The Black Arts Repertory Theatre/School (BART/S), a key institution in the Black Arts movement, was founded in Harlem in 1965 by Amiri Baraka (then known as LeRoi Jones). In a BART/S mailing distributed in 1965, he wrote “The Black Arts repertory theater/school as its name indicates will be a repertory theatre as well as a school. It is my intention to set up in Harlem a repertory theater … By repertory theater/school is meant that the Black Arts will also set up and continue to provide instruction … in the dramatic arts.” The collection includes some 34 documents and pieces of ephemera, including posters, flyers, course offering announcements, mass mailing letters, promotional materials for performances, and blank forms. The materials, dating from 1965-1966, are from the collection of poet Langston Hughes.

A complete record for this collection can be viewed in Orbis: Black Arts Repertory Theatre/School.

Image: from LeRoi Jones, Black Magic: Poetry 1961-1967, Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merril, 1969.