The Soul of a Nation Reader - by Mark Godfrey & Allie Biswas (Paperback)

The Soul of a Nation Reader is an anthology that collects over 200 texts from artists, critics, curators, and others who sought to shape and define the art of their time during the turbulent period of radical social and political upheaval in America between 1960 and 1980.

This comprehensive compendium provides a lively debate that emerged between artists and others on profound questions of how Black artists should or should not deal with politics, about what audiences they should address and inspire, where they should try to exhibit, how their work should be curated, and whether there was or was not such a category as "Black art" in the first place. The anthology includes rare and out-of-print texts from artists and writers, as well as newly published material, and is exhaustively researched and edited by exhibition curator Mark Godfrey and Allie Biswas.

It features contributions from Lawrence Alloway, Emma Amos, Benny Andrews, Tomie Arai, Ralph Arnold, Dore Ashton, Malcolm Bailey, Amiri Baraka, Romare Bearden, Fred Beauford, Cleveland Bellow, LeGrace G.

Benson, Dawoud Bey, Camille Billops, Gloria Bohanon, Claude Booker, Frank Bowling, David Bradley, Peter Bradley, Gwendolyn Brooks, Kay Brown, Milton Brown, Vivian Browne, Linda Goode Bryant, Margaret G.

Burroughs, Debbie Butterfield, Steve Cannon, Yvonne Parks Catchings, Elizabeth Catlett, Dana Chandler, Claudia Chapline, Charles Childs, Edward Clark, A.D.

Coleman, Dan Concholar, John Coplans, Hugh M.

Davies, Douglas Davis, Bing Davis, Alonzo Davis, Dale Davis, Melvin Dixon, Jeff Donaldson, Robert Doty, Emory Douglas, John Dowell, Louis Draper, David C.

Driskell, Tony Eaton, Eugene Eda, Melvin Edwards, Ray Elkins, Ralph Ellison, Marion Epting, Elton Fax, Elsa Honig Fine, Frederick Fiske, Babatunde Folayemi, Cleb