THE LAST POETS: CHASTISEMENT

n many ways, the Black Power movement represented an advancement and intensification of every aspect of the Black American freedom struggle. The non-violent philosophy of Martin Luther King Jr. and Civil Rights organizations like S.N.C.C. was challenged by Black Nationalist and leftist organizations like the Black Panthers and the Revolutionary Action Movement, who embraced violence as a means of self-defense and as a tool to be used against racist and unjust State ancillaries, like the police. At the same time, strong Black nationalist tendencies began to reemerge in the Black community. Naturally, this intensification extended to the realm of culture, with many Black Americans rejecting American and Eurocentric cultural mores in favor of the wholesale embrace of African culture. In the 60s and 70s, organizations like Maulana Karenga’s US and the Republic of New Afrika urged their members to adopt traditional African names and embrace an Afrocentric way of life. During this time, Black art, music, and poetry also began to evolve, taking on a more radical stance while embracing a celebratory attitude towards African diasporic culture. One of the most important voices of this time was the poet Amiri Baraka, who would sound the alarm for a new kind of Black art that would be created and practiced in service of the revolution. In his 1965 poem “Black Art,” Baraka boldly declared that “We want poems that kill. Assassin poems, Poems that shoot guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys and take their weapons leaving them dead.”