SOS-Calling All Black People: A Black Arts Movement Reader

Sunday November 2, 2014-3pm
Brandywine Workshop, 728 S. Broad Street
Join John H. Bracey Jr., Sonia Sanchez and James Smethurst
the editors for the Philadelphia launch of
SOS-Calling All Black People:
A Black Arts Movement Reader

This volume brings together a broad range of key writings from the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s, among the most significant cultural movements in American history. The aesthetic counterpart of the Black Power movement, it burst onto the scene in the form of artists circles, writers’ workshops, drama groups, dance troupes, new publishing ventures, bookstores and cultural centers. It had a presence in practically every community and college campus with an appreciable African American population. Black Arts activists extended its reach even further through magazines such as Ebony and Jet, on television shows such as Soul! and Like It Is, and on radio programs. Many of the movement’s leading artists, including Ed Bullins, Nikki Giovanni, Woodie King, Haki Madhubuti, Sonia Sanchex, Askia Toure and Val Gray Ward remain artistically productive today. Its influence can also be seen in the work of later artists, from the writers Toni Morrison, John Edgar Wideman and August Wilson to actors Avery Brooks, Danny Glover, and Samuel L. Jackson, to hip hop artists Mos Def, Talib Kweli and Chuck D. SOS-Calling All Black People includes worls of fiction, poetry and drama in addition to critical writings on issues of politics, aesthetics and gender. It covers topics ranging from the legacy of Malcolm X and the impact of John Coltrane’s jazz to the tenets of the Black Panther Party and the music of Motown. The editors have provided a substantial introduction outlining the nature, history and legacy of the Black Arts Movement as well as the principles by which the anthology was assembled.