Black art has shaped American culture since enslaved Africans arrived on U.S. soil more than 400 years ago. From music, dance, theatre literature, or visual arts, African Americans have been trailblazers in the arts and created works that have shaped American culture as a whole, all the while, serving as a form of protest, empowerment, strength and resilience.
This February, the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), the creators of Black History Month, chose “African Americans and the Arts,” as the 2024 theme, in order to celebrate Black artists contributions to American culture.
“Artists shift culture. Artists make new realities and different ways of being accessible to the collective imagination. Artists encourage truth seeking and open-hearted connection with those who are different. Artists make us confront the reality of our connectedness,” said native Washingtonian theater-maker, teaching artist, and artivist, Chelsea Dee, creator of the Free Black Chesapeake Experience. “This truth- that we are all equal, connected, and responsible for one another- is at the core of our democracy. There has been a concerted effort in the last few years to obscure the truth of our connectedness- but artists refuse to let us forget. I suppose that is why dictators and authoritarians fear the power of artists and seek to silence them first.”
Kailasa Aqeel, lead singer of the D.C.-based band Black Folks Don’t Swim, emphasized Black art has shaped American culture, but noted racist systems have worked to diminish Black narratives and erase their power.
“Not only have white people historically recognized then worked to capitalize on Black art and voices, from the transatlantic slave trade to today, they’ve bought and sold our art for their own gain,” Aqeel told The Informer. “However, the beauty of Black art and culture is that you can never silence it or hide its true power.”
While they were stripped of their drums and traditional instruments, enslaved Africans and their descendants held strong to the spirit of their arts and adapted their own flare, which can be heard in the cadence and sound of Negro Spirituals.
“Black people who were brought to the U.S. through the transatlantic slave trade brought with them traditions of communal music-making,” said Brown University’s Charrise Barron, assistant professor of African Studies and Music in a 2022 article.
Post slavery, and by the 1920s, with the emergence of The Harlem Renaissance, Black creative expression was electric through New York City and spreading across the U.S. and internationally. Notable authors like Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, and James Weldon Johnson were just a few of the many contributors who used their literary works to spark necessary dialogue and innovate new ways of thinking. “The New Negro” began to navigate self-expression and societal issues through their own lens.
Prior to and after the Harlem Renaissance, African American art chronicled movements and showcased the brilliance, beauty and boldness of Black culture.
From the late 1930s through 50s artists such as Billie Holiday protested lynching through songs such as “Strange Fruit,” (1939), which had people around the world discussing the killings of Black bodies.
The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s relied heavily on artists and musicians such as Harry Belafonte, Mahalia Jackson and the outspoken Nina Simone, who sang “Mississippi Goddamn” in 1964.
With the emergence of Black Power in the late 1960s and early 70s, came songs like James Brown’s “Say it Loud I’m Black and I’m Proud,” in 1968, and Marvin Gaye’s 1971 album “What’s Going On.”
In 1973, shortly after the beginning of Black Arts Movement— which featured theatre, poetry and new styles of visual art and literature— a couple of teenagers threw a back-to-school party in their apartment in the Bronx, New York. The party, featuring disc jockey Kool Herc producing beats would unknowingly change the face of music thereafter and birth hip hop.
The widespread cultural impact of hip-hop, which celebrated 50 years in 2023, is much like the influence of the Black arts as a whole. From the rhythmic beats and rap flow to the trendsetting looks and fashions that branched with its origin, hip hop, like much of Black art, has influenced people and cultures worldwide.
Celebrating Black artists in February 2024, emphasizes the true influence of Black art historically and today.
“In America, Black artists connect the history to the present and mischievously invite us to imagine the future,” Chelsea Dee told The Informer. “Right now, we need the creative vision of our Black artists to help guide us and inspire us towards new futures.”
African American artists have historically inspired change.
D.C. native Samantha Figgins, of the groundbreaking Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, established in 1958, told The Informer, that the company’s founder always believed in engaging audiences by allowing them to see themselves, and igniting action to promote a stronger society.
“Mr. Ailey, one of his favorite things to say was, ‘We are supposed to be holding up a mirror to society, showing the world an image of themselves,’” Figgins said. “If you’re in the audience, you should be able to look up on stage and see somebody who you resonate with— that’s what this company was meant to be for Black people, to see yourself on stage.”
Artivists such as Chelsea Dee note that acknowledging Black artists’ contributions, helps society better under African Americans influence on art historically and to today.
“The country owes its continued existence to the work, love, and struggle of Black artists. We hold space for history and the future in our art,” said Chelsea Dee, who works with students and artists across the nation through her work and artivism.
“In this country, Black artists give us back our collective power to imagine, to dream, to see beyond this present time. In 2024, we are in need of that imagination work,” the D.C. native and artivist continued. “Like the work of cartographers, we need the dreams and visions of Black artists, to map a way forward, showing us new ways of being.”