Articles by cheo tyehimba

October 15, 2004

Bluesfolk QA: Baraka on the writing life

by Cheo Tyehimba

It is only fitting that this column, which takes its name from Amiri Baraka's classic book on the music and cultural history of Africans in America, be relaunched with an exclusive interview with the man many regard as the "father of the Black Arts Movement." Baraka's works as a poet, playwright, novelist, essayist, and activist have left an indelible mark upon the cultural landscape of African America during the last century.

Born in 1934 in Newark, New Jersey and now nearly 70 years old, Baraka’s work is as relevant today as it was in 1964 when his play “The Dutchman” scorched the American stage. For example, in 2002, he was appointed New Jersey’s poet laureate. When his controversial poem “Somebody Blew up America,” in which he suggested that Israelis stayed home from the World Trade Center on Sept. 11 because they had advance warning of the terrorist attacks, stirred a national backlash, New Jersey Gov. James E. McGreevey asked Baraka to resign. He refused, and when the governor later learned he had no authority to dismiss him, legislators moved to draft a bill abolishing the post entirely. Of course, this didn’t put a gimp in Baraka’s stride. It only made the poem and his views, more widely known.

Amiri Baraka was born Everett LeRoy Jones in Newark, New Jersey, on October 7, 1934. His father, Colt LeRoy Jones, was a postal supervisor; Anna Lois Jones, his mother, was a social worker. He attended Rutge