PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG BLACK WOMAN: REDEFINING RACE AND GENDER ROLES IN AMERICAN SOCIETY THROUGH THE ARTS, FROM EXPLOITATION TO SELF-DETERMINATION

Kendra Janelle Ross

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Liberal

Studies Program in partial fulfillment of the

requirements for the degree of

Master of Arts

Brooklyn College, The City University of New York

ABSTRACT

This thesis will examine the role that the creative and performing arts played in

shaping the identities of Black women in the United States during the 20th century.

Additionally, attention will be paid to how a Black feminist viewpoint has complimented

the artistic endeavors of Black women by serving as a framework for positively forging

an identity in oppositional spaces. This study will also look at ways by which

participation in the arts and the embracing of a Black feminist standpoint may help

redefine and expand the roles taken on by African-American women in the 21st century.

From the Harlem Renaissance (1920s-30s) to the Black Arts Movement (1960s-

70s) to the emergence of the Hip Hop Generation (1980s-90s), Black women have been

prolific and influential producers and performers of art-as-politics in the United States.

The life, work and ideas of Black women have been manifested through various media

of art and culture production including: literature, visual arts, theatre, dance, film and

popular music. In many instances, controversy and criticism have surrounded these

women in their roles as artists (both the renowned and the unknown). Nonetheless, their

sparks of resistance have served not only as a means by which to “define themselves for

themselves,” but as agents of social and political change in America. The contributions

of African-American women artists, culture producers and critics have helped to expand

the roles that Black women are able to assume beyond the socially-expected and

accepted. Likewise, the groundwork set forth by these women can now provide a new

model of Black feminism for the next generation of Black women who, like their

predecessors, are yearning to find their own “I” and a meaningful place in American

society.