African Forms Album

Explores how jazz helped propel the rise of African American Islam during the era of global Black liberation Amid the social change and liberation of the civil rights and Black Power movements, the tenor saxophonist Archie Shepp recorded a tribute to Malcolm X’s emancipatory political consciousness. Shepp saw similarities between his revolutionary hero and John Coltrane, one of the most influential jazz musicians of the era. Later, the esteemed trumpeter Miles Davis echoed Shepp’s sentiment, recognizing that Coltrane’s music represented the very passion, rage, rebellion, and love that Malcolm X preached. Soundtrack to a Movement examines the link between the revolutionary Black Islam of the post-WWII generation and jazz music. It argues that from the late 1940s and ’50s though the 1970s, Islam rose in prominence among African Americans in part because of the embrace of the religion among jazz musicians. The book demonstrates that the values that Islam and jazz shared—Black affirmation, freedom, and self-determination—were key to the growth of African American Islamic communities, and that it was jazz musicians who led the way in shaping encounters with Islam as they developed a Black Atlantic “cool” that shaped both Black religion and jazz styles. Soundtrack to a Movement demonstrates how by expressing their values through the rejection of systemic racism, the construction of Black notions of masculinity and femininity, and the development of an African American religious internationalism, both jazz musicians and Black Muslims engaged with a global Black consciousness and interconnected resistance movements in the African diaspora and Africa.

This encyclopedia explores the many long-standing influences of Africa and people of African descent on the culture of the Americas, while tracing the many ways in which the Americas remain closely interconnected with Africa. Ranging from the 15th century to the present, Africa and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History explores the many ways Africa and African peoples have shaped the cultural life of the Americas—and how, in turn, life in the Americas reverberates in Africa. This groundbreaking three-volume encyclopedia offers hundreds of alphabetically organized entries on African history, nations, and peoples plus African-influenced aspects of life in the Americas. It also features authoritative introductory essays on history, culture and religion, demography, international relations, economics and trade, and arts and literature. In doing so, it traces the complex and continuous movement of peoples of African descent to the West, the mechanics and lingering effects of colonialism and the slave trade, and the crucial issues of cultural retention and adaptation that are essential to our understanding of the effects of globalization.

A narrative that explores the African genealogy of American Blues

"Traditional African forms were noticed, described, and brought back to Europe as early as the statues and masks, but none of the books on the subject covers the broad geographic and stylistic range adequately or presents these beautiful objects appropriately." "This volume reaches into practically all of Africa and thus covers an area perhaps 50% greater than that of most books. Similarly, it is unique in treating a broad variety of articles: household objects and weapons, jewelry and textiles, musical instruments and devotional items. The coverage is extensive, but the purpose is not to be encyclopedic; rather it is to present a wide assortment of top-quality utilitarian objects, beautifully photographed, and to give sufficient background information, carefully researched but in a lively, readable format, to enhance the enjoyment of this material as art."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Illuminates an aspect of African art that has largely been neglected by other books. African sculptures and art can be difficult to decipher because they are more than tokens of "art for art's sake." African art is often based on religious and philosophical values. It is created not just for the patron but for the entire community, using a language of form to help the society to understand what cannot otherwise be put into words. Through an enlightening analysis of some continent's most emblematic artifacts, this book decodes African art by putting it in the context of the broader culture. It is thematically organized around key motifs to help you fully understand African art. 150 colour illustrations

Exploring the interface between the cultural politics of the Black Power and the Black Arts movements and the production of postwar African American popular culture, Amy Ongiri shows how the reliance of Black politics on an oppositional image of African Americans was the formative moment in the construction of "authentic blackness" as a cultural identity. While other books have adopted either a literary approach to the language, poetry, and arts of these movements or a historical analysis of them, Ongiri's captures the cultural and political interconnections of the postwar period by using an interdisciplinary methodology drawn from cinema studies and music theory. She traces the emergence of this Black aesthetic from its origin in the Black Power movement's emphasis on the creation of visual icons and the Black Arts movement's celebration of urban vernacular culture.

African-American English: Structure, History and Use provides a comprehensive survey of linguistic research into African-American English. The main linguistic features are covered, in particular the grammar, phonology and lexicon. Further chapters explore the sociological, political and educational issues connected with African-American English. The editors are the leading experts in the field and along with other key figures, notably William Labov, Geneva Smitherman and Walt Wolfram, they provide an authoritative, diverse guide to this topical subject area. Drawing on many contemporary references: the Oakland School controversy, the rap of Ice-T, the contributors reflect the state of current scholarship on African-American English, and actively dispel many misconceptions, address new questions and explore new approaches. The book is designed to serve as a text for the increasing number of courses on African-American English and as a convenient reference for students of linguistics, black studies and anthropology at both undergraduate and postgraduate level.