Lacretia Thompson - The Uprise of Black Arts (1940-1980) lyrics

The "Black Arts Movement" changed all avenues of arts including visual and literature arts from socially and politically by connecting African Americans to the black arts movement.. Black Artist were challenged and committed into bringing black arts into urban neighborhoods and reacquainting the black communities with both the black arts and culture.Many prominent figures such as artist and activist such Amiri Baraka founder of the Black Arts Movement and Gwendolyn Brooks who influenced and helped with leading the movement. The arts produced many positive attributes and gave artist an opportunity to revive as a culture by channeling their inter-African roots and cultivating their own. 1960-"We Real Cool" Gwendolyn Brooks The pool players. Seven at the Golden Shovel. We real cool. We Left school. We Lurk late. We Strike straight. We Sing sin. We Thin gin. We Jazz June. We Die soon. 1963-"Letter from Birmingham Jail " Martin Luther King “There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience.” 1965-"The Autobiography of Malcolm X" Malcolm X "Despite my firm convictions, I have been always a man who tries to face facts, and to accept the reality of life as new experience and new knowledge unfolds it. I have always kept an open mind, which is necessary to the flexibility that must go hand in hand with every form of intelligent search for truth.” 1966-"Fredrick Dougla** "Robert Hayden This man, this Dougla**, this former slave, this Negro Beaten to his knees, exiled, visioning a world Where none is lonely, none hunted, alien, This man, superb in love and logic, this man Shall be remembered. 1967-"Black Art" Amiri Baraka 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 1968-"Ego Tripping" Nikki Govan I am so perfect so divine so ethereal so surreal I cannot be comprehended except by my permission I mean...I...can fly Like a bird in the sky 1974-"Everyday Use" Alice Walker "In both of them were scraps of dresses Grandma Dee had worn fifty and more years ago. Bits and pieces of Grandpa Jarrell's Paisley shirts. And one teeny faded blue piece, about the size of a penny matchbox, that was from Great Grandpa Ezra's uniform that he wore in the Civil War." 1978- "Still I Rise"-Maya Angelou You may write me down in history With your bitter, twisted lies, You may trod me in the very dirt But still, like dust, I'll rise. Does my sa**iness upset you? Why are you beset with gloom? ‘Cause I walk like I've got oil wells Pumping in my living room. Just like moons and like suns, With the certainty of tides, Just like hopes springing high, Still I'll rise. Did you want to see me broken? Bowed head and lowered eyes? Shoulders falling down like teardrops, Weakened by my soulful cries? Does my haughtiness offend you? Don't you take it awful hard ‘Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines Diggin' in my own backyard. You may shoot me with your words, You may cut me with your eyes, You may k** me with your hatefulness, But still, like air, I'll rise. Does my s**iness upset you? Does it come as a surprise That I dance like I've got diamonds At the meeting of my thighs? Out of the huts of history's shame I rise Up from a past that's rooted in pain I rise I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide, Welling and swelling I bear in the tide. Leaving behind nights of terror and fear I rise Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear I rise Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise I rise I rise.