The Voice of Blackness The Black Arts Movement and Logocentrism

• Published in: Staging Philosophy p. 278
• Main Author: Mike Sell
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: University of Michigan Press 11.02.2010
• Subjects: Aesthetics; African American culture; African American studies; American art; American culture; American studies; Anthropology; Applied aesthetics; Applied philosophy; Arts; Axiology; Behavioral sciences; Black arts movement; Black communities; Blackness studies; Communities; Concept of mind; Consciousness theory; Critical race theory; Critical theory; Ethnography; Ethnology; Human societies; Logocentrism; Metaphysics; Monopsychism; Musical aesthetics; Performing arts; Philosophy; Philosophy of language; Philosophy of mind; Social criticism; Social groups; Social philosophy; Sociology; Soul; Theater
• ISBN: 0472099507; 9780472099504
• DOI: 10.3998/mpub.147168.17

In “And Shine Swam On,” his most incisive description of the cultural, political, and philosophical imperatives of the Black Arts Movement (BAM), Larry Neal asks us to “listen to James Brown scream. . . . Have you ever heard a Negro poet sing like that?” He answers, “Of course not, because we have been tied to the texts, like most white poets. The text could be destroyed and no one would be hurt in the least by it.”¹ At least, no one committed to the overthrow of political and economic powers reeling from the shocks of India, Ghana, Cuba, the