Research Catalog

Details

Additional authors

1. Neal, Larry, 1937-

Description

1. 16.8 lin. ft.

Summary

1. 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

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

Subject

1. Manuscripts
2. Black Panther Party
3. Roach, Max, 1924-2007
4. Schultz, Charles H
5. African Americans > Intellectual life
6. Parker, Charlie, 1920-1955
7. Nascimento, Abdias do, 1924-
8. Scripts
9. Fuller, Hoyt, 1923-1981
10. African American authors
11. Baraka, Amiri, 1934-2014
12. African American musicians
13. Neal, Larry, 1937- > Hoodoo Hollerin' Bebop Ghosts
14. Black Arts Movement
15. Wright, Richard, 1908-1960
16. American literature > African American authors
17. American drama > African American authors
18. Poems
19. Neal, Larry, 1937- > In an Upstate Motel
20. Riots > New Jersey (Newark)
21. Reed, Ishmael, 1938-
22. Ward, Douglas Turner
23. American poetry > African American authors
24. Revolutionary poetry
25. African Americans > Race identity
26. Riots > New York (State) > New York
27. D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities
28. Sackler, Howard
29. African Americans > Music
30. Viera de Silva, Antonio
31. Riots > Connecticut (New Haven)
32. Hurston, Zora Neale
33. Congress of African Peoples
34. Neal, Larry, 1937- > Black Fire: An Anthology of Afro-American Writing
35. Ellison, Ralph
36. African American poets
37. Neal, Larry, 1937- > The Glorious Monster in the Bell of the Horn
38. World Festival of Negro Arts
39. Riots > Michigan (Detroit)
40. African American dramatists
41. Riots > California (Los Angeles)
42. Fuller, Charles
43. Congreso de la Cultura Negra de las America (1977): Columbia, South America)

Genre/Form

1. Manuscripts.
2. Scripts.
3. Poems.

Call number

1. Sc MG 344

Note

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

Source (note)

1. Neal, Evelyn L.

Biography (note)

1. 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)

1. Accessioned
2. Cataloging updated
3. Processed

Author

1. Neal, Larry, 1937-

Title

1. Larry Neal papers, 1961-1985.

Biography

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.

Connect to:

1. Finding Aid

Added author

1. Neal, Larry, 1937-

Research call number

1. Sc MG 344