Research Catalog

Title

Larry Neal papers, 1961-1985.

Author

Neal, Larry, 1937-

Supplementary Content

Finding Aid

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Neal, Larry, 1937-

Description

16.8 lin. ft.

Summary

The Larry Neal Papers document his role as a writer/editor and seminal figure in the Black Arts Movement, and consists principally of Neal's diverse forms of writings, including essays, scripts, screenplays, poems, short stories and anthologies. Published copies of some of his writings are included in the collection, as are writings by colleagues and publishers.

Donor/Sponsor

Schomburg NEH Archival Resources for the Study of the Post-Civil Rights Movements Project.

Subjects

• Manuscripts
• Black Panther Party
• Roach, Max, 1924-2007
• Schultz, Charles H
• African Americans > Intellectual life
• Parker, Charlie, 1920-1955
• Nascimento, Abdias do, 1924-
• Scripts
• Fuller, Hoyt, 1923-1981
• African American authors
• Baraka, Amiri, 1934-2014
• African American musicians
• Neal, Larry, 1937- > Hoodoo Hollerin' Bebop Ghosts
• Black Arts Movement
• Wright, Richard, 1908-1960
• American literature > African American authors
• American drama > African American authors
• Poems
• Neal, Larry, 1937- > In an Upstate Motel
• Riots > New Jersey (Newark)
• Reed, Ishmael, 1938-
• Ward, Douglas Turner
• American poetry > African American authors
• Revolutionary poetry
• African Americans > Race identity
• Riots > New York (State) > New York
• D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities
• Sackler, Howard
• African Americans > Music
• Viera de Silva, Antonio
• Riots > Connecticut (New Haven)
• Hurston, Zora Neale
• Congress of African Peoples
• Neal, Larry, 1937- > Black Fire: An Anthology of Afro-American Writing
• Ellison, Ralph
• African American poets
• Neal, Larry, 1937- > The Glorious Monster in the Bell of the Horn
• World Festival of Negro Arts
• Riots > Michigan (Detroit)
• African American dramatists
• Riots > California (Los Angeles)
• Fuller, Charles
• Congreso de la Cultura Negra de las America (1977): Columbia, South America)

Genre/Form

• Manuscripts.
• Scripts.
• Poems.

Note

• Photographs transferred to Photographs and Prints Division.
• Audiotapes transferred to Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division.
• Art cards and posters transferred to Art and Artifacts Division.

Source (note)

• Neal, Evelyn L.

Biography (note)

• Larry Neal, writer, literary and music critic, and major catalyst for the Black Arts Movement of the 1960's and 1970's.

Processing Action (note)

• Accessioned
• Cataloging updated
• Processed

Call Number

Sc MG 344

Author

Neal, Larry, 1937-

Title

Larry Neal papers, 1961-1985.

Biography

Larry Neal, writer, literary and music critic, and major catalyst for the Black Arts Movement of the 1960's and 1970's. Born in 1937 in Atlanta, Georgia, he was raised in Philadelphia, and in 1961 received his Bachelor of Arts degree in history and English from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. He taught writing and other English courses at several universities, including Drexel Institute of Technology (Philadelphia), City College of New York, Case Western Reserve, and Yale University.

Neal became associated with radical politics in the 1960's, and served as the education director of the Black Panther Party, arts editor of the progressive journal, "Liberator," and wrote for "Cricket," a publication devoted to African-American music, which espoused a black nationalistic philosophy. A long association with Amiri Baraka led the two writers, together with Askia Toure to found the Black Arts Repertory Theater School in Harlem in 1964. This theater became the impetus for the Black Arts Movement, which was led by young black artists in the 1960's and which sought to create art forms that would advance black people's liberation. Neal explained that the Black Arts Movement led by black writers, plastic artists and musicians should speak directly to the needs and aspirations of black America, and should not fuse their ideas with the mainstream white culture. In 1968 Neal and Baraka co-edited "Black Fire: An Anthology of Afro-American Writing," a significant publication for the Black Arts Movement, and Neal wrote two groundbreaking essays that sought to define the movement. Still the seminal anthology of that period, "Black Fire" contains works by well-known social critics, poets and playwrights.

In addition to writing essays concerning the arts and artists, and Harlem, Neal also served as a literary and music critic, writing essays about the works of Ralph Ellison, Zora Neale Hurston, and Charlie Parker, among others. Neal also published two books of poetry: "Black Boogaloo (Notes on Black Liberation)" (1969) and "Hoodoo Hollerin' Bebop Ghosts" (1974). His dramatic works include "The Glorious Monster in the Bell of the Horn" and "In an Upstate Motel." He also wrote screenplays such as "Holy Days," worked on several film projects, and wrote numerous short stories. Lesser known as an arts administrator, Neal held the position of Executive Director for the District of Columbia Commission on the Arts and Humanities (1976-1979), a city agency that made grants to artists and organizations promoting the arts.

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Finding Aid

Added Author

Neal, Larry, 1937-

Research Call Number

Sc MG 344