"You Will Be Moved": Exploring Black Liberation Theology in the Work of Margaret Walker Alexander and Prince.

Margaret Walker Alexander addressing political issues through a moral lens is the blueprint and epitome of what Kalamu ya Salaam calls the Black Blues Aesthetic, which blends gospel, blues, and funk sensibilities into freedom psalms to create mass popular art. Much like Prince's 2001 album Rainbow Children , Margaret Walker Alexander's 1970 poetry collection Prophets for a New Day is both anthem and protest work, designed to convince listeners that Civil Rights work is God's work, for when Yeshua was resurrected from the grave He liberated humans from spiritual and physical enslavement, which, for Alexander and Prince, are manifested as police harassment, discriminatory hiring and promoting practices, poorly-funded educational systems, poverty, and discrimination in the judicial system, especially as it relates to sentencing practices. Using R. Baxter Miller's "The 'Etched Flame' of Margaret Walker: Biblical and Literary Re-Creation in Southern History" as a guide, I will show that Prince uses Alexander's mode of signifying biblical imagery to parallel and highlight the struggle and heroic essence of African American people. Ultimately, for Alexander and Prince, there was no way of addressing the socio-political evils of humanity without addressing the notion that in God lay all the answers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]