Amiri Baraka

Amiri Baraka is one of the most respected and widely published African American writers. Apart from writing, Baraka is considered as a revolutionary political activist and has given lectures on various political and cultural issues extensively throughout Europe, Africa, the United States and the Caribbean. With the beginning of Black Civil Rights Movements during the sixties, Baraka explored the anger of African Americans and used his writings as a weapon against racism.

Amiri Baraka was born Everett LeRoi Jones in Newark, New Jersey in 1934. (He changed his name in 1967 to put on emphasis on African names. Amiri means prince and Baraka means blessing, in the sense of divine favor.) His father was a postal supervisor and lift operator and his mother was a social worker. Baraka went to Rutgers University in 1951 on a scholarship but a continuing sense of cultural dislocation prompted him to transfer in 1952 to Howard University, which he graduated from in 1954 with a Bachelor of Arts in English. His classes in philosophy and religion helped lay a foundation for his later writings. Baraka would later study philosophy and religion at Columbia University.

In 1954, Baraka joined the US Air Force as a gunner, reaching the rank of sergeant. His commanding officer received an anonymous letter accusing Baraka of being a communist. This led to a dishonorable discharge for violation of his oath of duty. He later described his experience in the military as "racist, degrading, and intellectually paralyzing." While he was stationed in Puerto Rico, he worked at the base library which allowed him ample reading time and it was here that, inspired by Black Mountain Poets, New York School Poets, and the Beat Generation, he began to write poetry. The same year, he moved to Greenwich Village working initially in a warehouse for music records. This started his interest in jazz.

Amiri Baraka for his work has taken influences from artists such as John Coltrane, Malcolm X, Ornette Coleman, and Thelonius Monk which got him regarded as the founder of Black Arts Movement in the era of sixties. His published collection of essays, “The Essence of Reparations”, and poems like “Somebody Blew up America” added more fame to his name. “Somebody Blew up America” was in response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

Amiri Baraka’s writing career spans over nearly fifty years and has mostly focused on the subjects of Black Liberation and White Racism. The literary world respects the playwright and poet as one of the revolutionary provocateurs of African American poetry. He is counted among the few influential political activists who have spent most of their life time fighting for the rights of African Americans.

Baraka is recognized with a long list of awards and honors that includes the James Weldon Johnson Medal for contributions to the arts, the American Academy of Arts & Letters award, the Poet Laureate of New Jersey, and Professor Emeritus at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He is a prominent figure in the literary world and is included in scholar Molefi Kete Asante’s list of 100 Greatest African Americans.

Amiri Baraka died on January 9, 2014, at Beth Israel Medical Center in Newark, New Jersey, after being hospitalized in the facility's intensive care unit for one month prior to his death. The cause of death was not reported initially, but it is mentioned that Baraka had a long struggle with diabetes. Later reports indicated that he died from complications after a recent surgery. Baraka's funeral was held at Newark Symphony Hall on January 18, 2014.