... Copyright © 1992 by Duke University Press 1992 Answer to a Questionnaire q: Do you think of yourself as a Negro artist or an artist who hap­ pens to be a Negro? a; I think of myself first as an American, then as an artist who happens to be a Negro. After all, I have Indian, Irish, Spanish...

... impossible to divorce his politics from his art. They seem to be linked inexorably, and he is quite frank about the implications of some of his ballads. 'Sure I try to put a message in my music,' he says. All art is propaganda. Every creative artist wants to say something with his art. Why kid ourselves...

..., not only because of a magnificent performance, but because I had a chance to converse with one of the few living jazz artists who has survived the entire jazz era since its birth.1 She has lived through several eras of jazz: "Ragtime" which her mother taught her, then the time with John Williams when...

... by Duke University Press. CCC 1043-945 5/92/$1.50. 2 Lm Crew and Rap's Moml Vision 215 tion of race in judging controversial artistic expressions. How should we think about the issues raised by 2 Live Crew's trial? There is little doubt that 2 Live Crew's rap artistry hinges on pornographic desires...

... lyrics are one popular medium about which there is current concern and controversy. A major issue is whether artists should be allowed to perform lyrics judged to be obscene or bigoted toward certain groups of people. This question regarding the boundaries of artistic freedom of expression became a major...

... the phenomenon of concerts by live performers the length and breadth of America. There is scarcely a town of any size without its yearly artists' series attended, so my performing friends tell me, by large, deeply interested and intelligent audiences. People who create or who perform music know very well...

...-fifth birthday sponsored by Oberlin Conservatory of Music, which I helped organize when I was a professor there. What is most memorable about the experience was Still's personal grace, charm, dignity, and profound sense of artistic and individual integrity. This warm and honorable person clearly...

... conception arises from the inner depths of her or his being. Fundamental to this composition is the iconographer's experience of the power and presence of the Spirit in her or his life, so that the iconic expression is authentically a manifestation of sanctification taking place in the artist's person. What...

... a contribution toward friendship between nations. Today, ASCAP is an organization which helps to support Ameri­ can creative artists by affording them a financial return, during their lifetimes, for their work. ASCAP is also an organization which does not practice segregation. Negro members are rated according...

... is supposed to do. I am not an artist in the sense in which they want me to be an artist and of which they could approve. I have no desire to interpret the vocal genius of half a dozen cultures which are really alien cultures to me. I have a far more important task to perform. When I first suggested singing...

... parasitic. As rap grew, its expanded expression was still limited to mostly inner-city neighborhoods and particularly to its place of origin, New York City. Rap artists like Funky 4 Plus r, Kool Moe Dee, Busy Bee, Afrika Bambaata, Cold Rush Brothers, Kurtis Blow, DJ Kool Herc, and Grandmaster Melle Mel were...

... and precepts set forth in the blues, although it seems that to acknowledge or not to acknowledge such a debt is as much a political issue as it is an artistic one. Suffice to say that a significant relationship exists between the contemporary Western art world and what many understand to be elements of African...

... University Law School, concert and recording artist, stage and film star, All-American athlete-Paul Robeson, son of an ex-slave, was one of America's early activists who fought for black civil rights in America. Prior to emerging as one of the foremost socialist spokespersons of the international...

... Copyright © 1992 by Duke University Press 1992 The American Composer For many years, people engaged in all branches of artistic endeavor have been hoping for some governmental recognition of their efforts. At last it has come in the form of the WPA, with its many fine projects, its splendid...

... father April r, 1984, in a tragic, and as yet unexplained, incident). First and foremost, Gaye was a Christian artist. He was also one of the most gifted performers produced by the Afro-American religious experience. Raised in his father's Pentecostal church, located in the East Capitol projects...

... Andrew Greeley.6 In "Sex and Suicide," for instance, West concedes that the clue to the answer of the perplexing questions of sex and suicide among the nation's youth came to him only after listening to record albums of popular performing artist Prince. These recordings, he says, articulate the serious...

... misunderstood as a repetition of the avant-garde attitude of the fin de siecle artists-is reflected in their famous words "We don't care if you listen to our music or not." Their implicit assumption was that, given the roots of their music, black folk could not not listen to it and others had to struggle to do...

.... For some, Jackson is a self-styled Peter Pan figure who is securely nestled in a fantasy world of childlike make-believe, buffered by Disney characters and exotic animals.2 To others, he is a surpassingly shrewd businessman, capable of amassing a catalogue of publishing rights to songs by such artists...

... every chance to go ahead, to study in the best schools under the finest teachers, to build up reputations for them­ selves based upon solid achievement, so that in years to come the whole world will look up to them as worthwhile, cultured citizens and artists. One big trouble, I have found...

... of native African art ever gathered together. There are 603 objects in all from public and private museums in England, Germany, Belgium, France and the United States. Heathen Idols How old these objects are no one knows. But up to 1900 they were generally regarded as the artistic fumblings of a childish...