NEA: Here at the National Endowment for the Arts, we celebrate Black History Month because we know that you cannot tell the history of the arts in the United States of America without including the many long-lasting contributions of African Americans to the country’s cultural landscape. For example, even as 13 overseas British colonies were working to become an independent nation, an enslaved young woman in Boston, Phillis Wheatley, was creating work that ranked her among the best-known poets of the time.
1 comment:
The National Endowment for the Arts celebrating Black History Month by including the local HBCUs is pretty radical. Recognizing the artistry that happens within the culture of HBCUs doesn’t happen often in the national artistic community. Beyoncé’s “Homecoming” documentary really put a light on the talent in HBCU’s and on the funding these schools need to keep this culture for black students. The only issue I have with this article is their use of the label “African-American”. Most people think this term is politically correct when it actually pushes the false narrative that all black people are Americans whose family was shipped here in the slave trade. Using “black” is inclusive of all people born in different places that have still contributed to American culture and not pigeonholing them into this other potentially wrong label. I love the initiative the National Endowment for the Arts is embarking on but I just wish more things were thought thru, language wise, before releasing this statement.
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