A Black Mass is a play written by Amiri Baraka and performed at Proctor's Theatre in Newark, New Jersey in 1966.
Conceived as a form of "action literature", the play aimed to raise the political consciousness of Black Americans.
[3] Baraka had learned of the Yakub myth from Malcolm X, whose assassination in 1965 likely provided further inspiration for the work.
[6] As Jacoub, the protagonist of the play, creates the "White Beast" that will become the ancestor to the white race, this peaceful blackness is soon contrasted with scenes of pandemonium, in which the room is filled with unsettling melodies and the sounds of banging and screeching (provided in the original production by Sun Ra's Myth Science Arkestra).
[7] To add to the audience's unease, the actors are not confined to the stage: the "Beast" leaps among the spectators, screaming "White!
"[8] The play ends on a call to arms against this newly created affront against nature: And so Brothers and Sisters, these beasts are still loose in the world.