The headline reads "Black arts leader dead at 78." Naturally, I imagined that one of Mephistopheles' minions had departed our world for the underworld. Instead, a reading of the obituary revealed an African American artist--get it, the black arts--whose books included "Scarifications" and "Mouth On Paper," and who "recorded often with her band the Firespitters, chanting indictments of racism, sexism, and capitalism." The black arts?