"Leroi Jones" redirects here. For other people with similar names, see Leroy Jones (disambiguation).
Amiri Baraka
Baraka in 2013
Born
Everett Leroy Jones (1934-10-07)October 7, 1934 Newark, New Jersey, U.S.
Died
January 9, 2014(2014-01-09) (aged 79) Newark, New Jersey, U.S.
Pen name
LeRoi Jones, Imamu Amear Baraka[1]
Occupation
Actor
teacher
theater director
theater producer
writer
activist
poet
Period
1961–2014
Genre
Poetry and drama
Spouses
Hettie Cohen
(m. 1958; div. 1964)
Sylvia Robinson
(m. 1966–2014)
Children
Kellie Jones Lisa Jones Dominique di Prima Maria Jones Shani Baraka Obalaji Baraka Ras J. Baraka Ahi Baraka Amiri Baraka Jr.[2]
Military career
Allegiance
United States
Service/branch
United States Air Force
Years of service
1954–57[3][4]
Website
www.amiribaraka.com
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 Brook University. He received the PEN/Beyond Margins Award in 2008 for Tales of the Out and the Gone.[5] Baraka's plays, poetry, and essays have been described by scholars as constituting defining texts for African-American culture.[6]
Baraka's career spanned nearly 52 years, and his themes range from Black liberation to white racism. His notable poems include "The Music: Reflection on Jazz and Blues", "The Book of Monk", and "New Music, New Poetry", works that draw on topics from the worlds of society, music, and literature.[7]
Baraka's poetry and writing have attracted both high praise and condemnation. In the African-American community, some compare Baraka to James Baldwin and recognize him as one of the most respected and most widely published Black writers of his generation,[8][9] though some have said his work is an expression of violence, misogyny, and homophobia.[10] 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.[11][12]
^ abShaw, Lytle (2013). Fieldworks: From Place to Site in Postwar Poetics. Tuscaloosa, Alabama: University of Alabama Press. p. 107. ISBN 9780817357320.
^Bonamo, Mark (July 1, 2014). "Newark mayor's new chief of staff Amiri Baraka, Jr.: 'I've got my brother's back'". Politicker NJ.
^
Schudel, Matt (January 10, 2014). "Amiri Baraka, 79: Architect of Black Arts Movement". The Washington Post. p. B5.
^
"Amiri Baraka - Poets.org - Poetry, Poems, Bios & More". Academy of American Poets. Retrieved January 10, 2014. He served in the Air Force from 1954 until 1957.
^"Open Book/Beyond Margins Award Winners". PEN American Center. Archived from the original on June 26, 2012. Retrieved July 6, 2012.
^Nelson, Cary (2000). Anthology of Modern American Poetry. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. p. 997.
^"Amiri Baraka". AmiriBaraka.com. Celeste Bateman and Associates. Archived from the original on November 23, 2014. Retrieved November 8, 2014.
^Salaam, Kaluma (2001). "Historical Overviews of the Black Arts Movement". In Andrews, William L.; Foster, Frances Smith; Harris, Trudier (eds.). The Oxford Companion to African-American Literature. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195138832.
^Nelson, Cary, ed. (2002). Modern American Poetry: An Online Journal and Multimedia Companion to Anthology of Modern American Poetry. Champaign, Illinois: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign..
^Watts, Jerry Gafio (2001). Amiri Baraka: The Politics and Art of a Black Intellectual. New York City: New York University Press. pp. 253, 331–333. ASIN B004HFR7VY.
AmiriBaraka (born Everett Leroy Jones; October 7, 1934 – January 9, 2014), previously known as LeRoi Jones and Imamu Amear Baraka, was an American writer...
School. Baraka is a candidate for governor of New Jersey in the 2025 election. A Newark native, Baraka is the son of poet and activist AmiriBaraka (born...
Look up amiri or Amiri in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Amiri may refer to: Amiri (surname) AmiriBaraka (1934–2014), American writer Amiri, Bushehr...
Hama, Syria Ajamu Baraka (born 1953), human rights activist and 2016 candidate for Vice President of the United States AmiriBaraka (1934–2014), American...
Amina and her spouse AmiriBaraka authored a collection of poems entitled Songs for the Masses. In 1983 and 1987, Amina and AmiriBaraka co-edited Confirmation:...
and Newark, New Jersey. She is the daughter of poets Hettie Jones and AmiriBaraka (formerly known as LeRoi Jones). Jones graduated from Yale University...
Black Mass is a play written by AmiriBaraka and performed at Proctor's Theatre in Newark, New Jersey in 1966. Baraka also recorded a version of the play...
Before the position was abolished, only two poets, Gerald Stern and AmiriBaraka, had been appointed as the state's poet laureate. The legislature's bill...
AmiriBaraka is widely recognized as the founder of BAM. In 1965, he established the Black Arts Repertory Theatre School (BART/S) in Harlem. Baraka's...
Lee "Scratch" Perry Black Arts Movement Black Art (poem), written by AmiriBaraka Black art (theatre), an optical effect in stage magic Black Magic (disambiguation)...
Beats like the poet Robert "Bob" Kaufman and the writer LeRoi Jones (AmiriBaraka) provide through their work distinctly Black perspectives on the movement...
Afro-American music (and culture generally) by AmiriBaraka, who published it as LeRoi Jones in 1963. In Blues People Baraka explores the possibility that the history...
Anthology of African American Women, an anthology edited by AmiriBaraka and Amina Baraka, and is the only short story written by the acclaimed novelist...
of the television show X-Files. Dominique di Prima is the daughter of AmiriBaraka and Diane di Prima, both deceased. She grew up in New York and California...
Beetz And Stephen McKinley Henderson To Star In Film Adaptation Of AmiriBaraka's 'The Dutchman'". Yahoo News. September 27, 2023. Retrieved October 1...
think we killed it." In the 1960s, Beat poet LeRoi Jones renamed himself AmiriBaraka and revived the idea of jazz poetry as a source of black pride. He collaborated...
Department of English in collegial engagement with fellow students like AmiriBaraka and Toni Morrison. At Howard he studied under professors such as Alain...
Jones before he became AmiriBaraka, who, after reading "Howl", wrote a letter to Ginsberg on a sheet of toilet paper. Baraka's independent publishing...
the script for The Dutchman based on the 1964 play of the same name by AmiriBaraka. Glimpse (short, 2007) — director, writer, actor I Used to Love Her (2008)...
Global Information
United States
United States Air Force