纵观历史, the African American experience has been wrought with pain and sorrow, 勇气和决心, as well as resilience and fortitude. 在很多方面, African American communities have demonstrated profound moral courage to help shape our Nation for the better. That is why it is essential that we take time to celebrate the immeasurable contributions of Black/African Americans, honor the legacies and achievements of generations past, reckon with centuries of injustice, and confront those injustices that still fester today. This year’s theme highlights the innumerable contributions of “African Americans and the 艺术.” Black/African American history is American 历史, Black/African American culture is American culture, and these stories are essential to the ongoing story of America—our faults, 我们的斗争, 我们的进展, 我们的志向.
African American art is infused with African, Caribbean, and the Black American lived experiences. In the fields of visual and performing arts, 文学, 时尚, 民间传说, 语言, 电影, 音乐, 体系结构, culinary and other forms of cultural expression the Black/African American influence has been paramount. Black/African American artists have used art to preserve history and community memory as well as for empowerment. Artistic and cultural movements such as the New Negro, 黑色的艺术, 黑人文艺复兴时期, 嘻哈, 和Afrofuturism, have been led by people of African descent and set the standard for popular trends around the world.
For centuries Western intellectuals denied or minimized the contributions of people of African descent to the arts as well as history, even as their ancestry in many genres was mimicked and/or stolen. 然而, we can still see the unbroken chain of Black art production from antiquity to the presents, 从埃及到非洲, from Europe to the New World. The suffering of those in bondage gave birth to the spirituals—or what W.E.B. Du Bois called the “sorrow songs”—the nation’s first contribution to 音乐. Black/African American contributions to 文学 include works by poets like Phillis Wheatly essays, 自传, and novels by such writes such as David Walker and Maria Stewart. Black aesthetics have also manifested themselves through sculptors like Edmonia Lewis and painters like Henry O. 坦纳.
The 1920s and 1930s witnessed the rise of the 黑人文艺复兴时期 and New Negro Movement which brought Black/African American arts to an international stage. 蓝斯顿休斯, 约瑟芬贝克, 野生Benga, and Lois Mailou Jones brought Black/African American culture and aesthetics internationally, as its ascent through many American cities housed many Black artists.
Throughout the 1960s cultural nationalism inspired a new generation of Black/African American artists who examined their own cultural heritage to establish art galleries and museum exhibitions to show their own work. 像阿尔文·艾利这样的艺术家, 阿米里·巴拉卡, 尼基乔凡尼, and Sonia Sanchez infused the theories of the Negritude movement with their own works to create long lasting and impactful projects that still inspire Black/African Americans to this day.
到20世纪70年代初, Black/African 音乐ians in New York began experimenting with a new genre of 音乐 called 嘻哈. They used technical equipment such as turntables, 合成器, 鼓机, and samplers to make their songs. 从那时起, 嘻哈 has become a pivotal force in political, 社会, and cultural spaces and is a medium where issues of racial violence in the inner city, 性别歧视, 经济减持, among other issues take a center stage.
In celebrating the entire history of African Americans and the arts, the Office of 机构股票 and 多样性 puts a spotlight on the richness of the past and present with an eye towards what the rest of the twenty-first century will bring. We also encourage the University community to explore our digital toolkit which provides many resources to commemorate the contributions of African Americans and the arts.