Black, Brown, & Beige: Surrealist Writings from Africa and the Diaspora (Surrealist Revolution Series)

The international surrealist movement has always embraced thinkers from every race and nation, despite the persistent misconception that it was an all-white movement. Surrealists themselves have preferred to speak of surrealism in terms of dynamics, dialectics, goals, and struggles, rather than confining it to any static definition. Accordingly, surrealist groups have encouraged and exemplified the widest diversity, and have regularly featured texts and reproductions of works by comrades from Martinique, Haiti, Cuba, Puerto Rico, South America, the United States, and other lands in their publications.

However, in the vast critical literature on surrealism, all but a few black poets have been invisible. Academic histories and anthologies have typically, but very wrongly, persisted in conveying surrealism as an all-white movement, like other "artistic schools" of European origin. In glaring contrast, the many publications of the international surrealist movement have regularly featured the work of surrealists of African descent.

This collection, edited by Franklin Rosemont and Robin D. G. Kelley, is the first to document the extensive participation of people of African descent in the international surrealist movement over the past seventy-five years. The editors aim to introduce readers to the black, brown, and beige surrealists of the world and to provide sketches of their overlooked lives and deeds, as well as their important place in the history of surrealism.

Surrealism as a movement has always resisted the efforts of critics to confine it to any static definition. It has embraced a wide diversity of thinkers and artists, and has been emphatically opposed to racism and colonialism from the start. Yet the critical literature on surrealism has typically overlooked the contributions of black and brown surrealists, perpetuating the myth of an all-white movement. This collection seeks to rectify this oversight and to highlight the important role that surrealists of African descent have played in the international surrealist movement over the past seven decades.

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