Perhaps These Are Not Poetic Times: Understanding the Black Aesthetic in Giovanni’s “For Saundra” and Sanchez’s “TCB” Anonymous College

Art is not stagnant but, it is reflective and as it progresses relies on a thorough historical narrative to guide its future advances. The boom of the civil rights movement in the 1960s highlighted how this historical narrative has been almost entirely defined by white artists and their artworks. Larry Neal in “The Black Aesthetic” (1968) attempts to address this absence by defining the black aesthetic as art that is in conversation with black Americans and urges a revolution in traditional Western aesthetics. It is directly tied to the political movements of the era and advocates for black power and autonomy and breaking free from this restrictive white space. Sonia Sanchez and Nikki Giovanni address these themes on revolution and autonomy in their poetry that calls for a reevaluation of norms and behaviors while illustrating the beauty and strength that exists in the movement. Thus, Sanchez and Giovanni in “For Saundra” (1968) and “TCB” (1970) exemplify the black aesthetic by creating works in the vernacular that touch on daily life and daily struggles for black Americans and comments on the racial prejudice and politics defining the civil rights era of the 1960’s.

Sanchez’s “TCB” is rich in the vernacular and employs it to...