bootLEG CORNER: When Art Worked, Roger Kennedy & David Larkin

"Art is dangerous. It is one of the attractions, when it ceases to be dangerous, you don't want it." --Countee Cullen

While Obama gives his speech on jobs, Roger Kennedy is talking to Diane Rehm about how FDR, through the WPA, saved a place for artists in the New Deal.

Kennedy and David Larkin have just published a reminiscing text about how art--from post office murals to theatre projects to this to that and the third--created an opportunity for artists to get to work.

However, there is the ominous question of censorship--to which Kennedy answers with artistic commentaries of the tenements and sweatshops of the 1930s--graven enough into the national imaginary that we might not flinch, but "Bred'ren can we candidly speak?"

Many are calling in to ask how such a "wonderful program" could dissipate so quickly. Well...I think this may be the answer. As it applies to Black artists, subsidized art has always been the source of great contention and debate. Resources have always been slim, hence the theorem of eternal gratitude --within the history of Black art and literature-- to the Lomaxes, and van Vechtens, and lest we forget the "godmothers."

That being said, there's a strong resistance to the concept of democratically-sponsored art in the first place. But if it weren't for the humble "handout"...<*crickets...> would Black art--much of which risks co-optation (and has suffered co-optation) by public and commercial interests--have the visibility (and vulnerability) it currently enjoys?

There have to be crickets, because at the end of the day every subsidy is owed. Period.

So the real concern I'm having, then, I guess is this:

how do you maintain a critical politcs of Empire, make sure your art never loses its infidelity to Empire, and still spend Empire's so-called money to produce your critiques?

Child, please.

In the meantime, go read this book. And then read about the writers who would ultimately create the Memory project through the WPA's Federal Writers' program. When I find the name of this other book, I'll repost it. It covers the "Harlem Renaissance scene" so to speak, and this is the book that first taught me about rent parties. ;-)

See...that's what Wall Street should've had.

BTW, since we're also facing this Comcast-NBCU deal down its barrel, who senses some juice for independent film, TV, and LIVE theatre???? Anybody? Anybody??