day. Connection to the Black Arts Movement As editor of the Broadside Press, Randall was an important part of the Black Arts Movement (BAM). The aesthetic counterpart of the political drive inherent in the Black Power movement, BAM rejected assimilation in favor of artistic and political freedom. Part of the movements doctrine was a belief in the necessity of militant armed self-defense and the beauty and goodness of Blackness. The movement's origin is usually traced to March 1965 when, two months after the assassination of Malcolm X, LeRoi Jones (who later changed his name to Amiri Baraka) moved to Harlem. It was Baraka who coined the phrase "Black Arts". The movement had three major forces: the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM), the Nation of Islam, and the US organization (the "us" used in opposition to "them"). BAM poets were known for an innovative use of language, particularly focusing on orality and the use of Black English, music, and performance for a full-bodied, authentic“black experience” that rejected white literary standards. Although Randall was a proponent of the freedom BAM offered black poets, particularly up-and-coming artists, he was not afraid to question what he saw as inherent paradoxes within the movement. For Randall, both the overtly militant aesthetic and the desire to purify poetry of white characteristics were restrictive to the expression of black artistry. Randall viewed himself as the “guardian of a poetic space out of which black poets may create without restriction." Randall's interpretation of BAM values are evident in his work. In "A Different Image" the speaker declares that the current political landscape demands that African Americans "create / a different image; / re-animate the mask" (3–6). Because African Americans will still be wearing a mask, the final line of the stanza does not imply that African Americans will be able to show their genuine selves during the Civil Rights Movement, but that the movement requires the image they project to the world to be different than the one they had been showing. The final stanza shows the pride typical of BAM poetry: "Replace / the leer / of the minstrel's burnt-cork face / with a proud, serene / and classic bronze of Benin" (8–12). Thus, African Americans must replace their current image of a weak servant with one of a calm and self-respecting African. As shown in the first stanza, this image may not be entirely genuine, but it