John Lewis: But do you think there’s enough, ah, black writers writing about the music?
Amiri Baraka: Well, see, the problem is, you have to go back to the roots of this society… I wish there were more black writers because Blues People is purported to be the first book by an African American on he music except for Langston’s books/works on the music… he wrote some books on the music that were aimed at children. But as far as the profoundest look at the music recently from a poet, I would take my lead from Langston. But you’d be surprised that the most profound writings on the music have been since the inception, by African American writers it’s just that that writing gets swept under the kind of purposeful obscurity that the media mashes on all of us.
“Purposeful obscurity” is such a beautifully apt phrase for that process
At large, of course it gives me great hope to read the way music is written about here. I don't know about the US and if there is a change at all but here in AU and I think of African diaspora accross borders everywhere, there is a modus operandi to be observed from the way its done here—personally myself, I have been very inspired 🖤