Black Arts West: Culture and Struggle in Postwar Los Angeles

by Daniel Widener

From postwar efforts to end discrimination in the motion-picture industry, recording studios, and musicians’ unions, through the development of community-based arts organizations, to the creation of searing films critiquing conditions in the black working class neighborhoods of a city touting its multiculturalism— Black Arts West documents the social and political significance of African American arts activity in Los Angeles between the Second World War and the riots of 1992. Focusing on the lives and work of black writers, visual artists, musicians, and filmmakers, Daniel Widener tells how black cultural politics changed over time, and how altered political realities generated new forms of artistic and cultural expression. His narrative is filled with figures invested in the politics of black art and culture in postwar Los Angeles, including not only African American artists but also black nationalists, affluent liberal whites, elected officials, and federal bureaucrats. Along with the politicization of black culture, Widener explores the rise of a distinctive regional Black Arts Movement. Originating in the efforts of wartime cultural activists, the movement was rooted in the black working class and characterized by struggles for artistic autonomy and improved living and working conditions for local black artists. As new ideas concerning art, racial identity, and the institutional position of African American artists emerged, dozens of new collectives appeared, from the Watts Writers Workshop, to the Inner City Cultural Center, to the New Art Jazz Ensemble. Spread across generations of artists, the Black Arts Movement in Southern California was more than the artistic affiliate of the local civil-rights or black-power it was a social movement itself. Illuminating the fundamental connections between expressive culture and political struggle, Black Arts West is a major contribution to the histories of Los Angeles, black radicalism, and avant-garde art.

Genres: History, Art, Music, Nonfiction, African American

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Daniel Widener is Associate Professor of History at the University of California, San Diego.

Reviews

[Aaron Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book. First off, Widener's style of historiography—his tone, and approach—is beautifully accessible. He has read a great deal of critical theory and political science, and he cites them when he needs to, but mostly he writes as though he's telling us a story, talking us through particular arguments and debates, artistic offerings, and community organizations. It's refreshing and easy to read.

And then there is the extraordinary content. This book reshapes how we think of the Black Arts Movement by relocating it, expanding the artistic offerings of its artists, and tracing back the challenges that Black arts had to before the Second World War. This is also a wonderful history of Black art and community in Los Angeles. I honestly can't say enough good things about this superb book.

[Brandon Milton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Art, in general, is often something that is not thought very deeply about. Especially in America, art is mainly viewed through a lens of entertainment. In Black Arts West, Daniel Widener convincingly claims that art is not just a means of entertainment, but a means of expression. This expression is not only an expression of ideas, but an expression of cultural viewpoints and of moments in history.

Although Widener's writing style is often overly-verbose and seemingly inexperienced, the examples and anecdotes he uses as grounds for his claims speak for themselves. Black Arts West provides details of postwar Los Angeles through a unique cultural lens, and results in unique points.

I recommend this book to anyone who has not explored the deeper implications of art during a revolutionary period, but only if they are willing to spend time digging through Widener's unnecessarily wordy.

[Daryl Grigsby]

just picked up and great account of role of culture and progressive prolitics - Cabral would be proud!

[Mary Rizzo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent analysis of the role of black cultural politics in the urban political and social landscape of LA from the 1940s-2000.