ANY DAY NOW: Toward a Black aesthetic

177pp., paperback, New York, 2024

Introduction by Allie Biswas.

A collection of essays on the arts by American poet, dramatist and critic Larry Neal, published between 1964 and 1976 across various publications.

Larry Neal (1937-1981) was a founding figure of the Black Arts Movement in the 1960s and 1970s in New York. He taught at the City College of New York, Wesleyan University, Yale University, where he won a Guggenheim Fellowship, and Howard University. He worked with Amiri Baraka to open the Black Arts Repertory Theatre/School. He was arts editor of Liberator magazine (1964–69), educational director of the Black Panther Party, and a member of the Revolutionary Action Movement. His early writings were influential in defining the role of the arts in the Black Power era. One of his most famous works is the essay, "The Black Arts Movement", which addresses the "Black aesthetic" and the need to be "radically opposed to any concept of the artist that alienates him from his community".