A poet, a director, an actor, a musician, a teacher — Bob Elliott, also known as Malinke Kenyatta, is all of these. He is also the Executive Director of the Black Artists’ Group. Formed by a group of black artists a little more than two years age, BAG aims “to heighten Black People’s awareness of their creative potential”.
Working from their headquarters, at 2669 Washington, they seek to provide a forum for the expression and development of black arts. They accomplish this through their training school; and by recruiting programs in he community.
Bob Elliott lives at 6034 Kingsbury. A native of St. Louis, he served in Alabama, Florida, Alaska and Kansas with the Air Force. He studied at the Air Force University and was eventually placed in the field of psychiatry. While Bob was doing psychiatric social work, his Air Force associates shared their books with him — books on literature and philosophy as well as psychiatry.
Bob’s appetite for reading — he then had subscriptions to 15 magazines — and a desire to prepare himself for Washington University resulted in a tremendous background in literature, with a natural emphasis on black literature. His last stop with the Air Force was Topeka, Kansas and there, on the grounds of the Menninger Foundation, the Topeka Summer Theater performed. With this he moved from a reader of plays to an active participant in the theater.
For a child who had been playwriting in his head since childhood, who had read his way through the World Book Encyclopedia, and the theology books accumulated by 20 ministers in the family in two generations, and who had read “Call of the Wild” eighteen times, the appeal of words was natural. His studies at Washington University’s night school upon his return to St. Louis produced a deep interest in writing as a formal art.
Although he does not have a degree, Bob’s abilities have not only led to his teaching Black Literature at Washington U., but he is also a consultant to the Washington University School of Architecture.
His interest in liteature spans the published and the yet-to-be-written. He himslef is a published poet and his plays have been presented by a number of groups. Working with MECA (Metropolitan Education Center in the Arts) he has taught his craft to children. He has done readings of his own works at numerous colleges in the area and was a guest lecturer at the Golden Jubilee Convention of the National Association of Negro Musicians last fall.
BAG was originally the result of a number of people who thought something should be done to bring black artists together. It was been funded by the Danforth Foundation ans hopefuly will have a theatre of its own in the foreseeable future. Whetherthis dream bocomes a reality or not, one knows that Malinke Kenyatte will find a place for his many talents.
Originally published in The Paper, June 1970.
