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The Birth of Amiri Baraka
Amiri Baraka was a poet, playwright, teacher, and political activist who would write to provoke thinking and shock audiences. His essays, poetry, drama, and fiction would speak on black Americans frustration in a white-dominated society. Born as Everett LeRoi Jones on October 7th, 1934, in Newark, New Jersey. To his mother Anna Lois Russ Jones who was a social worker and father Colt Leverette Jones who was a postal supervisor and lift operator. -
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Civil Rights Movement
In the middle of the 20th century, a nationwide movement for equal rights for African Americans and for an end to racial segregation and exclusion arose across the United States. This movement took many forms, and its participants used a wide range of means to make their demands met, including sit-ins, boycotts, protest marches, freedom rides, and lobbying government officials for legislative action. -
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Barringer High School
In high school, Amiri Baraka was actively involved in various extracurricular activities. He was a member of the debate team, which helped hone his skills in argumentation and public speaking. He also developed an interest in writing, jazz, and poetry during this time. Baraka was influenced by the cultural and social dynamics of Newark, which later shaped his artistic and political pursuits. His experiences in high school laid the groundwork for his future as a writer and activist. -
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Rutgers University and Howard University
Amiri Baraka attended Rutgers University (after winning a scholarship in 1951) for two years, then transferred to historically Black Howard University, where in 1954 he earned his BA in English. There he studied subjects like philosophy and religion and would began using the name LeRoi James but would later revert to his birth name, Jones. Baraka was not impressed with Rutgers, feeling that they were not supportive or reflective of his identity as an African American. -
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Amiri Baraka's Military Service
Baraka joined the Air Force as a gunner and reached the rank of sergeant. Baraka was dishonorably discharged after three years for violating his oath of duty. His commanding officer received an anonymous letter accusing Baraka of being a communist, and communist writings were found in his possession. Even though Baraka became a sergeant in the Air Force he had a experienced prejudice and racism. Yet, he had deepened his interest in poetry while stationed in Puerto Rico and started writing. -
Settling in New York
After Amiri Baraka's unfortunate time in the United States Air Force he moved to Manhattan, New York. At that time, Jones, settled in Greenwich Village in lower Manhattan. He socialized with Beatnik (counterculture) artists, musicians, and writers. He worked as an editor at The Record Changer, music magazine. In his time there he met his wife, Hettie Cohen, they published the works of Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and other political activists. -
Totem Press & Yugen Magazine
Together, the couple started Totem Press, which featured the writings of beat poets (The Beat Poets were a group of poets in the 1940s and 1950s who rebelled against mainstream American life and writing) like Allen Ginsberg; they also launched Yugen literary magazine. Baraka edited and wrote criticism for the literary journal Kulchur as well. In 1958 Baraka founded Yugen magazine and Totem Press, important forums for new verse. -
Baraka's First Marriage
Amiri Baraka met his first wife, Hettie Cohen, in the mid-1950s while they were both working at a music magazine in Greenwich Village. They married in 1958 and had two daughters, Kellie and Lisa. -
Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note
"Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note" is considered a significant work by Amiri Baraka because it marks the early stages of his poetic development, exploring themes of alienation, disillusionment with mainstream American culture, and the emerging consciousness of a young Black artist grappling with his identity, laying the groundwork for his later, more politically charged writings focused on Black liberation and the Black Arts Movement. -
The Slave
The Slave is a one-act play by Amiri Baraka, also known as LeRoi Jones, that was published and performed in 1964. The play is a psychological morality tale that explores the tension between Black and white people in America during a time of race war. The play explores themes of equality, identity, and the victimization of Black people in American society. It also highlights the internal conflict of Walker, whose hatred prevents him from effecting social change. -
The Toilet
The Toilet shows the difficulty that a black individual en- counters in forging a self-identity while living amidst antithetical cultural forces. A play that explores Black life, love, and social order, and is considered a cultural precursor to Black Power. The play suggests that before Black and White people can come together, they will inevitably come to blows first. It also signals that upholding the racial status quo is an impediment to progress toward racial equality. -
Blues People: Negro Music in White America and The Moderns: An Anthology of New Writing in America.
In 1963, he published other progressive books like the Blues People: Negro Music in White America and The Moderns: An Anthology of New Writing in America. Blues People examines how African American music from the blues to jazz transformed American social, musical, economic, and cultural history. Baraka's book shows how African American music can be used to understand the journey of African Americans from slavery to freedom to civil rights. -
The Dutchman
Dutchman, one-act drama by Amiri Baraka, produced and published in 1964 under the playwright's original name LeRoi Jones. Dutchman presents a stylized encounter that illustrates hatred between blacks and whites in America as well as the political and psychological conflicts facing black American men in the 1960s. It won the Obie Award for Best American Play and was later adapted for film. Talk about the play and its significance. -
The Dead Lecturer
Published in 1964, The Dead Lecturer marks a turning point in the career of its author, Leroi Jones. The work reflects the inner turmoil of a poet searching for their identity amidst the twin contexts of the poetic avant-garde and the rise of the Civil Rights Movement, both of which urged a revolution in perspective. Although yet still traditional poem it laid the groundwork for future radical work that defined his career. -
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Black Nationalist Cause
Baraka devoted himself to the black nationalist cause, mostly in Newark, New Jersey, but also on the national level with the short-lived Congress of Afrikan Peoples. But those efforts left him disillusioned, and in 1974 he abandoned black nationalism for the rigid Marxism he adheres to today. -
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Black Arts Movement
The Black Arts Movement started in 1965 when poet Amiri Baraka [LeRoi Jones] established the Black Arts Repertory Theater in Harlem, New York, as a place for artistic expression. Through activism and art BART aimed to create a "weapon" for the Black Liberation Movement. BART offered classes in poetry, history, painting, music and martial arts. They staged concerts with only black musicians in a quest for authenticity. -
Malcom X's Assassination
The murder of Malcolm X in 1965 radicalized Jones. He jettisoned his Beat identity, left Greenwich Village for Harlem, eventually changed his name to Amiri Baraka, and divorced his wife. Gone were the brooding poems of the early 1960s; black liberation was his new fixation. Baraka produced new plays and poetry with Black Arts inspired material. The Black Arts Repertory Theater (BART) was born from this pivotal event, Baraka became a preeminent figure in the Black Arts Movement of the late 1960s. -
Black Art
Amiri Baraka's poem "Black Art" was part of the Black Arts Movement, a cultural movement that began in 1965 after the assassination of Malcolm X. The Black Arts Movement started in 1965 when poet Amiri Baraka [LeRoi Jones] established the Black Arts Repertory Theater in Harlem, New York, as a place for artistic expression. Artists associated with this movement include Audre Lorde, Ntozake Shange, James Baldwin, Gil Scott-Heron, and Thelonious Monk. -
Baraka's Second Marriage
Amiri Baraka's second marriage to Amina Baraka (Sylvia Robinson) in 1962 was significant for several reasons. It marked a pivotal moment in his personal and artistic life, shaping his identity as a writer & activist. Amina played a crucial role in his literary and political pursuits, supporting his work & helping him navigate the complexities of being a prominent figure in the Black Arts Movement. Amiri Baraka & Amina Baraka had 3 children together: a son, Ras, and 2 daughters, Kai and Amiri. -
Secretary-General of the National Black Political Assembly and Chairman of the Congress of African People
Baraka also embraced black nationalist themes & organizations such as US in Los Angeles, California. He later served as Secretary-General of the National Black Political Assembly and Chairman of the Congress of African People, a Pan Africanist organization. In 1972 Baraka became one of the lead organizers of the National Black Political Convention held in Gary, Indiana. By the mid 1970s Baraka underwent another philosophical change and became a Marxist, supporting the overthrow of capitalism. -
Black Community Development and Defense Organization
Amiri Baraka founded the Black Community Development and Defense Organization (BCD) in 1968 as a Muslim group dedicated to: Affirming Black culture, Gaining political power for Black people, Creating a new value system for the Black community, and Emphasizing elements of African culture. -
Baraka's Turn to Marxism
In 1974, Baraka distanced himself from Black nationalism, embracing Marxism-Leninism in the context of Maoist third-world liberation movements. Marxism is an economic and political theory that examines the flaws inherent in capitalism. Influenced by his encounters with African leaders and intellectuals committed to socialism and by an older generation of African-American Communist, Baraka called on his organization to make this switch creating Marxist-Leninist-Maoist organization. -
Somebody Blew Up America?
Baraka's brief tenure as Poet 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 of antisemitism and negative attention from critics and politicians over his assertion that the US and Israeli governments had advanced knowledge of the September 11 attacks. -
Awards
Amiri Baraka’s numerous literary prizes and honors include fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the PEN/Faulkner Award, the Rockefeller Foundation Award for Drama, the Langston Hughes Award from the City College of New York, and a lifetime achievement award from the Before Columbus Foundation. -
Teaching
Baraka taught at Columbia, Yale University, The New School for Social Research, University of Buffalo, San Francisco State University, George Washington University, and, from 1979, at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, where at the time of his death he was emeritus professor of Africana studies. Teaching literature, drama, and poetry. Baraka taught at several universities and institutions to share his knowledge and influence as a writer, poet, and political activist. -
Amiri Baraka Passes Away
Amiri Baraka died on January 9, 2014, at Beth Israel Medical Center in Newark, New Jersey, after being hospitalized in the facility's intensive care unit for one month before his death. Baraka's family had left no comment but his son, Ras Baraka, said Amiri had been battling with diabetes.