W/PIC

Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones) speaksBy Henry Allen HurstSpecial to the NNPA from Afro Newspapers NEWARK, N.J. (NNPA) — ”Boy, you then ruined my day!” said great poet and essayist Amiri Baraka, annoyed by my late arrival; he welcomed me to his home. An elder and political revolutionary of the Black community, Baraka’s life exemplifies the journey for Black consciousness. Although he recently celebrated his 70th birthday on Oct. 7, Baraka continues to travel the country, lecturing and stimulating thought with the same zeal of a young bohemian in Greenwich Village. Born Everett LeRoi Jones, Baraka was one of the founders of the Black Arts Movement of the `60s in Harlem. Manifested by performances in the Black Arts Repertory Theater, the movement sought to establish a Black aesthetic in America. Written by Baraka in 1963, ”Dutchman” was the culmination of his growing racial consciousness, and won Obie award, among others, for Best Off-Broadway Play.Baraka’s critics categorize his life into eras, such as Third-World Marxist and so on, but Baraka explains that it’s not that simple. ”Well, you know, nothing is ever as formally separated as it can be on the page,” Baraka said. ”But I guess it suggests some kind of development, some kind of change, you know. There are always different elements that are happening while they’re describing one thing. ”I had got kicked out of college and I got kicked out the Air Force. So I came to the village thinking that that’s where the real intellectual kind of capital was, because those years I was in the Air Force, I was really studying. At night, I was a librarian. So, when I came to the village, I was trying to really find out exactly what I did know. But, as I lived there and became aware of the contradictions there … 1960, I went to Cuba … met Fidel, Robert Williams, and, you know, got close up on the whole revolutionary movement. I came back and met Malcolm about a month, two months, before he was killed. And so my mind was changing according to what was happening in the world. So then I began to get nationalistic when Malcolm was killed. I got out of the village. The death of Malcolm made me kind of self-critical in terms of what I could be doing with my life, and how I could be in the village fooling around and people that I really admired, like Malcolm X, were being murdered?” In 1961, Baraka published his first volume of poetry, Preface to a 20-Volume Suicide Note. Baraka’s most controversial poem, however, came much later in his career. In October 2001, Baraka wrote ”Somebody Blew Up America,” which prompted national controversy that escalated to such a level that he was dismissed as the poet laureate of New Jersey. With some saying that the piece is ”anti-Semitic,” Baraka, breaking down his own work, contended otherwise. ”They should read it, that would help!” Baraka said. ”It talks mostly about people who’ve been terrorized, Black people and people around the world. It even mentions the Jews being terrorized with the Holocaust, the Rosenbergs and people like that. My critics, who are supporters of Israel, they don’t even support American Jews. What they don’t like is the fact that I raised the question about who told 4,000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers to stay home that day. Now they smear that and say Jews. I didn’t say Jews! Jews died with us up in the World Trade Center!” The latest hardship in Baraka’s life stems from the murder of his daughter, Shani Baraka, and her friend, Rayshon Holmes. Their murderers have yet to be apprehended. Baraka and his wife, Amini, reside in Newark with their other children. To read ”Somebody Blew Up America” and other newly released poems and essays by Baraka, go to www.amiribaraka.com.