Title: Black arts West : culture and struggle in postwar Los Angeles /
Authors: Widener, Daniel.
Publisher: Duke University Press,
Year: 2010
Subjects: African American arts Political aspects California Los Angeles History; African American artists Political activity California Los Angeles History; Los Angeles (Calif.) Race relations History
Abstract: "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." --Book Jacket.
Contents: Hollywood scuffle : the Second World War, Los Angeles, and the politics of wartime representation -- The Negro as human being? Desegregation and the Black arts imperative -- Writing Watts : the rise and fall of cultural liberalism -- Notes from the underground : free jazz and Black power in South Los Angeles -- Studios in the street : creative community and visual arts -- The arms of criticism : the cultural politics of urban insurgency -- An intimate enemy : culture and the contradictions of Bradleyism -- How to survive in South Central : Black film as class critique.