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Any Day Now: Toward a Black Aesthetic
A comprehensive and inspiring collection of essays by Larry Neal, a founder of the seminal Black Arts Movement
“The Black Arts Movement is radically opposed to any concept of the artist that alienates him from his community. Black Art is the aesthetic and spiritual sister of the Black Power concept. As such, it envisions an art that speaks directly to the needs and aspirations of Black America.”
—Larry Neal
Growing up in Philadelphia, Neal was surrounded by Bebop music and writing. He culled inspiration and teachings from Ralph Ellison, Langston Hughes, and the leaders of the Harlem Renaissance. After studying folklore at the University of Pennsylvania, Neal became a prolific poet and critic, and he served as the arts editor for the Liberator where he published many of his essays about art.
Neal encouraged artists to produce work that was not only politically engaged but also unapologetically rooted in the Black experience, and this message reverberated through African American literature, theater, music, and visual arts. He probed the notion of the Western art historical canon and challenged Black artists and writers to reshape artistic traditions. Deeply invested in cultural and personal understandings of the artist's intentions and experiences, Neal argues that to properly create and critique a work of art one must invest in the history of the artist's culture.
With an introduction by the writer and researcher Allie Biswas, this publication celebrates and memorializes the great writings of a powerful and influential activist and artist.
“The Black Arts Movement is radically opposed to any concept of the artist that alienates him from his community. Black Art is the aesthetic and spiritual sister of the Black Power concept. As such, it envisions an art that speaks directly to the needs and aspirations of Black America.”
—Larry Neal
Growing up in Philadelphia, Neal was surrounded by Bebop music and writing. He culled inspiration and teachings from Ralph Ellison, Langston Hughes, and the leaders of the Harlem Renaissance. After studying folklore at the University of Pennsylvania, Neal became a prolific poet and critic, and he served as the arts editor for the Liberator where he published many of his essays about art.
Neal encouraged artists to produce work that was not only politically engaged but also unapologetically rooted in the Black experience, and this message reverberated through African American literature, theater, music, and visual arts. He probed the notion of the Western art historical canon and challenged Black artists and writers to reshape artistic traditions. Deeply invested in cultural and personal understandings of the artist's intentions and experiences, Neal argues that to properly create and critique a work of art one must invest in the history of the artist's culture.
With an introduction by the writer and researcher Allie Biswas, this publication celebrates and memorializes the great writings of a powerful and influential activist and artist.
- GenresArt
112 pages, Paperback
Published March 12, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 15, 2026
i'm feeling very conflicted about this book, so i will give it 3 stars for now. the title is appealing: what does a black aesthetic entail? larry neal, who i think we can consider one of the fathers of the black arts movement, reiterates the movement's grounding sentiment that artmaking without the articulation and ethos of a community-centered, black political consciousness - getting rid of "the destruction of the white thing" - is ultimately useless. and i can't say i disagree, but i became more and more confused/puzzled/unsure as the book progressed (progressing with the chronology of neal's formative essays) because he contines to speak of an essential "blackness" and "black aesthetic," but doesn't seem to ever define it solidly. yes, it is absolutely a dismissal of "the white thing," but then how do we cultivate what is "black"?
i'm writing my junior paper largely about blackness and the function of beauty, but it is part of a larger dilemma of how to reckon with representing blackness in popular culture (generally speaking), or rather, what constitutes Black popular culture. what "true" blackness is it we are after? where do we find it outside of ourselves? who or what have we decided is the perfect model of the thing that is black?
questions questions questions.
i do appreciate neal in his insistence on making a black aesthetic a topic to begin with. over the years, he writes multiple essays on this topic, about the necessity of a black aesthetic, driving home, repeating himself, how urgent purposeful black artistry is. through his essays, and specifically the ones addressing/reviewing the work of his black arts movement contemporaries, he also gives the care to black arts that the wider literary public didn't dare to, creating a new form of arts writing/criticism.
eventually and unsurprisingly, neal's masculinist impulse came to the forefront and he sounded like the black panthers who were only concerned with the fate of "the black man." and he also, at points, essentialized african culture for its place in african americans' past, for its "rhythm and spirit" and iconography, which is a harmful narrative about africa and west african culture that i have written about in other places.
i will say there was a short passage i am especially fond of because neal finally makes clear that his inner circle of male black arts movement artists isn't the only model for the black artist, nor is northeastern black culture.
lots of unfinished/brewing thoughts here.
["the function of art is to liberate Man."]
i'm writing my junior paper largely about blackness and the function of beauty, but it is part of a larger dilemma of how to reckon with representing blackness in popular culture (generally speaking), or rather, what constitutes Black popular culture. what "true" blackness is it we are after? where do we find it outside of ourselves? who or what have we decided is the perfect model of the thing that is black?
questions questions questions.
i do appreciate neal in his insistence on making a black aesthetic a topic to begin with. over the years, he writes multiple essays on this topic, about the necessity of a black aesthetic, driving home, repeating himself, how urgent purposeful black artistry is. through his essays, and specifically the ones addressing/reviewing the work of his black arts movement contemporaries, he also gives the care to black arts that the wider literary public didn't dare to, creating a new form of arts writing/criticism.
eventually and unsurprisingly, neal's masculinist impulse came to the forefront and he sounded like the black panthers who were only concerned with the fate of "the black man." and he also, at points, essentialized african culture for its place in african americans' past, for its "rhythm and spirit" and iconography, which is a harmful narrative about africa and west african culture that i have written about in other places.
i will say there was a short passage i am especially fond of because neal finally makes clear that his inner circle of male black arts movement artists isn't the only model for the black artist, nor is northeastern black culture.
lots of unfinished/brewing thoughts here.
["the function of art is to liberate Man."]
February 3, 2026
It’s amazing the synergy across a lot of writers who discuss Black consciousness. If you have any interest in Black art, specifically in the U.S. you have got to read this book. It will put you onto lesser known figures, as well as give you some insightful critiques on the major figures and movements like James Baldwin and the Harlem Renaissance.
November 11, 2024
A fantastic collection of Neal's essays. "Any Day Now: Black Art and Black Liberation" from 1969 as well as his writing on Baldwin and Hurston are standouts.
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March 20, 2026amazing book. this read was refreshing, impactful, and from the bottom up. I will be revisiting countless times
April 2, 2026
I will own this book soon. As I aim to understand Black design and aesthetic more for work/personal life, this book is a seminal work that I thoroughly enjoyed digesting.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews