... The performance of original music was only one aspect of what Horace Tapscott and his cohorts envisioned. Another was bringing that music to the South Central community to help fill an increasing cultural void. UGMA was dedicated to performing music from the community for the community. Despite...

... main focus. The cultural resurgence and growing politicization of the community were important turning points, reinforcing UGMA's purpose but also presenting it with more tasks, more members, and a growing circle of supporters, whose social consciousness and, in some cases, sense of self were being...

... Assocation (UGMA) with such a purpose in mind. They sought inspiration in the wisdom of shared historical experiences, which ranged from traditional West and West Central African cultures, through the social bonding required to survive the depredations of slavery, to communal values developed during...

... The commitment to the community and to the preservation and fostering of black art had been at the organization's core, but when first organized this placed the Association in an underground, marginal position. By the late-1960s this was no longer the case. Much of what it represented was now...