Umbra Workshop and Creation
Growing up during the Civil Rights Era in the American school system, students were never taught or exposed to the works of Black writers and black literature . Thomas C. Dent, the founder of the magazine, Umbra, stated they were being "taught to belong and be whites in brown skin." This discouraged many African Americans from creating their own works as many felt it would never truly be heard or accepted, but Thomas C. Dent was determined to change that. When he moved to New York he partnered with several artist including Amiri Bakari and Calvin C. Hernton to create a journal by the name of "On Guard For Freedom" which represented a group of Black Nationalist artist and eventually lead to the creation of Umbra Workshops. Dent and his partners wanted to create and pursue lifelong African American writers who wrote with passion and purpose, so they started hosting meetings and workshops where black artist could present their art and critique one another. The workshops took place in several locations throughout the Lower East Side such as Les Deux, Cafe Le Metro and Thomas C Dent's apartment on East 2nd Street; they occurred weekly sometimes nightly as artist were constantly eager and hungry to improve their craft. Calvin C Hernton describes the atmosphere of these workshops as "exacting, exhausting and challenging" and goes on to explain that you had to have thick skin to survive the blunt and straight forward critiques. There was an abundant amount of pressure on the shoulders of these artist as they were trying to establish themselves and build a sense a respect for black literature and artist. They were challenged to juggle aesthetic, philosophy and activism in a community of increasing social tension and cultural anxiety. Once there were several established writers, the group decided to make their works public in the tangible magazine titled Umbra. They felt it was a great medium that "could deal with race" and express the "bitterness and beauties of being Afro-American." The artist defined the orientation of the magazine in two points: 1) The experience of being Negro, especially in America 2) The quality of human awareness often termed "social consciousness." With this the group began the Umbra Series.
Why Umbra?
The name Umbra originates from a poem by Lloyd Addison in the Eclipse series titled "Umbra". In that poem Addison uses flowery love and sexual language as he admires the graceful qualities and features of a woman's body as he makes love to her using the words "umbral" and "penumbra" as descriptive words throughout the poem. The word Umbra itself means the completely dark region of a shadow cast while penumbra is the "partially shaded outer region." He uses this to further enhance imagery for the audience as he feels and caresses every part of the woman's body. Umbra is a fitting word for the series as the black community felt they were repeatedly left and forgotten in the shadows of America. They were tired of being pushed into the darkest parts of the region and forced silence, with this magazine their voices would be heard and respected.
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Black Arts Movement
The magazine was a continuance of the already established Black Arts Movement (BAM) fathered by Amiri Bakari when he opened the Black Arts Theatre in Harlem, NY. After the assassination of Malcolm X on February 21, 1965 the black community split into two groups: Revolutionary Nationalist and Cultural Nationalist. The Revolutionary group, which included the Black Panther Party, took a political stand against police brutality and racial inequality in the form of peaceful protest and symbolism while the Cultural Nationalist went into collaboration with musicians, specifically jazz musicians to appeal to the community in a soulful and political way. The works and symbols produced by the black community were prolific and innovative, but they alienated the mainstream culture of blacks and whites with "raw shock value" often embracing violence. The movement was very influential uplifting and uniting the African American community for a common goal and purpose of fighting for their voice and place in America. It slowly faded in 1975 as leading members shifted Black Nationalism to Marxism (belief that society social classes caused many struggles and problems, therefore there should be no classes)
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Southern Black Art v Northern Black Art
During the Civil Rights era, the North was much more progressive when it came to African American rights and equality than the South. This is why the idea of black art and expressionism was much more accepted in New York than it was in Tennessee. While Umbra was gaining popularity throughout the Northeast region it did not expand outside of that. Many from the South have no recollection of any black art or expressionism from the time except for a few magazines such as JET that were well known across all of America. During that time there were many protest and strikes down South as they were fighting to get laws passed that would help to progress equality rights and their enforcement. Although they did it in different ways, black people from all regions fought for one another and the progression of black rights. |
Umbra's Demise
When the group first formed, there were many controversial views on the topics of ideology and politics. Several were passionate about these components, while others much rather it be left out of their works. As time went on many disagreements were created over the decision to incorporate certain topics in the magazine. The final straw that lead to the end of the Umbra workshops containing the original members was the debate over whether to incorporate a poem by former Communist and Spanish Civil War veteran, Ray Durem, attacking John F Kennedy in the Umbra series. The poem had been accepted by the editorial board before Kennedy’s death, but some believed it would be ill-suited in the wake of his assasination. Others believed it was necessary to expose JFK’s Cold War liberalism that shackled the Civil Rights movement. This ended the workshops in 1964 and lead many of the creators to leave including, Thomas C Dent, which is why many new artists were involved in the third volume of Umbra.