The Unglamorous But Worthwhile Duties Of The Black Revolutionary Artist, Or Of The Black Writer Who Simply Works And Writes by Alice Walker - Summary
This is a lecture that Walker gave at Sarah Lawrence, her alma mater. At Sarah Lawrence, she says, she felt free to live and create for the first time. After she graduated she realized that there was a gap in her education and her identity, for she had been taught the history of the south exclusively from a white point of view. Blacks have to study black texts. She discusses the literary canon and how blacks are missing from it. Where she would teach, instruction of texts written by black people is integral and invaluable. Many blacks feel that they lack history and art to relate to. Walker has made it a private mission to investigate into black writing and make them better known. Currently, they are not well known. These poems, though not in anthologies, are in her heart. She hopes she is a black revolutionary because she is always changing, and "for the good of more black people". She suggests that artists lock themselves up and produce work. But, she qualifies, bl