LibGuides: African American Life: Arts and Popular Culture

Tips for Searching in This Topic

Search Tip #1

A search term can be used in combination with another search term to improve the relevance of your search results in databases, the Library's Discover and Catalog searches, and even in Google and other search engines.

To find materials about the arts and cultural aspects of Americans of African descent, start with the search term "African Americans" then add a second or even third search term.

Examples:

"African Americans" AND "music history"
"African Americans" AND "literary criticism"
"Harlem Renaissance" AND influence

Search Tip #2

Try searching "African Americans" as a subject instead of a keyword to limit results to materials that are about African Americans. A keyword search only means that your searched term appears somewhere in the text of the books and articles in your results.

Search Tip #3

As an example, here are just a few of the subject terms we noted when retrieving the books listed on this page:

African Americans in the performing arts	African Americans -- Race identity
American literature -- African American authors -- History and criticism	African Americans -- Intellectual life
American poetry -- African American authors	Essays -- African American authors
Speeches, addresses, etc., American -- African American authors	Essays -- Women authors
African American aesthetics	Harlem Renaissance

Databases in African American Art and Culture

ARTStor
Notice: ArtStor will merge with JSTOR on 8/1/2024, Check JSTOR for all ArtStor content.
ARTstor covers many time periods and cultures, and documents the fields of architecture, painting, sculpture, photography, decorative arts, and design, as well as many other forms of visual culture. It features high resolution zooming, printing and customizable, shareable image sets. Usage rights are cleared for educational use, and teaching resources like surveys, presentations and curriculum guides are available as well.
Black Drama, 1850 to Present
This database contains the full text of hundreds of plays written from the mid-19th century to the present by hundreds of playwrights from North America, English-speaking Africa, the Caribbean, and other African diaspora countries. Many of the works are rare or out of print. Information on related productions, theaters, and production companies, as well as selected playbills, production photographs and other related material is also available.
Naxos Music Library Online
Naxos offers thousands of tracks of jazz, film music, world music, and classic and contemporary rock, with customizable playlists supported. Recordings are searchable by genre, label, instrument, composer, or performer.
Naxos Spoken Word Library Online
Naxos Spoken Word Library consists of hundreds of audiobooks, with subjects ranging from literary classics, biographies, and histories to philosophy, religion, and children's stories.