‘It’s real to me’: Super soul, shifting consciousness and seeing The Wiz through a Black Arts lens

Beginning in media res of a moment of capacious cultural tension at the 1975 Tony Awards, this article examines the social, political and artistic context of the 1974 musical The Wiz . Through detailed archival research of the lead producer’s papers, close readings of the musical’s libretto and an historiographical review of the ways The Wiz has been analysed then and now, I argue for an analysis of the understudied influence the Black Arts Movement had on the beloved popular musical. Although The Wiz is often deemed outside of the cultural and aesthetic movement that accompanied Black Power, I demonstrate the way its forms, themes, content and means of success build on a Black Arts tradition and, thus, extend the understood reach of the Black Arts Movement. In so doing, I (re)claim this musical’s radicality and open up its political potentials.