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September 5
Neal was born in Atlanta, GA. He graduated from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania in 1961, receiving an M.A. in 1963. Soon after, he set the tone for African-American writers who emerged during the Civil Rights Movement, championing the search and discovery of a distinctive African-American aesthetic. His early articles, including "The Negro in the Theater" (1964) and "Cultural Front" (1965) asserted the need for separate cultural forms to develop Black artists in a racist society. In 1968, Neal’s "Black Fire" and "The Black Arts Movement" further developed this perspective. Neal argued that the purpose of Black arts was to effect a “radical reordering of the Western cultural aesthetic,” in part through a purging of the external European and white American cultural influence from Black artistic expression. Neal was an instructor at the City College of New York from 1968 to 1969. He taught at Wesleyan University until 1970, and Yale University from 1970 to 1975. Near the end of the 1970s, Neal was reconsidering his view of Black culture. He seemed to give credence to a widening sphere of Black artistic expression, one of more inclusiveness witin a white environment in which Black art exists. Other late works by Neal include a pla, "In an Upstate Motel," which premiered in New York in 1981, the year of his death from a heart attack. Reference: The Encyclopedia of African-American Heritage by Susan Altman Copyright 1997, Facts on File, Inc. New York ISBN 0-8160-3289-0 to be a Writer
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