The Black Arts Movement in Cleveland

The Black Arts in Cleveland, just like most cities across the country, has its roots in a definable Black identity.  This identity is cast out of the interaction between African American culture and mainstream American culture.  It shared a sense of determination with Black Nationalism and the Black Power Movement.  In the end “. . . the Black Arts Movement represented the zenith of African American nationality formation, returning many to the bosom of the black community.”[1]  That is to say, up to the 1970s African Americans had historically and contemporarily determined to exist in a world that was against their well-being.  As the African American population took shape in Cleveland, a new Black self-consciousness emerged.  It mirrored the developing ideologies of the day, from integration to nationalism.  Unfortunately, despite its cultural heritage, the city of Cleveland became a causeway for artists between the East Coast and the Midwest.  Despite this fact however, both individuals and organizations based in Cleveland have influenced those most identified with the Black Arts Movement.  Without individuals such as Charles Gilpin and Langston Hughes, and organizations such as Karamu House, Black self-consciousness in the performing arts would be drastically different.  Cleveland Artists, such as Norman Jordan, Russell Atkins, and Donald Freeman would not have had as strong a social base for their writing without these important predecessors.

  [1] Komozi Woodard, A Nation within a Nation: Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones) & Black Power Politics (Chapel Hill and London: The University of North Carolina Press, 1999), xiii.