Black Arts Movement

Poets rise up, just like the griots in old-world Africa, to tell stories and sing the praises of the dead and wounded, using words like lasers to focus anger and to rally the disillusioned, to write into existence new terms of being Black, being men and women, being American. LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, and Nikki Giovanni spearhead the '60s-spawned Black Arts Movement, throwing grenades at the literary establishment, experimenting with new ways to write poems, plays, novels, and rants that delineate frontline battles, political strategies, and the shifting foundations of Hip Hop. Even now, we can hear the echoes of, and blatant references to, their work throughout the Hip Hop cipher, from spoken-word artists to rap lyrics.