Black Arts Movement

Cultural  

1. The cultural wing of the Black Power Movement prominent in the 1960s and 1970s. It inspired the establishment of black-owned publishing houses, magazines and journals, art institutions, and African-American studies within universities. Well-known writers and poets associated with the movement include Nikki Giovanni, Sonia Sanchez, and Amiri Baraka.

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Example Sentences

I grew up on the edges of Outterbridge’s remarkable orbit of influence in Southern California’s Black Arts Movement; the potential loss was a staggering thought to process.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 14, 2025

Acclaimed poet at the forefront of the Black Arts Movement in the US, known across the world for her defiant yet endearing writing about race, gender, sex and love.

From BBC • Dec. 28, 2024

While Ms. Maynard, who was aligned with Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and ’70s, explored various mediums and materials over a six-decade career, her work was consistently unflinching in its social commentary.

From New York Times • Sep. 28, 2022

Sanchez was a prominent figure in the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s, and is known for such poetry collections as “Homegirls and Handgrenades” and “Shake Loose My Skin.”

From Seattle Times • Mar. 6, 2022

The editors argue that Hurston “was a proto-black cultural nationalist, a forerunner of an artistic and political philosophy that would become central tenets of the Black Arts Movement, born circa 1966.”

From Washington Post • Jan. 21, 2022