143 | Alain Locke: The Search for a Black Modern Aesthetic

In this episode, we discuss the aesthetic philosophy of the so-called “Dean of the Harlem Renaissance”, Alain Locke. Locke thought art had a central role to play in the social emancipation of Black Americans. It is through art that the social consciousness of society can mature into becoming genuinely pluralist. However, not just any art will do.  We focus on why he insists there must be a strict separation between art and propaganda, how he thought poetry and drama could develop the cultural group life of black people, and why he centered the folk, or everyday people, as genuine sources of beauty and truth. Along the way we ask whether Locke’s search for a black modern aesthetic is still possible in a world where the aesthetic values around race reduce everything to moralism or didacticism. But it’s not all doom and gloom: Drake gets a positive shout out! So anything is possible.

leftofphilosophy.com

References: 

Alain Locke, The New Negro Aesthetic: Selected Writings, edited by Jeffrey C. Stewart (New York: Penguin, 2022).

Hanif Abdurraqib, The Crown Ain’t Worth Much (Button Poetry, 2016).

Tracy K. Smith, Wade in the Water (Graywolf Press, 2018).

Justin Phillip Reed, The Malevolent Volume (Coffee House Press, 2020).

Donika Kelly, The Renunciations (Graywolf Press, 2021).

Music:

“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com

“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN