Amiri Baraka’s “Black Art” is really a kind of vulgar poem. It is a very busy poem and Baraka seems to jump around a lot. I feel like I am listening to some vent about all of their frustrations in life, but then you realize it is actually still about poetry. It seems like Amiri could be speaking about underlying things too, not sure what they might be, but it is a possibility.
“We want poems like fists beating niggers” this is such a violent, racist, and surprising line in the poem. What causes Baraka to feel SO strongly about poetry? What would make him want to write such obscene things about poetry and to describe it and wish for it in such startling ways?
“Black Art” is written in a rather conversational tone. Although, it would be a very aggressive conversation, I feel that the words he uses are often more slang/daily terms rather than formal language you might expect in poetry or prose. (i.e. “girdle mamma mulatto bitches”)
This whole piece is really just strange to me. At the end he writes “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
Why did Barak split the lines like this? Also why did he capitalize some of the words the way that he did?
Whenever I read things about blacks, asians, latinos, etc or see things such as clubs or organizations for particular races I always think how controversial it would be to start a “White sorority” like they have “Asian sororities” at Baruch. Or anything pro-white for that matter. It most likely would not be permitted. It honestly doesn’t bother me, I just thinks its interesting. Even that there is a Black History Month and BET (Black Entertainment Television). To have a White history month or White Entertainment Television would be extremely racist.