Word: baraka
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...festival invited various interpretations of what it means to look back and move forward. This year, BAF began with a panel discussion about Black Art featuring renowned poet and writer Amiri Baraka, one of the central figures in the Black Arts movement in Harlem during the 1960s. The panel also featured two perspectives from a younger generation—spoken word artist Joshua Bennett and scholar Cameron Leader-Picone, a fellow at Harvard’s W.E.B. Du Bois Institute. In defining Black Art, Baraka spoke of his experiences growing up in a segregated society and took an explicitly political...
...think I see Black Art changing as material circumstances change,” Bennett said. Then, addressing Baraka, Bennet said, “Your generation gave us that... and I think that’s a beautiful way Black Art encompasses a spectrum of the human experience we haven’t seen before...
This spirit of openness was also present throughout the span of three days and accounts for the vast scope of art and artists involved. Apart from the panel with Baraka, the festival incorporated events drawing from almost every possible artistic discipline, including a film screening, multiple concerts, and a visual art gallery. The art exhibit, which will be located in the Holyoke Center arcade through the end of March, includes paintings, photography, and mixed-media pieces. According to Afari, this range of artistic forms emphasized the importance of the multi-disciplinary nature of the festival...
...emphasized the individual experience as its central theme. In the spirit of “Sankofa,” the art featured at the festival drew heavily upon artists’ personal narratives and how those experiences pointed them toward the future. Whether it was Baraka reminiscing about the racial politics of the 1960s, or student poets spitting verses about their aspirations, this year’s BAF brought personal histories to the forefront as a means of moving forward...
...Baraka is asked to evaluate Booker. "I give him credit. The homicide rate has gone down," says the poet. "But I don't know if you can judge the quality of life in a city by just the homicide rate. Where is the employment? Where is the education? What is in it for the residents...