Brent has a Ph.D. in American culture, specializing in film studies, from the University of Michigan. She is a freelance writer and teaches courses in the history of American Cinema. In the following essay, Brent discusses the significance of music and religion to social action in Bonner's play.

Carol Allen, in her book Black Women Intellectuals, observes that Bonner's fiction and plays, while exhibiting the hardships of African Americans and other oppressed people in America's urban centers, also celebrate the value of culture in the struggle for equality. She notes that through "cultural practices such as storytelling, sermons, music, and dance, Bonner envisions a powerful new 'village' springing from the construction of old and new world practices and beliefs." In The Purple Flower, music is strongly associated with religion, and both are deemed vital to the struggle of African Americans for racial equality. Further, music and...