Amiri Baraka, Black Arts Poet and Theorist

Amiri Baraka was born Everett LeRoi Jones in Newark, New Jersey, on October 7, 1934. He wrote poetry, drama, fiction, essays and music criticism, and his work became part of the backbone of Black cultural writing in the twentieth century. He died on January 9, 2014, a Newark voice to the end; his son Ras Baraka serves as the city's mayor.

From Howard to the Village

Baraka earned a degree in English from Howard University and served in the Air Force before settling in Greenwich Village, where he was part of the Beat literary scene. He was still Everett LeRoi Jones then, a young Black writer working in circles that were almost entirely white.

Blues People and Dutchman

In 1963 he published Blues People: Negro Music in White America, his account of the development of Black music from enslavement to contemporary jazz. It was one of the first books to treat Black music as a history of Black America itself. In 1964 his controversial play Dutchman premiered in New York and won an Obie Award, the prize for best off-Broadway play, and made his reputation as a playwright.

After Malcolm X, a New Direction

The assassination of Malcolm X in February 1965 changed Baraka's life. He left the predominantly white Beat movement, changed his name to Amiri Baraka, and moved to Harlem, where he founded the Black Arts Repertory Theater/School. The school lasted only months, but it lit the fuse of the Black Arts Movement, the cultural wing of Black Power. Baraka soon returned to Newark, where he remained a civic and literary presence for the rest of his life.

A Defining Voice of Black Culture

His plays, poetry and essays have been described by scholars as constituting defining texts for Black culture. As the central figure of the Black Arts Movement, he opened doors for Black writers, publishers and performers who followed. As we say at HistorianSpeaks, the past is present: the Black arts Baraka helped build still shape American letters, music and theater today.