Amiri Baraka

"Leroi Jones" redirects here. For other people with similar names, seeLeroy Jones (disambiguation).

Amiri Baraka
Baraka in 2013
Born	Everett Leroy Jones (1934-10-07)October 7, 1934 Newark, New Jersey,U.S.
Died	January 9, 2014(2014-01-09)(aged 79) Newark, New Jersey, U.S.
Pen name	LeRoi Jones, Imamu Amear Baraka
Occupation	Actor teacher theater director theater producer writer activist poet
Period	1961–2014
Genre	Poetry and drama
Spouses	Hettie Cohen ​ ​ (m.1958;div.1964)​ Sylvia Robinson ​ ​ (m.1966⁠–⁠2014)​
Children	Kellie Jones Lisa Jones Dominique di Prima Maria Jones Shani Baraka Obalaji Baraka Ras J. Baraka Ahi Baraka Amiri Baraka Jr.
Military career
Allegiance	United States
Service/branch	United States Air Force
Years of service	1954–57
Website
www.amiribaraka

Amiri Baraka(bornEverett Leroy Jones;October 7, 1934 – January 9, 2014), previously known asLeRoi JonesandImamu Amear Baraka,was an American writer of poetry, drama, fiction, essays, and music criticism. He was the author of numerous books of poetry and taught at several universities, including theUniversity at BuffaloandStony Brook University.He received thePEN/Beyond Margins Awardin 2008 forTales of the Out and the Gone.Baraka's plays, poetry, and essays have been described by scholars as constituting defining texts for African-American culture.

Baraka's career spanned nearly 52 years, and his themes range fromBlack liberationtoWhite racism.His notable poems include "The Music: Reflection on Jazz and Blues", "The Book of Monk", and "New Music, New Poetry", works that draw on topics from the worlds of society, music, and literature.

Baraka's poetry and writing have attracted both high praise and condemnation. In the African-American community, some compare Baraka toJames Baldwinand recognize him as one of the most respected and most widely published Black writers of his generation,though some have said his work is an expression of violence,misogyny,andhomophobia.Baraka's brief tenure asPoet Laureate of New Jersey(in 2002 and 2003) involved controversy over a public reading of his poem "Somebody Blew Up America?", which resulted in accusations ofantisemitismand negative attention from critics and politicians over his assertion that the US and Israeli governments had advanced knowledge of the September 11 attacks.

Biographical information

Early life (1934–1965)

Baraka was born inNewark, New Jersey,where he attendedBarringer High School.His father Coyt Leroy Jones worked as a postal supervisor and lift operator. His mother Anna Lois (néeRuss) was a social worker.Jazz was something Baraka became interested in as a kid. He wanted to be just likeMiles Davis."I wanted to look like that too — that green shirt and rolled up sleeves onMilestones...always wanted to look like that. And be able to play "On Green Dolphin Street"or"Autumn Leaves"... That gorgeous chilling sweet sound. That's the music you wanted playing when you was coming into a joint, or just looking up at the sky with your baby by your side, that mixture of America and them changes, them blue African magic chants." The influence of jazz can be seen throughout his work later in life.

He won a scholarship toRutgers Universityin 1951 but transferred in 1952 toHoward University.His classes inphilosophyandreligious studieshelped lay a foundation for his later writings. He subsequently studied atColumbia UniversityandThe New Schoolwithout taking a degree.

In 1954, he joined theUnited States Air Forceas a gunner, reaching the rank ofsergeant.This was a decision he would come to regret. He once explained: "I found out what it was like to be under the direct jurisdiction of people who hated black people. I had never known that directly." This experience was yet another that influenced Baraka's later work.His commanding officer received an anonymous letter accusing Baraka of being acommunist.This led to the discovery ofSovietwritings in Baraka's possession, his reassignment to gardening duty, and subsequently adishonorable dischargefor violation of his oath of duty.He later described his experience in the military as "racist, degrading, and intellectually paralyzing".While he was stationed inPuerto Rico,he worked at the base library, which allowed him ample reading time, and it was here that, inspired byBeat poetsback in the mainland US, he began to write poetry.

The same year, he moved toGreenwich Village,working initially in a warehouse of music records. His interest injazzevolved during this period. It was also during this time that he came in contact with the avant-gardeBlack Mountain poetsandNew York Schoolpoets. In 1958 he marriedHettie Cohen,with whom he had two daughters,Kellie Jones(b. 1959) andLisa Jones(b.1961). He and Hettie founded Totem Press, which published such Beat poets asJack KerouacandAllen Ginsberg.In cooperation with Corinth, Totem published books by LeRoi Jones andDiane di Prima,Ron Loewinsohn,Michael McClure,Charles Olson,Paul Blackburn,Frank O'Hara,Gary Snyder,Philip Whalen,Ed Dorn,Joel OppenheimerandGilbert Sorrentinoand an anthology of four young female poets,Carol Berge,Barbara Moraff,Rochelle Owens,andDiane Wakoski.They also jointly founded a quarterly literary magazine,Yugen,which ran for eight issues (1958–62).Through a party that Baraka organized, Ginsberg was introduced toLangston HugheswhileOrnette Colemanplayed saxophone.

Baraka also worked as editor and critic for the literary and arts journalKulchur(1960–65). WithDiane di Primahe edited the first twenty-five issues (1961–63) of their small magazineThe Floating Bear.In October 1961, theU.S. Postal ServiceseizedThe Floating Bear #9;the FBI charged them for obscenity overWilliam Burroughs' piece "Roosevelt after the Inauguration".In the autumn of 1961 he co-founded theNew York Poets Theatrewith di Prima, the choreographersFred HerkoandJames Waring,and the actor Alan S. Marlowe. He had an extramarital affair with di Prima for several years; their daughter, Dominique di Prima, was born in June 1962.

Baraka visited Cuba in July 1960 with aFair Play for Cuba Committeedelegation and reported his impressions in his essay "Cuba Libre".There he encountered openly rebellious artists who declared him to be a "cowardly bourgeois individualist"more focused on building his reputation than trying to help those who were enduring oppression. This encounter led to a dramatic change in his writing and goals, causing him to become emphatic about supporting black nationalism.

In 1961 Baraka co-authored a "Declaration of Conscience" in support ofFidel Castro's regime.Baraka also was a member of theUmbra Poets Workshopof emerging Black Nationalist writers (Ishmael ReedandLorenzo Thomas,among others) on theLower East Side(1962–65).

His first book of poems,Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note,was published in 1961. Baraka's article "The Myth of a 'Negro Literature'" (1962) stated that "a Negro literature, to be a legitimate product of the Negro experience in America, must get at that experience in exactly the terms America has proposed for it in its most ruthless identity". He also stated in the same work that as an element of American culture, the Negro was entirely misunderstood by Americans. The reason for this misunderstanding and for the lack of black literature of merit was, according to Jones:

In most cases the Negroes who found themselves in a position to pursue some art, especially the art of literature, have been members of the Negro middle class, a group that has always gone out of its way to cultivate any mediocrity, as long as that mediocrity was guaranteed to prove to America, and recently to the world at large, that they were not really who they were, i.e., Negroes.

As long as black writers were obsessed with being an accepted middle class, Baraka wrote, they would never be able to speak their mind, and that would always lead to failure. Baraka felt that America only made room for white obfuscators, not black ones.

In 1963 Baraka (under the name LeRoi Jones) publishedBlues People: Negro Music in White America,his account of the development of black music from slavery to contemporary jazz.When the work was re-issued in 1999, Baraka wrote in the Introduction that he wished to show that "The music was the score, the actually expressed creative orchestration, reflection of Afro-American life... That the music was explaining the history as the history was explaining the music. And that both were expressions of and reflections of the people."He argued that though the slaves had brought their musical traditions from Africa, the blues were an expression of what black people became in America: "The way I have come to think about it, blues could not exist if the African captives had not become American captives."

Baraka (under the name LeRoi Jones) wrote an acclaimed, controversial play titledDutchman,in which a white woman accosts a black man on theNew York City Subway.The play premiered in 1964 and received theObie Awardfor Best American Play in the same year.A film of the play, directed byAnthony Harvey,was released in 1967.The play has been revived several times, including a 2013 production staged in the Russian and Turkish Bathhouse in theEast Village, Manhattan.

After the assassination ofMalcolm Xin 1965, Baraka changed his name from LeRoi Jones to Amiri Baraka.At this time, he also left his wife and their two children and moved toHarlem,where he founded the Black Arts Repertory/Theater School (BARTS) since theBlack Arts Movementcreated a new visual representation of art. However, the Black Arts Repertory Theater School remained open for less than a year. In its short time BARTS attracted many well-known artists, includingSonia Sanchez,Sun RaandAlbert Ayler.The Black Arts Repertory Theater School's closure prompted conversation with many other black artists who wanted to create similar institutions. Consequently, there was a surge in the establishment of these institutions in many places across the United States. In December 1965Baraka moved back to Newark after allegations surfaced that he was using federal antipoverty welfare funds for his theater.

Baraka became a leading advocate and theorist for the burgeoning black art during this time.Now a "black cultural nationalist", he broke away from the predominantly white Beats and became critical of the pacifist and integrationistCivil Rights Movement.His revolutionary poetry became more controversial.A poem such as "Black Art" (1965), according toWerner SollorsofHarvard University,expressed Baraka's need to commit the violence required to "establish a Black World".

Baraka even usesonomatopoeiain "Black Art" to express that need for violence: "rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr... tuhtuhtuhtuhtuhtuht... "More specifically, lines in" Black Art "such as" Let there be no love poems written / until love can exist freely and cleanly ", juxtaposed with" We want a black poem. / And a Black World ", demonstrate Baraka's cry for political justice during a time when racial injustice was rampant, despite theCivil Rights Movement.

"Black Art" quickly became the major poetic manifesto of the Black Arts Literary Movement, and in it, Jones declaimed, "we want poems that kill", which coincided with the rise of armed self-defense and slogans such as "Arm yourself or harm yourself" that promoted confrontation with the white power structure.Rather than use poetry as an escapist mechanism, Baraka saw poetry as a weapon of action.

In April 1965, Baraka's "A Poem for Black Hearts" was published as a direct response to Malcolm X's assassination, and it further exemplifies the poet's uses of poetry to generate anger and endorse rage against oppression.Like many of his poems, it showed no remorse in its use of raw emotion to convey its message.It was published in the September issue ofNegro Digestand was one of the first responses to Malcolm's death to be exposed to the public.The poem is directed particularly at black men, and it scoldingly labels them "faggots" in order to challenge them to act and continue the fallen activist's fight against the white establishment.

Baraka also promoted theatre as a training for the "real revolution" yet to come, with the arts being a way to forecast the future as he saw it. In "The Revolutionary Theatre", Baraka wrote, "We will scream and cry, murder, run through the streets in agony, if it means some soul will be moved."In opposition to the peaceful protests inspired byMartin Luther King Jr.,Baraka believed that a physical uprising must follow the literary one.

Baraka's decision to leave Greenwich Village in 1965 was an outgrowth of his response to the debate about the future of black liberation.

1966–1980

In 1966, Baraka married his second wife,Sylvia Robinson,who later adopted the name Amina Baraka.The two would open a facility in Newark known as Spirit House, a combination playhouse and artists' residence.In 1967, he lectured atSan Francisco State University.The year after, he was arrested in Newark for having allegedly carried an illegal weapon and resisting arrest during the1967 Newark riots.He was subsequently sentenced to three years in prison. His poem "Black People", published in theEvergreen Reviewin December 1967, was read by the judge in court,including the phrase: "All the stores will open if you say the magic words. The magic words are:" Up against the wall mother fucker this is a stick up! "Shortly afterward an appeals court reversed the sentence based on his defense by attorneyRaymond A. Brown.He later joked that he was charged with holding "two revolvers and two poems".

Not long after the 1967 riots, Baraka generated controversy when he went on the radio with a Newark police captain andAnthony Imperiale,a politician and private business owner, and the three of them blamed the riots on "white-led, so-called radical groups" and "Communists and theTrotskyitepersons ".That same year his second book of jazz criticism,Black Music,came out. It was a collection of previously publishedmusic journalism,including the seminalApple Corescolumns fromDown Beatmagazine. Around this time he also formed a record label called Jihad, which produced and issued only three LPs, all released in 1968:Sonny's Time NowwithSunny Murray,Albert Ayler,Don Cherry,Lewis Worrell,Henry Grimes,and Baraka;A Black Mass,featuringSun Ra;andBlack & Beautiful – Soul & Madnessby the Spirit House Movers, on which Baraka reads his poetry.

In 1967, Baraka (still LeRoi Jones) visitedMaulana Karengain Los Angeles and became an advocate of his philosophy ofKawaida,a multifaceted, categorized activist philosophy that produced the "Nguzo Saba",Kwanzaa,and an emphasis on African names.It was at this time that he adopted the nameImamu Amear Baraka.Imamuis aSwahilititle for "spiritual leader", derived from the Arabic wordImam(إمام). According to Shaw, he dropped the honorificImamuand eventually changedAmear(which means "Prince" ) toAmiri. Barakameans "blessing, in the sense of divine favor".

In 1970 he supportedKenneth A. Gibson's candidacy for mayor of Newark; Gibson was elected as the city's first African-American mayor.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Baraka courted controversy by penning some stronglyanti-Jewishpoems and articles. Historian Melani McAlister points to an example of this writing: "In the case of Baraka, and in many of the pronouncements of the NOI [Nation of Islam], there is a profound difference, both qualitative and quantitative, in the ways that white ethnicities were targeted. For example, in one well-known poem,Black Arts[originally published inThe LiberatorJanuary 1966], Baraka made offhand remarks about several groups, commenting in the violent rhetoric that was often typical of him, that ideal poems would 'knockoff... dope selling wops' and suggesting that cops should be killed and have their 'tongues pulled out and sent to Ireland.' But as Baraka himself later admitted [in his pieceI was an AntiSemitepublished byThe Village Voiceon December 20, 1980, vol. 1], he held a specific animosity for Jews, as was apparent in the different intensity and viciousness of his call in the same poem for 'dagger poems' to stab the 'slimy bellies of the ownerjews' and for poems that crack 'steel knuckles in a jewlady's mouth.' "

Prior to this time, Baraka prided himself on being a forceful advocate of Black cultural nationalism; however, by the mid-1970s, he began finding its racial individuality confining.Baraka's separation from the Black Arts Movement began because he saw certain Black writers – capitulationists, as he called them – countering the Black Arts Movement that he created. He believed that the groundbreakers in the Black Arts Movement were doing something that was new, needed, useful, and Black, and those who did not want to see a promotion of black expression were "appointed" to the scene to damage the movement.

In 1974, Baraka distanced himself fromBlack nationalism,embracingMarxism-Leninismin the context ofMaoist third-world liberation movements.

In 1979, he became a lecturer in theState University of New York at Stony Brook's Africana Studies Department in the College of Arts and Sciences at the behest of faculty member Leslie Owens. Articles about Baraka appeared in the university's print media fromStony Brook Press,Blackworld,and other student campus publications. These articles included a page-one exposé of his positions in the inaugural issue ofStony Brook Presson October 25, 1979, discussing his protests "against what he perceived as racism in the Africana Studies Department, as evidenced by a dearth of tenured professors". Shortly thereafter, Baraka took atenure-trackassistant professorship at Stony Brook in 1980 to assist "the struggling Africana Studies Department"; in 1983, he was promoted toassociate professorand earned tenure.

In June 1979 Baraka was arrested and jailed at Eighth Street and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Different accounts emerged around the arrest, yet all sides agreed that Baraka and his wife, Amina, were in their car arguing over the cost of their children's shoes. The police version of events holds that they were called to the scene after a report of an assault in progress. They maintain that Baraka was hitting his wife, and when they moved to intervene, he attacked them as well, whereupon they used the necessary force to subdue him. Amina's account contrasted with that of the police; she held a news conference the day after the arrest accusing the police of lying. A grand jury dismissed the assault charge, but the resisting arrest charge moved forward.In November 1979 after a seven-day trial, a criminal court jury found Baraka guilty of resisting arrest. A month later he was sentenced to 90 days atRikers Island(the maximum he could have been sentenced to was one year). Amina declared that her husband was "a political prisoner". Baraka was released after a day in custody pending his appeal. At the time it was noted that if he was kept in prison, "he would be unable to attend a reception at theWhite Housein honor of American poets. "Baraka's appeal continued up to the State Supreme Court. During the process, his lawyer,William M. Kunstler,told the press that Baraka "feels it's the responsibility of the writers of America to support him across the board". Backing for his attempts to have the sentence canceled or reduced came from "letters of support from elected officials, artists and teachers around the country".Amina Baraka continued to advocate for her husband and at one press conference stated, "Fascismis coming and soon the secret police will shoot our children down in the streets. "In December 1981 Judge Benrard Fried ruled against Baraka and ordered him to report toRikers Islandto serve his sentence on weekends occurring between January 9, 1982, and November 6, 1982. The judge noted that having Baraka serve his 90 days on weekends would allow him to continue his teaching obligations at Stony Brook.Rather than serve his sentence at the prison, Baraka was allowed to serve his 48 consecutive weekends in a Harlem halfway house. While serving his sentence he wroteThe Autobiography,tracing his life from birth to his conversion tosocialism.

1980–2014

In 1980 Baraka published an essay in theVillage Voicethat was titledConfessions of a Former Anti-Semite.Baraka insisted that aVillage Voiceeditor titled it and not himself. In the essay, Baraka went over his life history, including his marriage to Hettie Cohen, who was Jewish. He stated that after theassassination of Malcolm Xhe found himself thinking, "As a Black man married to a white woman, I began to feel estranged from her... How could someone be married to the enemy?" He eventually divorced Hettie and left her with their two bi-racial daughters. In the essay, Baraka went on to say

We also know that much of the vaunted Jewish support of Black civil rights organizations was in order to use them. Jews, finally, are white, and suffer from the same kind of white chauvinism that separates a great many whites from the Black struggle.... these Jewish intellectuals have been able to pass over into the Promised Land of American privilege.

In the essay he also defended his position against Israel, saying, "Zionismis a form of racism. "Near the end of the essay, Baraka stated the following:

Anti-Semitism is as ugly an idea and as deadly as white racism and Zionism...As for my personal trek through the wasteland of anti-Semitism, it was momentary and never completely real.... I have written only one poem that has definite aspects of anti-Semitism...and I have repudiated it as thoroughly as I can.

The poem Baraka referenced was "For Tom Postell, Dead Black Poet", which contained lines including

...Smile jew. Dance, jew. Tell me you love me, jew. I got something for you... I got the extermination blues, jewboys. I got thehitlersyndrome figured... So come for the rent, jewboys... one day, jewboys, we all, even my wig wearing mother gonna put it on you all at once.

Baraka addressing the Malcolm X Festival from the Black Dot Stage in San Antonio Park, Oakland, California, while performing withMarcel Dialloand his Electric Church Band

During the 1982–83 academic year, Baraka returned to Columbia University as a visiting professor, teaching a course entitled "Black Women and Their Fictions". After becoming a full professor of African Studies at Stony Brook in 1985, Baraka took an indefinite visiting appointment in Rutgers University's English department in 1988; over the next two years, he taught a number of courses in African American literature and music. Although Baraka sought a permanent, tenured appointment at the rank of full professor in early 1990 (in part due to the proximity between the university's campus inNew Brunswick, New Jerseyand his home in Newark), he did not attain the requisite two-thirds majority of the senior faculty in a contentious 9–8 vote that favored his appointment. Baraka would go on to collectively liken the committee to an "Ivy LeagueGoebbels"while also characterizing the senior faculty as" powerfulKlansmen",leading to a condemnation from department chair Barry Qualls.Thereafter, Baraka was nominally affiliated with Stony Brook asprofessor emeritusof Africana Studies until his death. In 1987, together withMaya AngelouandToni Morrison,he was a speaker at the commemoration ceremony forJames Baldwin.

In 1989 Baraka won anAmerican Book Awardfor his works as well as a Langston Hughes Award. In 1990 he co-authored the autobiography ofQuincy Jones,and in 1998 he appeared in a supporting role inWarren Beatty's filmBulworth.In 1996, Baraka contributed to theAIDSbenefit albumOffbeat: A Red Hot Soundtripproduced by theRed Hot Organization.

In July 2002, Baraka was namedPoet Laureate of New Jerseyby GovernorJim McGreevey.The position was to be for two years and came with a $10,000 stipend.Baraka held the post for a year, during which time he was mired in controversy, including substantial political pressure and public outrage demanding his resignation. During theGeraldine R. Dodge Poetry FestivalinStanhope, New Jersey,Baraka read his 2001 poem on theSeptember 11th attacks"Somebody Blew Up America?", which was criticized for anti-Semitism and attacks on public figures. Because there was no mechanism in the law to remove Baraka from the post, and he refused to step down, the position of state poet laureate was officially abolished by the State Legislature and Governor McGreevey.

Baraka collaborated withhip-hopgroupThe Rootson the song "Something in the Way of Things (In Town)" on their 2002 albumPhrenology.

In 2002, scholarMolefi Kete Asanteincluded Amiri Baraka on his list of100 Greatest African Americans.

In 2003, Baraka's daughter Shani, aged 31, and her lesbian partner, Rayshon Homes, were murdered in the home of Shani's sister, Wanda Wilson Pasha, by Pasha's ex-husband, James Coleman.Prosecutors argued that Coleman shot Shani because she had helped her sister separate from her husband.A New Jersey jury found Coleman (also known as Ibn El-Amin Pasha) guilty of murdering Shani Baraka and Rayshon Holmes, and he was sentenced to 168 years in prison for the 2003 shooting.

His son,Ras J. Baraka(born 1970), is a politician and activist in Newark, who served as principal of Newark'sCentral High School,as an elected member of theMunicipal Council of Newark(2002–06, 2010–present) representing the South Ward. Ras J. Baraka became Mayor of Newark on July 1, 2014. (See2014 Newark mayoral election.)

Death

Amiri Baraka died on January 9, 2014, atBeth Israel Medical Centerin Newark, New Jersey, after being hospitalized in the facility'sintensive care unitfor one month before his death. The cause of death was not reported initially, but it is mentioned that Baraka had a long struggle with diabetes.Later reports indicated that he died from complications after a recent surgery.Baraka's funeral was held atNewark Symphony Hallon January 18, 2014.

Controversies

Baraka's work has been criticized for beingracist,homophobic,antisemiticandmisogynistamong others.

Anti-white sentiment

Baraka and his writings emanated extreme and hostile anti-white sentiment.He viewedblacks as morally superior than whites,whom he believed were innately evil.

In his 1984 autobiography, he wrote:

A woman asked me in all earnestness, couldn't any whites help? I said, you can help by dying. You are a cancer. You can help the world's people with your death.

The following is from a 1965 essay:

Most American white men are trained to be fags. For this reason it is no wonder their faces are weak and blank... The averageofay[white person] thinks of the black man as potentially raping every white lady in sight. Which is true, in the sense that the black man should want to rob the white man of everything he has. But for most whites the guilt of the robbery is the guilt of rape. That is, they know in their deepest hearts that they should be robbed, and the white woman understands that only in the rape sequence is she likely to get cleanly, viciously popped.

In 2009, he was again asked about the quote, and placed it in a personal and political perspective:

Those quotes are from the essays inHome,a book written almost fifty years ago. The anger was part of the mindset created by, first, theassassination of John Kennedy,followed by the assassination ofPatrice Lumumba,followed by the assassination ofMalcolm Xamidst the lynching, and national oppression. A few years later, theassassination of Martin Luther KingandRobert Kennedy.What changed my mind was that I became aMarxist,after recognizing classes within the Black community and the class struggle even after we had worked and struggled to elect the first Black Mayor of Newark,Kenneth Gibson.

Misogyny and advocacy of rape

Baraka advocated for the rape of white women by Black men, believing that it was a politically legitimate act.Baraka objectified white women, believing that they served as a location of racial struggle rather than as human beings.He implied that white women would enjoy being raped by Black men, experiencing the rape as "sexually exhilarating—a God-like gift that no white man could give to her". If she didn't, and she instead perceived her rape by a Black man as a "beast-like violation", then she was racist.Authorbell hookscommented on Baraka's misogyny in her bookAin't I a Woman?:

Ironically, the “power” of black men that Baraka and others celebrated was the stereotypical, racist image of the black man as primitive, strong, and virile. Although these same images of black men had been evoked by racist whites to support the argument that all black men are rapists, they were now being romanticized as positive characteristics.

Homophobia

Baraka frequently denouncedhomosexualityin his writing.He employedhomophobic slursin his writings (e.g.faggot), usually against white men,but also against black men he disagreed with.Some critics have alleged Baraka's homophobia to besuppressed homosexual desire.

Antisemitism

1960s & 1970s

In his book,Black Magic: Collected Poetry, 1961-1967,Baraka wrote:

Smile jew. Dance, jew. Tell me you love me, jew. I got something for you... I got the extermination blues, jewboys. I got thehitlersyndrome figured... So come for the rent, jewboys... one day, jewboys, we all, even my wig wearing mother gonna put it on you all at once.

In the 1967 poem "The Black Man is Making New Gods",Baraka accused Jews of having stolen knowledge of Africa, transporting it to Europe, where they became white and claimed it as their own.He wrote ofJesusas a "fag" and as "the dead jew" who, Baraka argues, was a Jewish scam on Christians.Baraka embracesNazi genocidal depictions of Jews,who embody a "dangerous germ culture".

His 1972 essay collection "Raise, Race, Rays, Raze"refers to people as" jew-slick "," jeworiented revolutionaries ", and also" cohen edited negro history ".

1980s

In 1980 Baraka published an essay in theVillage Voicethat was titledConfessions of a Former Anti-Semite.Baraka insisted that aVillage Voiceeditor titled it and not himself. In the essay Baraka went over his life history, including his marriage to Hettie Cohen, who was Jewish. He stated that after the assassination of Malcolm X he found himself thinking, "As a Black man married to a white woman, I began to feel estranged from her... How could someone be married to the enemy?" He eventually divorced Hettie and left her with their two bi-racial daughters. In the essay Baraka went on to say

We also know that much of the vaunted Jewish support of Black civil rights organizations was in order to use them. Jews, finally, are white, and suffer from the same kind of white chauvinism that separates a great many whites from Black struggle.... these Jewish intellectuals have been able to pass over into the Promised Land of American privilege.

In the essay he also defended his position against Israel, saying, "Zionismis a form of racism. "Near the end of the essay Baraka stated the following:

Anti-Semitism is as ugly an idea and as deadly as white racism and Zionism...As for my personal trek through the wasteland of anti-Semitism, it was momentary and never completely real.... I have written only one poem that has definite aspects of anti-Semitism...and I have repudiated it as thoroughly as I can.

September 11 attacks

In July 2002, ten months after theSeptember 11 attackson theWorld Trade Center,Baraka wrote a poem entitled "Somebody Blew Up America?"that was accused of antisemitism and met with harsh criticism. The poem is highly critical ofracismin America, and includes humorous depictions of public figures such asTrent Lott,Clarence Thomas,andCondoleezza Rice.It also contains lines claiming Israel's knowledge of the World Trade Center attacks:

Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion
And cracking they sides at the notion
...
Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed
Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers
To stay home that day
Why didSharonstay away?

Baraka said that he believed Israelis and PresidentGeorge W. Bushhad advance knowledge of the September 11 attacks,citing what he described as information that had been reported in the American and Israeli press and on Jordanian television. Baraka himself denied that the poem is antisemitic, due to the use of word "Israeli" rather than "Jew".

However, antisemitism watchdog organizations such as theAnti-Defamation League(ADL) denounced the poem as antisemitic. The ADL noted that the "4000 workers" conspiracy theory had initially referred to Jews writ largeand claimed that Baraka was using an antisemitic tactic of replacing references to Jews writ large with references to Israel and then claiming a comment is merelyanti-Zionist.

After the poem's publication, then-governorJim McGreeveytried to remove Baraka from the post of Poet Laureate of New Jersey, to which he had been appointed followingGerald Sternin July 2002. McGreevey learned that there was no legal way, according to the law authorizing and defining the position, to remove Baraka. On October 17, 2002, legislation to abolish the post was introduced in the State Senate and subsequently signed by Governor McGreevey, becoming effective July 2, 2003.

Baraka ceased being poet laureate when the law became effective. In response to legal action filed by Baraka, theUnited States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuitruled that state officials were immune from such suits, and in November 2007 theSupreme Court of the United Statesrefused to hear an appeal of the case.

JournalistRichard M. CoheninThe Washington Postdenounced Baraka's "anti-Semitic bleat" and stated that: "Baraka is a bigger idiot than he is a dangerous anti-Semite".

Honors and awards

Baraka served as the secondPoet Laureate of New Jerseyfrom July 2002 until the position was abolished on July 2, 2003. In response to the attempts to remove Baraka as the state's Poet Laureate, a nine-member advisory board named him the poet laureate of theNewark Public Schoolsin December 2002.

Baraka received honors from a number of prestigious foundations, including the following: fellowships from theGuggenheim Foundationand theNational Endowment for the Arts,theLangston HughesAward from theCity College of New York,theRockefeller FoundationAward for Drama, an induction into theAmerican Academy of Arts and Letters,and theBefore Columbus FoundationLifetime Achievement Award.

A short excerpt from Amiri Baraka's poetry was selected to be used for a permanent installation by artistLarry Kirklandin New York City'sPennsylvania Station.

I have seen many suns
use
the endless succession of hours
piled upon each other

Carved in marble, this installation features excerpts from the works of several New Jersey poets (fromWalt Whitman,William Carlos Williams,to contemporary poetsRobert PinskyandRenée Ashley) and was part of the renovation and reconstruction of theNew Jersey Transitsection of the station completed in 2002.

Legacy and influence

Despite numerous controversies and polarizing content of his work, Baraka's literary influence is undeniable. His co-founding of the Black Arts Movement in the 1960s promoted a uniquely black nationalist perspective and influenced an entire literary generation.Critic Naila Keleta-Mae argues that Baraka's legacy is one of "saying the unsayable", a course that likely damaged his own literary reputation and canonization.For example, Baraka was left out of the 2013 anthologyAngles of Ascent,a collection of contemporary African American poetry published by Norton. In a review of the anthology, Baraka, himself, criticized editor Charles H. Rowell's hostility towards the Black Arts Movement, calling Rowell's "attempt to analyze and even compartmentalize" contemporary African American poetry as "flawed".Indeed, Rowell's introduction toAngles of Ascentreferences the "fetters of narrow political and social demands that have nothing to do with the production of artistic texts", evincing a political/apolitical dichotomy where the editor considers overly political works of lesser artistic value. Critic Emily Ruth Rutter recognizes the contribution to African American literary studies ofAngles of Ascentyet also proposes adding Baraka and others to ensure students do not "unknowingly accept" the notion that Baraka and writers like him were somehow absent from influencing twenty-first century poetry.

InRain Taxi,Richard Oyama criticized Baraka's militant aesthetic, writing that Baraka's "career came to represent a cautionary tale of the worst 'tendencies' of the 1960s—the alienating rejections, the fanatical self-righteousness, the impulse towardseparatismandStalinistrepression versus multi-racial/class coalition-building... In the end, Baraka's work suffered because he preferred ideology over art, forgetting the latter outlasts us all. "

Baraka's participation in a diverse array of artistic genres combined with his own social activism allowed him to have a wide range of influence. When discussing his influence in an interview withNPR,Baraka stressed that he had influenced numerous people. When asked what he would write for his own epitaph, he quipped, "We don't know if he ever died",evincing the personal importance of his own legacy to him. NPR's obituary for Baraka describes the depths of his influence simply: "...throughout his life – the Black Arts Movement never stopped".Baraka's influence also extends to the publishing world, where some writers credit him with opening doors to white publishing houses which African American writers previously had been unable to access.

For the 60th anniversary of Baraka’sBlues People,trumpeter and composerRussell Gunnpremiered a suite,The Blues and Its People,inspired by it at theApollo.

Works

Poetry

• 1961:Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note
• 1964:The Dead Lecturer: Poems
• 1969:Black Magic
• 1970:It's Nation Time
• 1980:New Music, New Poetry(India Navigation)
• 1995:Transbluesency: The Selected Poems of Amiri Baraka/LeRoi Jones
• 1995:Wise, Why's Y's
• 1996:Funk Lore: New Poems
• 2003:Somebody Blew Up America & Other Poems
• 2005:The Book of Monk

Drama

• 1964:Dutchman
• 1964:The Slave
• 1967:The BaptismandThe Toilet
• 1966:A Black Mass
• 1968:Home on the RangeandPolice
• 1969:Four Black Revolutionary Plays
• 1970:Slave Ship
• 1978:The Motion of History and Other Plays
• 1979:The Sidney Poet Heroical,(published by I. Reed Books, 1979)
• 1989:Song
• 2013:Most Dangerous Man in America (W. E. B. Du Bois)

Fiction

• 1965:The System of Dante's Hell
• 1967:Tales
• 2004:Un Poco Low Coup,(graphic novel published by Ishmael Reed Publishing)
• 2006:Tales of the Out & the Gone

Non-fiction

• 1963:Blues People
• 1965:Home: Social Essays
• 1965:The Revolutionary Theatre
• 1968:Black Music
• 1971:Raise Race Rays Raze: Essays Since 1965
• 1972:Kawaida Studies: The New Nationalism
• 1979:Poetry for the Advanced
• 1981:reggae or not!
• 1984:Daggers and Javelins: Essays 1974–1979
• 1984:The Autobiography of LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka
• 1987:The Music: Reflections on Jazz and Blues
• 2003:The Essence of Reparations

Edited works

• 1968:Black Fire: An Anthology of Afro-American Writing(co-editor, withLarry Neal)
• 1969:Four Black Revolutionary Plays
• 1983:Confirmation: An Anthology of African American Women(edited with Amina Baraka)
• 1999:The LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka Reader
• 2000:The Fiction of LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka
• 2008:Billy Harper: Blueprints of Jazz, Volume 2(Audio CD)

Filmography

• The New Ark(1968)
• One P.M.(1972)
• Fried Shoes Cooked Diamonds(1978)... Himself
• Black Theatre: The Making of a Movement(1978)... Himself
• Poetry in Motion(1982)
• Furious Flower: A Video Anthology of African American Poetry 1960–95, Volume II: Warriors(1998)... Himself
• Through Many Dangers: The Story of Gospel Music(1996)
• Bulworth(1998)... Rastaman
• Piñero(2001)... Himself
• Strange Fruit(2002)... Himself
• Ralph Ellison:An American Journey(2002)... Himself
• Chisholm '72: Unbought & Un Boss ed(2004)... Himself
• Keeping Time: The Life, Music & Photography of Milt Hinton(2004)... Himself
• Hubert Selby Jr: It/ll Be Better Tomorrow(2005)... Himself
• 500 Years Later(2005) (voice)... Himself
• The Ballad of Greenwich Village(2005)... Himself
• The Pact(2006)... Himself
• Retour à Gorée(2007)... Himself
• Polis Is This: Charles Olson and the Persistence of Place(2007)
• Revolution '67(2007)... Himself
• Turn Me On(2007) (TV)... Himself
• Oscene(2007)... Himself
• Corso: The Last Beat(2008)
• The Black Candle(2008)
• Ferlinghetti: A City Light(2008)... Himself
• W.A.R. Stories: Walter Anthony Rodney(2009)... Himself
• Motherland(2010)

Discography

• It's Nation Time(Black Forum/Motown, 1972)
• New Music - New Poetry(India Navigation, 1982) withDavid MurrayandSteve McCall
• Real Song(Enja, 1995)

WithBilly Harper

• Blueprints of Jazz Vol. 2(Talking House Records,2008)

With theNew York Art Quartet

• New York Art Quartet(ESP-Disk, 1965)

WithMalachi Thompson

• Freebop Now!(Delmark, 1998)

withDavid Murray

• Fo Deuk Revue(Justin Time,1997), "Evidence"

withWilliam Parker

• I Plan to Stay a Believer(AUM Fidelity, 2010)

External links

• Amiri BarakaatIMDb
• Amiri Barakain theGerman National Librarycatalogue
• Amiri Baraka pageArchivedAugust 28, 2008, at theWayback Machineat Modern American Poetry
• Interview with Andrea Hiott,Pulse MagazineBerlin
• Site dedicated to Amiri Baraka
• Amiri Baraka Discography Project
• AppearancesonC-SPAN
• Margalit Fox,"Amiri Baraka, Polarizing Poet and Playwright, Dies at 79",The New York Times,January 9, 2014
• Obituaryin The Independent byMarcus Williamson
• Amiri Baraka interview with J. K. Fowler on The Mantle
• Democracy Now January 10, 2014 Amiri Baraka (1934-2014): Poet-Playwright-Activist Who Shaped Revolutionary Politics, Black Culture
• FBI files on Amiri Barakaat theInternet Archive
• FBI DocsAmiri Baraka (Partial) FBI File
• Maria Popova,"Answers in Progress: Amiri Baraka’s Lyrical Manifesto for Life"
• Amiri Baraka video interview at underyourskinonYouTube
• Audio recording of Amiri Baraka poetry reading, September 14, 1992,fromMaryland Institute College of Art's Decker Library,Internet Archive
• Finding aid to Amiri Baraka papersatColumbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
• Finding aid to Beat poets and poetry collection, including Baraka’s The Systems of Dante’s Hell manuscript, at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
• Amiri Baraka collection of playscriptsat the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library
• Amiri Baraka collection of unpublished poetryat the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library
• Amiri Interviewed in New JerseyPulse Berlin