Black Art and Liberation
..., Ron Karenga, Larry Neal, Sonia Sanchez and many more Black artists at this particular time in American history. This movement examined the role of text, the timelessness of art, and the responsibility of artists to their communities (Neal 3). Larry Neal writes that “the Black artist must create new forms and new values…he must create a new history…and must be accountable for it only to the Black people” (3). Neal explains that the artist is responsible to his people, to his community, and must give up the sense of the Americanized idea of the American people. He stresses the importance of this because he feels that Black people are not living up to his standards. “Thus, we are constantly forced to see ourselves through white eyes… And in the process, we do ourselves great spiritual and psychological harm. The Black Arts movement seeks to give a total vision of ourselves.” (2) A great example of Mr. Neal’s claim is the play Home by Samm-Art Williams. In this play, Williams describes a young man named Cephus, an orphan, who is faced with many difficulties and dilemmas in life. This young man does not believe that he should serve in the Vietnam War, and therefore gets arrested. After serving time and getting let out, he takes on a journey to see the world. This dream soon fades and Cephus eventually loses his job and gets into drugs. Despite all of this, Cephus remains strong and vigilant. He never lost his joyous good will, and the determination that one day his quest for fulfillment would be rewarded. This play shows that Cephus, a Black man, went through many types of prejudices and tribulations. But through it all, he remained strong...