounced in the 1960s as pivotal leaders shaping Black consciousness, such as Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., were assassinated. BAM artist-writers sought to override the public's interpretation in their literary expose̹s that a riot's disjointed and disorderly methods led to more chaos than reparative justice. Start a Riot! uncovers how BAM artist-writers expose anti-Black racism and, by extension, the United States' inability to compromise with Black America on matters related to citizenship rights, housing (in)security, economic inequality, and education-tenets emphasized during the Black Power Movement. Abdul-Ghani argues that BAM artist-writers did not merely write literature that reflected a spirit of protest; in many cases, they understood their texts, themselves, as acts of protest"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: ch. 1 The Inability to Compromise: Examining Black Rage and Revolt in the Revolutionary Theatre of Amiri Baraka and Ben Caldwell

ch. 2 "Blackblues": The BAM Aesthetic and Black Rage in Gwendolyn Brooks's Riot

ch. 3 The Crisis of Black Revolutionary Politics in Sonia Sanchez's The Bronx Is Next (and Sister Son/ji)

ch. 4 Black Politics and the Neoliberal Dilemma in Henry Dumas's "Riot or Revolt?".

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Class of 1894 Fund.

Other Format:

Online version: Abdul-Ghani, Casarae Lavada. Start a riot!

ISBN:

9781496840455

1496840453

9781496840448

1496840445

OCLC:

1282005245

Publisher Number:

99991232897