SOURCE: An Interview in Black Creation, Vol. 4, No. 2, Winter, 1973, pp. 8-10.

In the following interview with dramatist and editor Richard Wesley, Bullins examines the responsibilities of the black artist to the black community.

[Richard Wesley]: What points can be made for the role of the critic in the arts?

[Ed Bullins]: Many points can be made, though I question whether Black critics in this period are making points worthy of consideration. The critics almost without exception do not understand their role, are confused by its possibilities or, more often, are critics in name only.

How do you feel critics have failed thus far?

A critic should be some sort of intellectual/aesthetic guide to the audience, the reader, the appreciator. But in the Black Arts today you find a group of so-called critics almost devoid of original ideas and without an artistic or intellectual guiding ethos. They do...