Comparison between alice walker and romare bearden

Document Type:Essay

Subject Area:Religion

Document 1

For Alice Walker, writing poems and novels about the African American experience was an appropriate way to pass the message of the struggle of the Black people in America. On the other hand, for Romare Bearden, Art was the most appropriate way to speak up on behalf of the African American community. As such, through their works, Alice Walker and Romare Bearden demonstrate that both Art and literature can be used to effectively champion for the rights of the oppressed in any society. About Alice Walker The American novelist, Alice Walker was born on February 19th 1994 in Eatonton Georgian (“Alice Walker”, 2019). Walker’s parents were sharecroppers which imply that she was brought up in a life that was far from luxury. Romare’s art was a representation of the African American experience to which he later integrated American modernism.

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During the political upheaval in the 1960s, Romare Bearden found how he could speak up for the black American community by creating collages which were made out of cut and torn paragraphs from magazines that which he then reassembled into visually powerful statements about the experience of the African American people. Through culling images from both black and mainstream magazines such as Ebony and Jet, Bearden was able to infuse the Black American experience, its rich musical and visual production, and its contemporary racial strife and triumphs into the collages that he made (“Romare Bearden”, 2019). These helped in expressing his conviction about the connection between art and social reality. Cultural context of Alice Walker and Romare Bearden Alice Walker and Romare Bearden, both of African-American origin dealt first hand with the experiences of the black people in America.

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B DuBois. This helps in shaping his awareness of the social issues in the society especially those that affected the African American community at that time in history. Besides, due to the influence of the civil rights movement, Romare Bearden became increasingly socially conscious and representational in his work. He demonstrated modesty and made art that depicted the true American society as it was divided both by race and social class. It is important to note that both Alice Walker and Romare Bearden captured the influence of the slave culture in their society. This demonstrates that both individuals were championing for abolition of the laws that made it possible for slavery to thrive. Through their works, they were calling for the full practice of the proclamation of independence that provided that all men are created equal (Campbell, 2018).

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 That is, both men and women, black and white, all American citizens deserved a fair chance at life. Similarities between Alice Walker and Romare Bearden Both Alice Walker and Romare Bearden were African American civil rights activists were born in the South at the time of racial segregation. Both of them used their literature and art respectively to champion for the rights of the black people in America. E. Dubois, Walker never met such prominent individuals until she came to New York to complete her studies. Conclusion As civil rights activists Alice Walker and Romare Bearden demonstrated that both Art and literature can be used to effectively champion for the rights of the oppressed in any society. Walker and Bearden consistently highlighted on issues around slavery, segregation and the unfair treatment that the blacks faced which made their work easy to identify with.

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As such, both Romare and Walker were accomplished in their work as civil rights activists and as an artist and author respectively. Campbell, M. S.  An American Odyssey: The Life and Work of Romare Bearden. Oxford University Press. Arabindan-Kesson, A.

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