http://www.nj.com/entertainment/arts/index.ssf/2009/10/amiri_baraka_turns_75.html
By Carrie Stetler
October 01, 2009
Amiri Baraka hasn't mellowed with age.
One of the last surviving authors of the Beat Generation, and an
enduring symbol of Newark's political turmoil four decades ago,
Baraka turns 75 next week.
While his native Newark has changed dramatically since the late
1960s, Baraka has not. For more than four decades, the controversial
artist has continued his role as the city's most famous gadfly and
remains unrepentant about his poem "Somebody Blew Up America," which
cost him the title of New Jersey poet laureate in 2002 after it was
denounced as anti-Semitic. (It is a charge Baraka still refutes.)
"I'm just about the same," says Baraka, whose birthday is Wednesday,
although he admits that, in recent years, he's had to slow down a
little. "You have to cut back on your schedule. I used to pop up
early in the morning, stay up late and work through the night, and
now I don't do that quite as much. You have to make do with what you can do."
He does, however, plan on attending the five-day birthday celebration
that Newark residents are planning in his honor, starting Saturday
with jazz vespers at Bethany Baptist Church, which Baraka attended as
a child. It continues with readings of his poetry, a Baraka art
exhibit and a symposium on his political activism.
"Seventy-five years is quite a milestone," said Sandra West, curator
of the African-American room at the Newark Library, who helped
organize the event. She's known Baraka since she was a teen in the
late 1960s, when he encouraged her poetry writing as a founder of the
Black Arts movement, which urged African-American artists to explore
their own culture.
Although Baraka shifted from black nationalism to communism more than
30 years ago just one in a series of personal and political
transformations from the Beat era through the 1970s he's clung to
the same revolutionary ideals.
He still denounces adversaries with terms like "neocolonial" and
"petit bourgeois." And although he is a fan of President Obama "To
forget the enormous step forward he represents is destructive,'' he
says black leaders who disappoint Baraka are derisively branded
"negroes." That's what he has called every Newark mayor from Kenneth
Gibson--one of the nation's first black mayors whose 1970 election
owed a large debt to Baraka's support--to former mayor Sharpe James
and present-day mayor Cory Booker.
But Newark politicians seem to understand that this is part of the
deal with Baraka. And despite his invective and ceaseless
interrogations ("Why is the head of police white? ...Why can't
Symphony Hall be restored?... Why is there no museum dedicated to
local history?"), they speak of him with respect and even affection.
Says Booker, "I have a problem with people who criticize but do
nothing to change things, but that's not Amiri Baraka. He's always
been a dedicated servant of the city. He's utterly sincere in his
desire to make Newark a better place. He comes from a noble American
tradition of fighting for change, which includes pamphleteers like
Thomas Paine to civil rights leaders. I will have nothing but love
for Mr. Baraka."
Some of that love is undoubtedly due to Baraka's charisma and
virtuosity as an orator, which haven't flagged since his post-riot heyday.
"He has a deep capacity to be charming, and in certain settings, when
he doesn't have to be the Amiri Baraka of public notoriety, he's
enormously funny," says friend Clement Price, who teaches New Jersey
history at Rutgers University and is head of its Institute on
Ethnicity, Culture and the Modern Experience. "It's hard to love a
one-dimensional activist. But someone like him, who can make you
laugh, it's hard not to love them."
Baraka is still deeply entrenched in the cultural and civic life of
the city, an eloquent booster who loves to recount Newark's bygone
days. He can tell you, for instance, that 60 or 70 years ago jazz
pianist Willie "The Lion" Smith lived on the same street as Ed Koch,
who went on to become one of New York's most famous mayors.
Despite critics who call Baraka a crackpot and a holdover, he's
maintained his international reputation as a writer. And his
significance to Newark is indisputable, says Price. "He is a central
figure in the demographic shift that transformed Newark from a
predominantly white city to a predominately black city."
Born Everett Leroy Jones in Newark to a social worker and postal
employee, he was in college when he changed the spelling of his
middle name to Leroi. He later moved to New York and quickly drew
notice as a poet, befriending Beat Generation luminaries like Jack
Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, who remained a close friend until his
death in 1997.
Baraka gained fame with his 1964 play, "Dutchman," a metaphor for the
racial tensions of the era and the anger of African-Americans.
But Baraka left the limelight and returned to Newark, changing his
first name to Imamu Amiri Baraka after he converted to Islam. Later,
he dropped
the "Imamu,'' transforming from black nationalist to a communist in the 1970s.
Since, Baraka has weathered political and professional turmoil
sometimes self-created as well as personal tragedy. In 2003, his
daughter Shani, a Newark schoolteacher and basketball coach, was
murdered in Piscataway by the estranged husband of her half-sister.
She was one of the five children of Baraka and his wife, Amina, also
a writer and activist. His son, Ras, now a principal at Central High
School, was Newark deputy mayor in 2002. He also has a daughter, Lisa
Jones, from a previous marriage to Hettie Jones; they divorced in the 1960s.
"It was a deadly kind of blow," he says of Shani's death. "That was
something that not only stunned this family, but the whole town."
Through it all, Baraka has continued to write poems, fiction, plays
and essays, particularly on one of his favorite topics black music
in America. He's authored more than 50 books, so many he's lost
count. His latest is "Digging: The Afro-American Soul of Classical
Music," published in May. He's still asked to speak everywhere from
Georgetown to Croatia but he says demand has slackened since he
lost the poet laureate title.
Although some regard his post-1960s work as little more than polemic,
others say he remains one of the most important African-American
authors in the nation. "I don't think there'll ever be another like
him," says Cornel West, Princeton University's renowned
African-American studies scholar and a friend. "He's a Renaissance
man, a genius who has always been true to himself. He looks at the
world through the lens of poor people and working people. He's a man
who has always been on intellectual and moral fire."
His influence continues to be felt by young authors in the city and
beyond. Pulitzer-prize winning author Junot Diaz, who grew up in the
Parlin section of Old Bridge, says Baraka was an inspiration to him
when he was a student at Rutgers University. In 1990, Diaz and other
students participated in demonstrations that included a demand to get
Baraka tenure in the all-white English department, in which he was a
professor. His tenure was denied that same year.
"He was a controversial figure, still is. But my God, what a poet,"
says Diaz. "How he fired up all of us young writers of color."
Baraka is thankful for the Newark tribute in his honor, but hopes
much of its focus will be on Newark's past and its hopes for the
future. "It's worth it if it helps educate people about the history
of the city, about the struggle we've gone through and it's
potential," he says.
"What can I say? If people want to do it, I can't be opposed to it."
"But apparently, there's some kind of insistence on letting everyone
know that now I'm 75," he adds drily. "I'm not as happy about that."
--
Amiri Baraka's 75th birthday events
Tomorrow: Jazz vespers at 6 p.m.
at Bethany Baptist Church, 275 West Market St., featuring piano player
and composer Randy Weston.
Admission is free.
Tuesday: Opening for exhibit of Baraka's drawings from 6 to 8 p.m. at
Aljira Center for Contemporary Art, 591 Broad St. Admission is free.
Wednesday: Birthday jam at the WISOMMM Cultural Center, 15 James St.,
featuring several jazz artists. Tickets are $50, which includes a
light buffet, live entertainment and complimentary wine.
Thursday: "Baraka Book and Birthday Bash," hosted by the Newark
Public Library at 5 Washington St. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. There will
be readings by young poets, a short film screening and a Baraka book signing.
Oct. 9: A symposium on "The Political Evolution of Amiri Baraka" will
be held at 6 p.m. at Central High School Auditorium, 246 18th Ave.
Admission is free.
For more information, visit www.Amirib75.com.
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