Boldly and bravely, African Americans and persons from the African diaspora have raised their voices in protest of all forms of oppression, suppression, and repression. Those who come first to mind are social activists like Dr. Martin Luther King, John Lewis, Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer, Malcolm X, and Black Lives Matter movement leaders. Too often, not enough attention is paid to some very important members of society —namely, African Americans in the Arts. As the theme of the 10th Annual Essay Contest states, they have born the sorrows and often simultaneously lifted their people in joy through music, theatre, dance, poetry, fiction, film, fashion, sculpture, painting, crafts, architecture, et cetera.
As the Association for the Study of African American Life and History states in its presentation of the 2024 Black History Theme, African Americans and the Arts, “artists and cultural movements such as the New Negro, Black Arts, the Black Renaissance, hip-hop, and Afrofuturism, have been led by people of African descent and set the standard for popular trends around the world.”
In your essay, explore African Americans and the Arts and illustrate the manner in which, in varied forms of artistic expression, select artists dealt with the sorrow of disenfranchisement, abuse, and misuse of a people and how select artists, some of the same ones produced exquisite beauty and meaning, finding for themselves and others that pain would not be allowed to steal their joy. Clearly and profoundly, make the case that scores of African American artists had a profound impact on the survival and persistence, hopes, and beliefs of a people who, despite it all, would not be denied their pride, their faith, their belief that Black people matter and matter greatly.
The late Toni Morrison, Pulitzer Prize winner in fiction and winner of the Nobel Prize in literature, once spoke of how she had to do something about the pain and suffering of African Americans. As an editor at Random House and mother of two children, participating in protests was not her option. But she had something powerful: her words. She once wrote, “We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.” Morrison’s words echoed loudly as Amanda Gorman, the first National Youth Poet Laureate, stood at the recent inauguration of President Biden and recited her original work, The Hill We Climb.
Use your voice. Write. Speak. You have much to say because “Excellence Lives Here.” Prairie View A&M University wishes to encourage and reward you.