An Introduction

Hi there!
This blog is part of a larger project by Mrs. Lewis's seventh bell Poetry class. Inspired by a larger project (http://aliceproject.wordpress.com/), Mrs. Lewis asked us the question:
How are the Black Arts Movement and Hip-Hop connected to one another?
This blog is our group's attempt to answer that question.
Over the next two and a half weeks, we will write about the Black Arts Movement, early hip hop, and the connections between the two. To do this, we will write about the political, social, artistic, and religious climates of both periods.

This post is an introduction to the project as well as an introduction to both movements.
The Black Arts Movement was, quite obviously, an artistic movement that took place through the 1960's and 1970's. This surge of artistic and literary work among African Americans went hand in hand with the Black Power movement, a militaristic approach to the ending of segregation in the United States.
(Sources: http://aalbc.com/authors/blackartsmovement.htm and http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5647)
Hip-Hop music became wildly popular in the 1980's and 1990's, and continues to be popular to this day. However, the hip-hop of those days had much more substance than that of most of today's hip-hop music. The Hip-hop music of that generation was about making a political statement. While segregation had been made illegal, and as far as the law was concerned African Americans and other minorities had achieved equality, minorities still received hostile and substandard treatment. The Hip-Hop music of this period reflected the dissatisfaction that African Americans felt, and helped to push the Civil Rights Movement further. (source: http://www.globaldarkness.com/articles/roots_of_hiphop.htm and what I remember from Mr. Lewis's American Century Class)

Read on to see our connections between the two movements.

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