the Black Arts Movement, like those of the Black Panther movement that coincided with it, were male. However, key women in the Black Arts Movement include Sonia Sanchez, Nikki Giovanni, and Audre Lorde (a vocal black lesbian feminist), whose political ambitions were expressed through their poetry. The female poets who sprang from Black Arts Movement ideology did not achieve prominence until the 1970s.

The Black Arts Movement began one year before Stokely Carmichael, then-leader of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), gave his Black Power speech and one year before the formation of the Black Panther Party in Oakland, California—both of which occurred in 1966. The key connection between the Black Nationalist movement that the Black Panther Party pursued and the Black Arts Movement, which pursued a uniquely black aesthetic, was that both were interested in self-sufficiency. In this sense, they were perpetuating Booker T. Washington's view of self-determination and separation from the white community, as expressed in his Atlanta Compromise speech, while also embracing W.E.B. DuBois's avowal of political radicalism. Additionally, both proponents of the Black Arts Movement and those of the Black Panther Party wanted to create a cultural value system that was defined within the community. In this sense, these movements coincided with the decolonization movements that occurred in former colonies in West Africa and the Caribbean. Ideas were shared between black nationalists and decolonialist leaders—to wit, Stokely Carmichael was so inspired that he later changed his name to Kwame Touré, after both the first Ghanaian president Kwame Nkrumah and the Guinean leader Sekou Touré.

Finally, you shouldn't think that the 1960s saw the first confluence between arts and politics within the African American community. The Harlem Renaissance was not only a period of artistic flourishing but also a period in which black people pursued self-definition and political activism, particularly Marcus Garvey's repatriation movement through the United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA).

Black politics and black culture was closely aligned in the late sixties and early seventies. Politically, there had been gains brought about by the civil rights movement, although this was met was massive backlash. As with the rest of American society, black America experienced a very tumultuous period, which included riots in Watts and Detroit (among other cities), the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and Medgar Evers, and the rise of black militancy, as represented by the Black Panthers.

Accordingly, black films, music, and literature reflected the drama and violence of the political zeitgeist. Black artists embraced black power and black identity, as seen in songs like James Brown's "Say it Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud" and in the work of poet and critic Amiri Baraka, who was associated with the Black Arts Movement (see the link below). One of the most important contemporary writers in American literature, Toni Morrison, published her debut novel, The Bluest Eye, in 1970. She later said she wrote the novel because she wanted to read about people (black women) like her.

In film, the seventies would be the decade of so-called blaxploitation films, a derisive term coined by a member of the NAACP, which showcased black stars like Pam Grier, Jim Brown, and Richard Roundtree. Although many critics dismissed these films at the times, they were important in giving black actors lead roles and in presenting a strong, attractive, and bold image of blackness. Suggested viewing includes Foxy Brown, Shaft, Superfly, and Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song. Also consider music by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Sly and the Family Stone, Marvin Gaye, Nina Simone, and Miles Davis.