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Amiri Baraka (born Everett Leroy Jones; October 7, 1934 – January 9, 2014), previously known as LeRoi Jones and Imamu Amear Baraka, [1] 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 the University at Buffalo and Stony ...
Oct 3, 2024 · Amiri Baraka (born October 7, 1934, Newark, New Jersey, U.S.—died January 9, 2014, Newark) was an American poet and playwright who published provocative works that assiduously presented the experiences and suppressed anger of Black Americans in a white-dominated society. After attending Rutgers University and then Howard University in the ...
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Early Years
- Marriage and Poetry
- A New Identity
- Later Years
- Death
- Sources
Amiri Baraka was born in Newark, New Jersey to postal supervisor Colt Leverette Jones and social worker Anna Lois Jones. Growing up, Baraka played the drums, piano, and trumpet, and enjoyed poetry and jazz. He especially admired the musician Miles Davis. Baraka attended Barringer High School and won a scholarship to Rutgers University in 1951. A ye...
As his interest in poetry deepened, Baraka met Hettie Cohen, a white Jewish woman who shared his passion for writing. The interracial couple married in 1958 against the wishes of Cohen's Parents, who cried at the news of the union. Together, the couple started Totem Press, which featured the writings of beat poets like Allen Ginsberg; they also lau...
Using the name LeRoi Jones, Baraka wrote the play Dutchman, which premiered in 1964. The play chronicles a violent encounter between a white woman and a Black man on the New York subway. It won the Obie Award for Best American Play and was later adapted for film. The 1965 assassination of Malcolm X led Baraka to leave the mostly white Beat scene an...
In 2002, Baraka received another honor when he became New Jersey’s poet laureate. But an anti-Semitism scandal ultimately drove him from the role. The controversy stemmed from a poem he wrote after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks called “Somebody Blew Up America?” In the poem, Baraka suggested that Israel had advanced warning of the attacks o...
On Jan. 9, 2014, Amiri Baraka died at Beth Israel Medical Center in Newark, where he had been a patient since December. Upon his death, Baraka had written more than 50 books in a wide range of genres. His funeral took place Jan. 18 at Newark Symphony Hall.
"Amiri Baraka 1934-2014." Poetry Foundation.Fox, Margalit. "Amiri Baraka, Polarizing Poet and Playwright, Dies at 79". New York Times, 9 January, 2014."Amiri Baraka." Poets.org.- Nadra Kareem Nittle
Apr 2, 2014 · In 1968, Baraka became a Muslim and added the prefix Imamu, meaning "spiritual leader," to his name. In 1974, however, he dropped the prefix, identifying as a Marxist. Later Life & Death
Transbluency: The Selected Poems of Amiri Baraka/LeRoi Jones (1961-1995), published in 1995, was hailed by Daniel L. Guillory in Library Journal as “critically important.”. And Donna Seaman, writing in Booklist, commended the “lyric boldness of this passionate collection.”. Kamau Brathwaite described Baraka’s 2004 collection, Somebody ...
Oct 27, 2022 · Amiri Baraka (born Everett LeRoi Jones) (b. 1934–d. 2014) is one of the most important African American artists and intellectuals. He was a poet, critic, essayist, musicologist, playwright, novelist, and brilliant polemicist who sought to expose through his work the historical ravages of racism and oppression.
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Amiri Baraka (born Everett Leroy Jones; October 7, 1934 – January 9, 2014), previously known as LeRoi Jones and Imamu Amear Baraka, [1] was an American writer of poetry, drama, fiction, essays, and music criticism.
