The Black Arts movement was a cultural movement in the 1960s that African Americans used to express their feelings through their literature. The Black Arts movement unified African Americans nationwide through its diverse culture and bold poetry. The Black Arts movement was started in Harlem by Amiri Baracka, a writer and activist. The Black Arts movement included writers/poets such as Nikki Giovanni, Maya Angelou, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Langston Hughes.
Ka'Ba By Amiri Baraka
A closed window looks down
on a dirty courtyard, and black people
call across or scream or walk across
defying physics in the stream of their will
Our world is full of sound
Our world is more lovely than anyone's
tho we suffer, and kill each other
and sometimes fail to walk the air
We are beautiful people
with african imaginations
full of masks and dances and swelling chants
with african eyes, and noses, and arms,
though we sprawl in grey chains in a place
full of winters, when what we want is sun.
We have been captured,
brothers. And we labor
to make our getaway, into
the ancient image, into a new
correspondence with ourselves
and our black family. We read magic
now we need the spells, to rise up
return, destroy, and create. What will be
the sacred words?
A closed window looks down
on a dirty courtyard, and black people
call across or scream or walk across
defying physics in the stream of their will
Our world is full of sound
Our world is more lovely than anyone's
tho we suffer, and kill each other
and sometimes fail to walk the air
We are beautiful people
with african imaginations
full of masks and dances and swelling chants
with african eyes, and noses, and arms,
though we sprawl in grey chains in a place
full of winters, when what we want is sun.
We have been captured,
brothers. And we labor
to make our getaway, into
the ancient image, into a new
correspondence with ourselves
and our black family. We read magic
now we need the spells, to rise up
return, destroy, and create. What will be
the sacred words?
Analysis
Kaba by Imamu Amiri Baraka is a intense cultural poem that focuses on inspiring African Americans to break away from both the figurative and literal chains with holding them from liberty and freedom. In the third stanza Baraka says "we are beautiful people with african imaginations" which can be interpreted as Baraka explaining how African Americans are beautiful despite of the racial stereotypes against African Americans. The exert also refers to "african imaginations" which at the time were having dreams of liberty and freedom to have all the pleasures white people had. Baraka says "We have been captured, brothers. And we must labor to make our getaway, into the ancient image" in the fourth stanza, (an allusion to slavery) this line is referring to when African Americans were slaves and how they must all unite and work hard to release themselves from the shackles of injustice and return to the "ancient image" of freedom in their home countries.
Kaba by Imamu Amiri Baraka is a intense cultural poem that focuses on inspiring African Americans to break away from both the figurative and literal chains with holding them from liberty and freedom. In the third stanza Baraka says "we are beautiful people with african imaginations" which can be interpreted as Baraka explaining how African Americans are beautiful despite of the racial stereotypes against African Americans. The exert also refers to "african imaginations" which at the time were having dreams of liberty and freedom to have all the pleasures white people had. Baraka says "We have been captured, brothers. And we must labor to make our getaway, into the ancient image" in the fourth stanza, (an allusion to slavery) this line is referring to when African Americans were slaves and how they must all unite and work hard to release themselves from the shackles of injustice and return to the "ancient image" of freedom in their home countries.
Literary Devices
The poem "Kaba" includes both allusions and personification. The poet uses allusion when he said :
"We have been captured, brothers. And we labor
to make our getaway,"
that exert refers to a time period in which African Americans were either indentured servants (a short period of time) or slaves. Baraka uses personification in the first stanza when he says "a closed window looks down" in the first stanza.
"A closed window looks down
on a dirty courtyard, and black people
call across or scream ow walk across"
Baraka's use of personification here emphasizes his point of blocked pathways to liberty, freedom, and happiness for African Americans.
The poem "Kaba" includes both allusions and personification. The poet uses allusion when he said :
"We have been captured, brothers. And we labor
to make our getaway,"
that exert refers to a time period in which African Americans were either indentured servants (a short period of time) or slaves. Baraka uses personification in the first stanza when he says "a closed window looks down" in the first stanza.
"A closed window looks down
on a dirty courtyard, and black people
call across or scream ow walk across"
Baraka's use of personification here emphasizes his point of blocked pathways to liberty, freedom, and happiness for African Americans.