Amiri Baraka, also called Imamu Amiri Baraka, original name (until 1968) (Everett) LeRoi Jones (b. October 7, 1934, Newark, New Jersey — d. January 9, 2014, Newark, New Jersey), was an African American writer who presented the experiences and anger of black Americans with an affirmation of black life.
Jones graduated from Howard University (B.A., 1953) and served in the United States Air Force. After military duty, he joined the Beat movement, attended graduate school, and, in 1961, published his first major collection of poetry, Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note, a collection of Jones' early poetry with little regard to race.
Jones was the editor of Yugen, a prominent Beat poetry magazine, from 1960 to 1965. He organized and ran the Black Arts Theater in Harlem from 1964 to 1965 as part of HARYOUAct. In 1966, he moved to Newark, New Jersey, to run Spirit House, an African American workshop in the arts. In 1967, he was arrested in connection with the Newark riots in July of that year; convicted in a very controversial trial the following March, he was sentenced to two and half years. He later organized the United Brotherhood Party and became very active in local politics.
In 1963, Jones published The Moderns, an anthology of contemporary short stories edited by Jones. Also in 1963, Jones published Blues People, a long prose socio-historical study tracing the development of African American blues music and how it reflects the African American experience in the United States.
In 1964, his play Dutchman appeared off-Broadway to critical acclaim. In its depiction of an encounter between a European American woman and an African American intellectual, it exposes the suppressed anger and hostility of African Americans toward the dominant European American culture. Jones followed this with several other one-act plays. The Slave, The Toilet, The Baptism, all of which became increasingly vitriolic in their anti-white feelings. The Dead Lecturer, Jones' second collection of poems, was also published in 1964. The poetry of this volume and subsequent ones reflect the development of Jones' increasingly anti-white, anti-Semitic philosophy.
After the assassination of Malcolm X in 1965, Jones left his wife (who was Jewish) and their two children began to espouse black nationalism.
Jones was the editor of Yugen, a prominent Beat poetry magazine, from 1960 to 1965. He organized and ran the Black Arts Theater in Harlem from 1964 to 1965 as part of HARYOUAct. In 1966, he moved to Newark, New Jersey, to run Spirit House, an African American workshop in the arts. In 1967, he was arrested in connection with the Newark riots in July of that year; convicted in a very controversial trial the following March, he was sentenced to two and half years. He later organized the United Brotherhood Party and became very active in local politics.
In 1963, Jones published The Moderns, an anthology of contemporary short stories edited by Jones. Also in 1963, Jones published Blues People, a long prose socio-historical study tracing the development of African American blues music and how it reflects the African American experience in the United States.
In 1964, his play Dutchman appeared off-Broadway to critical acclaim. In its depiction of an encounter between a European American woman and an African American intellectual, it exposes the suppressed anger and hostility of African Americans toward the dominant European American culture. Jones followed this with several other one-act plays. The Slave, The Toilet, The Baptism, all of which became increasingly vitriolic in their anti-white feelings. The Dead Lecturer, Jones' second collection of poems, was also published in 1964. The poetry of this volume and subsequent ones reflect the development of Jones' increasingly anti-white, anti-Semitic philosophy.
After the assassination of Malcolm X in 1965, Jones left his wife (who was Jewish) and their two children began to espouse black nationalism.
In 1965, Baraka founded the Black Arts Repertory Theatre in Harlem. He published much during this period, including Black Art (1966) and Black Magic (1969). In addition to poetry and drama, Baraka wrote several collections of essays, an autobiographical novel (The System of Dante’s Hell [1965]), and short stories.
In 1967, Baraka (still Leroi Jones) visited Maulana Karenga in Los Angeles and became an advocate of his philosophy of Kawaida, 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 name Imamu Amear Baraka. Imamu is a Swahili title for "spiritual leader", derived from the Arabic word Imam (إمام). Baraka later dropped the honorific Imamu and eventually changed Amear (which means "Prince") to Amiri. Baraka means "blessing, in the sense of divine favor."
In the mid-1970s Baraka became a Marxist, though his goals remained similar. “I [still] see art as a weapon and a weapon of revolution,” he said. “It’s just now that I define revolution in Marxist terms.” In addition to writing, Baraka taught at several American universities. The Autobiography of LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka was published in 1984.
Poetry
- 1961: Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note
- 1964: The Dead Lecturer: Poems
- 1969: Black Magic
- 1970: It's Nation Time
- 1970: Slave Ship
- 1975: Hard Facts
- 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 Baptism and The Toilet
- 1966: A Black Mass
- 1969: Four Black Revolutionary Plays
- 1978: The Motion of History and Other Plays
Fiction
- 1965: The System of Dante's Hell
- 1967: Tales
- 2006: Tales of the Out & the Gone
Non-fiction
- 1963: Blues People: Negro Music in White America
- 1965: Home: Social Essays
- 1968: Black Music
- 1971: Raise Race Rays Raize: Essays Since 1965
- 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, with Larry 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
- 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
- Pinero (2001) .... Himself
- Strange Fruit (2002) .... Himself
- Ralph Ellison: An American Journey (2002) .... Himself
- Chisholm '72: Unbought & Unbossed (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)
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