"Lift Up Yr Self!" Reinterpreting Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones), Black Power, and the Uplift Tradition

Matlin, Daniel

doi:10.2307/4486061

Cited by 28 publications

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“…As noted, Hart had links both with Amiri Baraka and the Black Community Defense and Development (BCD) organization, the latter of which worked in conjunction with Baraka's Committee for Unified Newark (CFUN) to wrest political control from established white politicians in Newark-and seemingly in East Orange as well. The organization supported Hart in his unsuccessful attempt to unseat House Representative Peter Rodino in a 1972 Congressional election, and following Hart's reelection to the mayoral seat in 1973, he promptly appointed two BCD members, Mfundishi Maasi and Balozi Zayd Muhammad, to direct elements of the recreation program and drug treatment unit begun initially with Model Cities funds (Goodwin 1974;Matlin 2006;Unity & Struggle 6/76). Interestingly, Hart had expressed dissatisfaction with both the staff and directors of these programs during the conflagration with the Model Cities Council in the spring and summer of 1972, and had noted his frustration with the Council's ability to influence "hiring and firing" of Model Cities staff during that time (East Orange Record 4/13/72).…”

Section: Legacy and Lessons: Community Participation Community Contrmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Progress and Perfectability”: Urban Policy, Model Cities, and Community Control in the Shadow of Newark

Foerster

2019

City & Community

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Positioning itself against arguments that claim that the Model Cities program (initially known as the 1966 Demonstration Cities and Metropolitan Development Act) was either an unmitigated failure, an attempt to co‐opt activists, or an effort to introduce the “carceral state” nationwide, this paper examines the implementation of Model Cities in a historically integrated suburb and argues that while the program was assuredly only a “limited success,” it did provide both funding and social space in which residents could forge intergenerational and cross‐racial alliances, as well as launch challenges to federal urban renewal policy and notions of community control. As such, this case is illustrative of the role of federal monies in responding to urban dislocation and unrest, and exemplifies the ways in which urban residents can forge bonds of solidarity even in the face of bureaucratic regulations and political obstructions meant to discourage citizen participation.

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Section: Legacy and Lessons: Community Participation Community Contrmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Progress and Perfectability”: Urban Policy, Model Cities, and Community Control in the Shadow of Newark

Foerster

2019

City & Community

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Dr. Billy Taylor, “America's Classical Music,” and the Role of the Jazz Ambassador

Arnold-Forster¹

2016

J. Am. Stud.

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The idea of jazz as “America's classical music” has become a powerful way of defining the music, asserting its national and artistic value, and shaping its scholarly study. The present article provides a history of this idea through a close analysis of its primary theorist and most visible spokesperson, Dr. Billy Taylor. It argues that the idea was not a neoclassical and conservative product of the 1980s, but had important roots in the Black Arts imperatives of the later 1960s and early 1970s. It suggests that Taylor initially made the idea work inventively and productively in a variety of contexts, especially through his community arts project Jazzmobile, but that these contexts diverged as his public profile was stretched thin across and beyond the United States. The idea's disintegration into clichéd ubiquity in the mid-1980s then provides a critical perspective on the idea of the “jazz renaissance,” and an opportunity to consider the role of the jazz ambassador in the context of debates about African American intellectuals.

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“The Epitome of Black Masculinity”: Isaac Hayes, Black Moses, and the Long Freedom Struggle

Butler¹

2021

J. Am. Stud.

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Isaac Hayes provides a vital public figure through which scholars can analyze, evaluate, and more fully understand the comprehensive nature of the black freedom struggle as it progressed into the 1970s. Hayes merged the integrationist political objectives of mainstream civil rights organizations and leaders with the notions of racial pride, assertiveness, and autonomy that characterized the popular appeal of the black power movement. Hayes, through his “Black Moses” persona and LP of the same name, moved those freedom struggle promises and opportunities into the cultural realm, where he personified African American artistic self-determination. In doing so, he demonstrated that the contemporary conceptualization of black masculinity was not monolithic, as Hayes introduced and embodied an ideal that countered the prevailing notion of black manhood which pervaded popular culture and remains a central component of popular memory concerning black power. Most importantly, Isaac Hayes embodied a model of black masculinity that contradicted the prevailing “black macho” ideal. “Black Moses,” therefore, embodied the freedom of African Americans to move beyond contemporary racial classifications in a cultural capacity and presents scholars with an intriguing model through which to examine the evolution, possibilities, and accomplishments of the post-1960s American black freedom struggle.

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"Lift Up Yr Self!" Reinterpreting Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones), Black Power, and the Uplift Tradition

Cited by 28 publications

References 0 publications

“Progress and Perfectability”: Urban Policy, Model Cities, and Community Control in the Shadow of Newark

“Progress and Perfectability”: Urban Policy, Model Cities, and Community Control in the Shadow of Newark

Dr. Billy Taylor, “America's Classical Music,” and the Role of the Jazz Ambassador

“The Epitome of Black Masculinity”: Isaac Hayes, Black Moses, and the Long Freedom Struggle

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