A disproportionate number of male writers, including such figures as
Amiri Baraka, Larry Neal, Maulana Karenga, and Haki Madhubuti, continue
to be credited for constructing the iconic and ideological foundations
for what would be perpetuated as the Black Art Movement. Though there
has arisen an increasing amount of scholarship that recognizes leading
women artists, activists, and leaders of this period, these new
perspectives have yet to recognize adequately the ways women aspired to
far more than a mere dismantling of male-oriented ideals.
In Visionary Women Writers of Chicago's Black Arts Movement, Carmen L.
Phelps examines the work of several women artists working in Chicago, a
key focal point for the energy and production of the movement. Angela
Jackson, Johari Amini, and Carolyn Rodgers reflect in their writing
specific cultural, local, and regional insights, and demonstrate the
capaciousness of Black Art rather than its constraints. Expanding from
these three writers, Phelps analyzes the breadth of women's writing in
the BAM. In doing so, Phelps argues that these and other women attained
advantageous and unique positions to represent the potential of the BAM
aesthetic, even if their experiences and artistic perspectives were
informed by both social conventions and constraints. In this book,
Phelps's examination brings forward a powerful and crucial contribution
to the aesthetics and history of a movement that still inspires.