Black Is Beautiful
In today’s modern society, the arts and performance are things that I associate with predominantly a high class white society. It’s just my reality. Growing up in a predominantly latino community, I never really met someone who prided themselves in the arts. However, we are seeing a greater shift in more cultural diversity in the arts with the Oscars and the inclusion of more actors of color in major film roles. I think this is encouraging especially being a person of color and being able to relate to a certain piece or act.
In this week’s lecture, Professor Cohen talked about race in the counterculture movement and discussing the shift of many racial groups. The shift from Negro to Black brought a cultural revolution and lead the counterculture front in California and across the United States. A really woke moment for me that occurred was when Professor Cohen explained how the United States was one of the last modern democracies because of how late the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Even today I still strongly believe that the U.S. has the greatest democracy claim is still flawed with policies such as Voter ID laws and really long lines at the voting poll.
These variables might seem small but they do play a major role in decreasing voter participation in minority groups and continuing to oppress those communities. If we really want to make the claim that the United States had the greatest democracy, then everyone should be able to vote without no issues and we’d have every citizen vote whenever we had an election.
The following day, I went to go see the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater performance and I kid you not, I had never seen anything like it before. I initially thought that it would be a very boring performance but from the moment that it started I was instantly engaged. The dancing was so different and unique to anything that I had ever seen before and the lights and technical features we’re all so complementary to the performance. I really enjoyed the performance as a whole and I would definitely pay money to see them again. I also really that the performance really focused on the feminism and the Power of a Black Female. Even when there were no women in parts of the performance, you could still feel that female presence that drives the whole performance which is true about groups like SNCC and the Black Panthers. The woman are those that aren’t recognized but without them, the movements are not the revolutionary movements that we know about today.
As a society, I feel that we constantly forget about the importance of minorities in mass media and playing a major role in American society. As a person of color, I feel that I do not see enough people that look like me in positions of power. This is very concerning on a greater scale because a lot of our stories and experiences are being silenced and ignored by a more common crowd of people(white people). To see groups like Alvin Ailey counter the white, Eurocentric, performing arts scene with their own culture was absolutely brilliant and spectacular.
I relate this to my own personal life. I’ve really got into writing poetry and have found a true passion in creative writing. I ultimately want to take my creative talents and tear it up in the studio and become a rapper. I find myself asking why there are not many Latinx identified rappers in the mainstream hip-hop scene. I feel growing up as Salvadoran-American, I’ve had many unique experiences that haven’t been highlighted and stories that should be told but aren’t because of the fact that I’m a minority who came from a low-income background. It’s a big reason why I’m so motivated to share my knowledge and stories of me the people I grew up with. I see that there is an issue in that my experiences are not being acknowledged so I want to share my life through written word.
It’s amazing how we as people can see parallels with other movements or art that is different than ours. It’s the most beautiful thing about movements like the BPP and the Alvin Ailey Dance theater because they express their message in their own unique way. They both counter what is common and add diversity to American culture. Art has its way to influence American culture. Anything that is mass media has some sort of influence of some sort of art form. Whether it’s music, dance, poetry or any other type of art, it always finds it’s way in places you wouldn’t expect such as Television, Clothing, Education, etc.
Art has the power to influence human identity and create a cultural revolution. That’s what makes the African American political and art movement so important because it integrates their story and experience into modern society so that young people like me can look up to those movements and find inspiration to have their own creation and be shared with the rest of the world.
The Alvin Ailey performance has definitely been one of the highlights of my UC Berkeley career because I was able to witness the performing arts through a completely different cultural perspective. The type of cultural wealth that the African American community brings to the arts is something that’s quite remarkable and gives a unique experience to those that might not be familiar with such a fascinating culture.
The discussion of race and cultural revolution in the arts has definitely been the most enjoyable throughout the semester and has really enlightened me in a way that I’ve never felt before. Having to learn to appreciate a new culture and understand the arts in a different way has helped me appreciate my own culture and identity in a way that I’ve never experienced before. I feel inspired by the Alvin Ailey performance and the black art movement because it tells me that I can express my experiences and story in a creative and artistic way.
