LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka - 1934
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Village Community School, New York City
I. Biography
Poetry is one of our culture's most beautiful and influential forms of writing. There are many famous poets living today who have contributed to this exquisite form. One of them is the African American poet named Le Roi Jones who later changed his name to Amiri Baraka. Amiri Baraka was born into a middle class family in Newark, New Jersey in 1943. In the early ages of Amiri's life, he developed an interest in writing. He soon began to keep a journal of his experiences, which was his first step into the world of writing.
Amiri Baraka attended Rutgers University, but soon left to be enrolled in Howard University to receive his degree. He switched schools because he wanted to be around more people of his heritage. After college, Baraka served three years in the military as an Air Force gunner, before settling in Greenwich Village, New York. Baraka began writing seriously when he married his first wife, Hettie Cohen. With his wife, Amiri founded the influential beat literary journal called Yugen. His writing was very unique. He wrote with metaphors that compared life with his hatred against the white culture. Despite this he used gentle forms of words. Each word that he chose fit into the poem perfectly. He was recognized for his play, "Dutchman". This particular play was one of his major plays and was performed in 1964.
By this time Baraka had developed an exceptional amount of fame. So with this, he opened the Black Arts Repertory Theatre/School (BART/S). Amiri Baraka's new school paved the way for other African Americans to pursue their dream of writing. Baraka began to enjoy his life more after his new-found success. But soon Amiri Baraka began to distance himself from white culture, on account of Malcolm X being assassinated in 1965. This event enraged Amiri and changed his life. He soon moved to Harlem, divorced his white wife, changed his name, and adopted a Black Nationalist view.
Before long in 1966, Baraka married Amina Baraka, formerly known as Sylvia Robinson. He also joined the Black Panthers in honor of his mentor; Malcolm X. He joined this group because he wanted to desperately separate himself from the white culture. He began to learn a higher form of self-defense and shared his writing ability with his fellow Panthers.
In 1967 he helped make a National Black Power Conference. In 1974 he abandoned his previous Black Nationalist views in favor of Marxism, and the fight of the working class against the upper class. However, he still distanced himself from the white culture.
In the beginning of the 1980's, Amiri Baraka wrote two librettos. In 1984 he published an autobiography, which contained a lot of his personal feelings. In the 1990's Baraka continued to write also while teaching at SUNY-Stony Brook. He was a full-time professor. He is a real inspiration to youths that are interested in writing, and speaking their mind.. He has also shown that you can change your beliefs and speak your thoughts, and still become one of America's finest writers and poets.
II. Literary Style
Everett LeRoi Jones (now known as Amiri Baraka) is one of the most famous black poets and playwrights of this century. "The Dutchman" (written in 1964) is about a conflict between a black middle-class college student and a flirtatious white woman. The critics say that it is probably about his life as he moved away from whites and became a black activist. Another one of his plays "The Slave Ship" (1967) is about the experiences of the slaves on the ships coming from Africa and going to America. "The final rite, with its mimed cannibalistic aspect, is apocalyptic in both a mythical and religious sense," wrote Kimberly W. Benson.
Not only are Baraka's plays excellent, but his poems are great too. He uses dramatic and expressive metaphors and sometimes humor. A poem entitled "X" was inspired by Malcolm X, one of the people that he looked up to most,. It was because of Malcolm X's influence that Baraka changed the direction of his life and religious belief.
III. Bibliography
"Baraka, Amiri," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2000
Baraka, Amiri. Funk Lore . Los Angeles: Littoral Books, 1996
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/baraka.htm Kuusankosken Kaupunginkirjasto: 1999.IV. List of Works
The Le Roi Jones/Amiri Baraka Reader- 1999
Transbluesency : The Selected Poetry of Amiri Baraka/ - 1995
Le Roi Jones - 1998
Black Music - 1980
Blues People - 1983
Conversations With Amiri Baraka - 1994
Eulogies - 1996
Four Black Revolutionary Plays : Experimental Death - 1998
Unit 1, a Black Mass, Great Goodness of Life, Madheart
Rebellion Is the Circle of a Lover's Hands - 1990
Wise Why's Y's : The Griot's Tale - 1995
Digging - 1999
Dutchman and the Slave : Two Plays - 1983
Fiction of Le Roi Jones/Amiri Baraka - 2000
Funk Lore : New Poems - 1996
Home : Social Essays - 1998
Insomniacathon : Voices Without Restraint – 1999
This essay was submitted by 8th grade students of Joan Brodsky Schur, a teacher at the Village Community School in New York City.