Black Horizons Theater was a community-based, Black Nationalist theater company co-founded in 1968 by Curtiss Porter, Tony Fountain, E. Philip McKain, August Wilson and Rob Penny in the Hill District of Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania , United States .
77-684: The Black Horizons Theatre began in 1968 with funding from the Program Committee of the Black Action Society, a student-community activist group at the University of Pittsburgh. A committee of students consisting of Curtiss Porter, Program Committee Chair, Tony Fountain, Political Action Committee Chair and E. Philip McKain Community Action Chair met with poets and playwrights Rob Penny and August Wilson at
154-584: A The New York Times Magazine best seller just two weeks after its release in 1994. Campbell's interest in mental health was the catalyst for her first children's book, Sometimes My Mommy Gets Angry , which was published in September 2003. This book won the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Outstanding Literature Award for 2003. The book tells the story of how a little girl copes with being reared by her mentally ill mother. Ms. Campbell
231-537: A communist . This led to the discovery of Soviet writings in Baraka's possession, his reassignment to gardening duty, and subsequently 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
308-471: A tenure-track assistant professorship at Stony Brook in 1980 to assist "the struggling Africana Studies Department"; in 1983, he was promoted to associate professor and earned tenure. In June 1979 Baraka was arrested and jailed at Eighth Street and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Different accounts emerged around the arrest, yet all sides agreed that Baraka and his wife, Amina, were in their car arguing over
385-576: A "Declaration of Conscience" in support of Fidel Castro 's regime. Baraka also was a member of the Umbra Poets Workshop of emerging Black Nationalist writers ( Ishmael Reed and Lorenzo Thomas , among others) on the Lower East Side (1962–65). His first book of poems, Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note, was published in 1961. Baraka's article "The Myth of a 'Negro Literature'" (1962) stated that "a Negro literature, to be
462-579: A Community Action Program office, where Penny on Chauncey Street in Pittsburgh's fabled Hill Distract, where Penny was employed, and laid plans for a community oriented, politically motivated theater along the lines of Barbara Ann Teer's National Black Theatre in Harlem, Amiri Baraka's Spirit House in Newark, and other Black Theatre groups across the country. In 1967 Penny began to write plays, influenced by
539-587: A Langston Hughes Award. In 1990 he co-authored the autobiography of Quincy Jones , and in 1998 he appeared in a supporting role in Warren Beatty 's film Bulworth . In 1996, Baraka contributed to the AIDS benefit album Offbeat: A Red Hot Soundtrip produced by the Red Hot Organization . In July 2002, Baraka was named Poet Laureate of New Jersey by Governor Jim McGreevey . The position
616-492: A cancer. You can help the world's people with your death. Bebe Moore Campbell Bebe Moore Campbell (February 18, 1950 – November 27, 2006) was an American author, journalist, and teacher. Campbell was the author of three New York Times bestsellers: Brothers and Sisters , Singing in the Comeback Choir , and What You Owe Me , which was also a Los Angeles Times "Best Book of 2001". Her other works include
693-502: A cultural force. In the audience by New York choreographer Bob Johnson, who, inspired by local talent, went on to establish "The Pittsburgh Black Theatre Dance Ensemble." Johnson later become a faculty member of DBCERD-Black Studies at Pitt, along with Rob Penny. https://www.newhorizontheater.org/ New Horizon Theater homepage Amiri Baraka Amiri Baraka (born Everett Leroy Jones ; October 7, 1934 – January 9, 2014), previously known as LeRoi Jones and Imamu Amear Baraka ,
770-526: A degree. In 1954, he joined the United States Air Force as a gunner, reaching the rank of sergeant . This was a decision he would come to regret. He once explained: "I found out what it was like to be under the direct jurisdiction of people who hated black people. I had never known that directly." This experience was yet another that influenced Baraka's later work. His commanding officer received an anonymous letter accusing Baraka of being
847-519: A legitimate product of the Negro experience in America, must get at that experience in exactly the terms America has proposed for it in its most ruthless identity". He also stated in the same work that as an element of American culture, the Negro was entirely misunderstood by Americans. The reason for this misunderstanding and for the lack of black literature of merit was, according to Jones: In most cases
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#1732787977051924-496: A multifaceted, categorized activist philosophy that produced the "Nguzo Saba", Kwanzaa , and an emphasis on African names. It was at this time that he adopted the name Imamu Amear Baraka . Imamu is a Swahili title for "spiritual leader", derived from the Arabic word Imam (إمام). According to Shaw, he dropped the honorific Imamu and eventually changed Amear (which means "Prince") to Amiri . Baraka means "blessing, in
1001-591: A promotion of black expression were "appointed" to the scene to damage the movement. In 1974, Baraka distanced himself from Black nationalism , embracing Marxism-Leninism in the context of Maoist third-world liberation movements . In 1979, he became a lecturer in the State University of New York at Stony Brook 's Africana Studies Department in the College of Arts and Sciences at the behest of faculty member Leslie Owens. Articles about Baraka appeared in
1078-563: 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. Baraka was born in Newark, New Jersey , where he attended Barringer High School . His father Coyt Leroy Jones worked as a postal supervisor and lift operator. His mother Anna Lois ( née Russ)
1155-438: A quarterly literary magazine, Yugen , which ran for eight issues (1958–62). Through a party that Baraka organized, Ginsberg was introduced to Langston Hughes while Ornette Coleman played saxophone. Baraka also worked as editor and critic for the literary and arts journal Kulchur (1960–65). With Diane di Prima he edited the first twenty-five issues (1961–63) of their small magazine The Floating Bear . In October 1961,
1232-549: A son, Ellis Gordon III, and a daughter, actress Maia Campbell , from Campbell's previous marriage to Tiko Campbell . Maia Campbell is best known for her role as "Tiffany" on In the House . Bebe Moore Campbell died from brain cancer , aged 56, on November 27, 2006, and was interred at Inglewood Park Cemetery , Inglewood, California. Campbell's personal archives are housed in the Bebe Moore Campbell collection at
1309-617: A time when racial injustice was rampant, despite the Civil Rights Movement . "Black Art" quickly became the major poetic manifesto of the Black Arts Literary Movement, and in it, Jones declaimed, "we want poems that kill", which coincided with the rise of armed self-defense and slogans such as "Arm yourself or harm yourself" that promoted confrontation with the white power structure. Rather than use poetry as an escapist mechanism, Baraka saw poetry as
1386-548: A visiting professor, teaching a course entitled "Black Women and Their Fictions". After becoming a full professor of African Studies at Stony Brook in 1985, Baraka took an indefinite visiting appointment in Rutgers University's English department in 1988; over the next two years, he taught a number of courses in African American literature and music. Although Baraka sought a permanent, tenured appointment at
1463-405: A weapon of action. In April 1965, Baraka's "A Poem for Black Hearts" was published as a direct response to Malcolm X's assassination, and it further exemplifies the poet's uses of poetry to generate anger and endorse rage against oppression. Like many of his poems, it showed no remorse in its use of raw emotion to convey its message. It was published in the September issue of Negro Digest and
1540-528: A year. In its short time BARTS attracted many well-known artists, including Sonia Sanchez , Sun Ra and Albert Ayler . The Black Arts Repertory Theater School's closure prompted conversation with many other black artists who wanted to create similar institutions. Consequently, there was a surge in the establishment of these institutions in many places across the United States. In December 1965 Baraka moved back to Newark after allegations surfaced that he
1617-421: Is a form of racism." Near the end of the essay, Baraka stated the following: Anti-Semitism is as ugly an idea and as deadly as white racism and Zionism ...As for my personal trek through the wasteland of anti-Semitism, it was momentary and never completely real. ... I have written only one poem that has definite aspects of anti-Semitism...and I have repudiated it as thoroughly as I can. The poem Baraka referenced
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#17327879770511694-550: Is a politician and activist in Newark, who served as principal of Newark's Central High School , as an elected member of the Municipal Council of Newark (2002–06, 2010–present) representing the South Ward. Ras J. Baraka became Mayor of Newark on July 1, 2014. (See 2014 Newark mayoral election .) Amiri Baraka died on January 9, 2014, at Beth Israel Medical Center in Newark, New Jersey, after being hospitalized in
1771-421: Is often underwritten or completely left out of the history of these circumstances, was a writer and Director of some of BHT's earliest productions: Evolution to Revolution by Porter and Amiri Baraka's Slave Ship . The first play produced by BHT and directed by Curtiss E. Porter, was, in fact, A Black Mass by Amiri Baraka, "Slave Ship". this play kicked off the repertory experience of BHT and established it as
1848-557: The Evergreen Review in December 1967, was read by the judge in court, including the phrase: "All the stores will open if you say the magic words. The magic words are: "Up against the wall motherfucker this is a stick up!" Shortly afterward an appeals court reversed the sentence based on his defense by attorney Raymond A. Brown . He later joked that he was charged with holding "two revolvers and two poems". Not long after
1925-744: The East Village . After the assassination of Malcolm X in 1965, Baraka changed his name from LeRoi Jones to Amiri Baraka. At this time, he also left his wife and their two children and moved to Harlem , where he founded the Black Arts Repertory/Theater School (BARTS) since the Black Arts Movement created a new visual representation of art. However, the Black Arts Repertory Theater School remained open for less than
2002-647: The Los Angeles Times , Essence , Ebony , Black Enterprise , as well as other publications. She was a regular commentator on the National Public Radio (NPR) program, Morning Edition . Campbell is known for a number of inspirational sayings, including one on the process of writing: “Discipline is the servant of inspiration.” Campbell lived in Los Angeles, California , with her husband, Ellis Gordon Jr. They raised two children,
2079-584: The Philadelphia High School for Girls and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in elementary education from the University of Pittsburgh . She was an honorary member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. Campbell's works of fiction would often relay the harmful impact that racism would inflict on individuals and their relationships. In 1992, Campbell would release her first, and most critically acclaimed novel, Your Blues Ain't Like Mine , which
2156-606: The U.S. Postal Service seized The Floating Bear #9 ; the FBI charged them for obscenity over William Burroughs ' piece "Roosevelt after the Inauguration". In the autumn of 1961 he co-founded the New York Poets Theatre with di Prima, the choreographers Fred Herko and James Waring , and the actor Alan S. Marlowe. He had an extramarital affair with di Prima for several years; their daughter, Dominique di Prima,
2233-458: The University of Pittsburgh campus, Rob Penny's Center Avenue: A Trip. Black Horizon Theater dissolved by the mid-1970s. University of Pittsburgh professor Dr. Vernell A. Lillie picked up its legacy, however, when she founded Kuntu Repertory Theatre in 1975 as a way of showcasing the playwright Rob Penny , who continued to write prolifically. The next year August Wilson brought his own early effort in playwrighting, Homecoming , to Kuntu; it
2310-500: The 1967 riots, Baraka generated controversy when he went on the radio with a Newark police captain and Anthony Imperiale , a politician and private business owner, and the three of them blamed the riots on "white-led, so-called radical groups" and "Communists and the Trotskyite persons". That same year his second book of jazz criticism, Black Music , came out. It was a collection of previously published music journalism , including
2387-720: The Black Horizons Theatre was, Amiri Baraka's, "A Black Mass", directed by Curtiss Porter. Black Horizons Theatre's later productions included Rob Penny's early plays flanked by an ensemble format of poets, drummers, dancers and speeches. As noted in The Pittsburgh Courier, on August 16, 1969 The Black Horizons Theatre performed at the First Annual Homewood Black Arts Festival. Homewood, is another of Pittsburgh's historically Black neighborhoods. Homewood, like
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2464-641: The City of Pittsburgh) and E. Philip McKain (currently Executive Director of CTE , the Community Action Program of Stamford, Ct. ) with members of the "Centre Ave. Poets", Rob Penny and August Wilson . This meeting culminated with an agreement to provide funding through the Program Committee of the BAS, which Porter headed as Director, while Mr. McKain was Co-Director, and Mr. Milliones, an influential graduate student member. The funding connection
2541-571: The Hill District, had been a Mecca for Black talent and the festival featured artists ranging from the Manhattans to Pharoah Sanders, with crowds over 10,000. Black Horizons Theatre produced the play, "Evolution to Revolution," written and directed by Curtiss Porter, with an all University of Pittsburgh student cast. Over the next four years the company also produced plays by Ed Bullins , Sonia Sanchez , Baraka, and others. Wilson served as
2618-699: The NOI [ Nation of Islam ], there is a profound difference, both qualitative and quantitative, in the ways that white ethnicities were targeted. For example, in one well-known poem, Black Arts [originally published in The Liberator January 1966], Baraka made offhand remarks about several groups, commenting in the violent rhetoric that was often typical of him, that ideal poems would 'knockoff ... dope selling wops' and suggesting that cops should be killed and have their 'tongues pulled out and sent to Ireland.' But as Baraka himself later admitted [in his piece I
2695-710: The Negroes who found themselves in a position to pursue some art, especially the art of literature, have been members of the Negro middle class, a group that has always gone out of its way to cultivate any mediocrity, as long as that mediocrity was guaranteed to prove to America, and recently to the world at large, that they were not really who they were, i.e., Negroes. As long as black writers were obsessed with being an accepted middle class, Baraka wrote, they would never be able to speak their mind, and that would always lead to failure. Baraka felt that America only made room for white obfuscators, not black ones. In 1963 Baraka (under
2772-424: The arrest accusing the police of lying. A grand jury dismissed the assault charge, but the resisting arrest charge moved forward. In November 1979 after a seven-day trial, a criminal court jury found Baraka guilty of resisting arrest. A month later he was sentenced to 90 days at Rikers Island (the maximum he could have been sentenced to was one year). Amina declared that her husband was "a political prisoner". Baraka
2849-653: The attendance of students of the BAS-sponsored Department of Black Community Education Research and Development ( DBCERD - Black Studies), and, from the expanding community audiences made available through publicity of the plays, the BHT flourished. Indeed, BHT became a repertoire theater which performed in numerous locations, including Oberlin College in Ohio and at Barbara Ann Teer 's National Black Theatre (NBT) in Harlem, New York, New York. Curtiss Porter, who
2926-719: The board". Backing for his attempts to have the sentence canceled or reduced came from "letters of support from elected officials, artists and teachers around the country". Amina Baraka continued to advocate for her husband and at one press conference stated, " Fascism is coming and soon the secret police will shoot our children down in the streets." In December 1981 Judge Benrard Fried ruled against Baraka and ordered him to report to Rikers Island to serve his sentence on weekends occurring between January 9, 1982, and November 6, 1982. The judge noted that having Baraka serve his 90 days on weekends would allow him to continue his teaching obligations at Stony Brook. Rather than serve his sentence at
3003-400: The company director and Penny was the playwright-in-residence. Other company members included Maisha Baton , Mary Bradley, Lateef Baba Ali, Marsha Lillie, Carol Wise, Tony Fountain, Curtiss Porter, Ron Pitts, Elva Branson, Frank Floyd Hightower, Claude Purdy , and Sala Udin . In 1971, under the direction of Elva Branson, Black Horizon Theater mounted the first all-black theater production on
3080-403: The cost of their children's shoes. The police version of events holds that they were called to the scene after a report of an assault in progress. They maintain that Baraka was hitting his wife, and when they moved to intervene, he attacked them as well, whereupon they used the necessary force to subdue him. Amina's account contrasted with that of the police; she held a news conference the day after
3157-451: The essay, Baraka went over his life history, including his marriage to Hettie Cohen, who was Jewish. He stated that after the assassination of Malcolm X he found himself thinking, "As a Black man married to a white woman, I began to feel estranged from her ... How could someone be married to the enemy?" He eventually divorced Hettie and left her with their two bi-racial daughters. In the essay, Baraka went on to say We also know that much of
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3234-413: The example of the poet and playwright Amiri Baraka , and completed two one-acts. Wilson intended to direct them. He obtained a copy of The Fundamentals of Play Directing by Pittsburgh's directing guru, Carnegie Mellon University 's Lawrence Carra , and studied it. In 1968 Penny and Wilson joined the Black Action Society effort to begin the new venture as Black Horizons Theatre. The initial production of
3311-767: The facility's intensive care unit for one month before 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. Baraka's work has been criticized for being racist , homophobic , antisemitic and misogynist among others. Baraka and his writings emanated extreme and hostile anti-white sentiment. He viewed blacks as morally superior than whites , whom he believed were innately evil. In his 1984 autobiography, he wrote: A woman asked me in all earnestness, couldn't any whites help? I said, you can help by dying. You are
3388-519: The history as the history was explaining the music. And that both were expressions of and reflections of the people." He argued that though the slaves had brought their musical traditions from Africa, the blues were an expression of what black people became in America: "The way I have come to think about it, blues could not exist if the African captives had not become American captives." Baraka (under
3465-471: The home of Shani's sister, Wanda Wilson Pasha, by Pasha's ex-husband, James Coleman. Prosecutors argued that Coleman shot Shani because she had helped her sister separate from her husband. A New Jersey jury found Coleman (also known as Ibn El-Amin Pasha) guilty of murdering Shani Baraka and Rayshon Holmes, and he was sentenced to 168 years in prison for the 2003 shooting. His son, Ras J. Baraka (born 1970),
3542-535: The mid-1970s, he began finding its racial individuality confining. Baraka's separation from the Black Arts Movement began because he saw certain Black writers – capitulationists, as he called them – countering the Black Arts Movement that he created. He believed that the groundbreakers in the Black Arts Movement were doing something that was new, needed, useful, and Black, and those who did not want to see
3619-430: The name Amina Baraka. The two would open a facility in Newark known as Spirit House, a combination playhouse and artists' residence. In 1967, he lectured at San Francisco State University . The year after, he was arrested in Newark for having allegedly carried an illegal weapon and resisting arrest during the 1967 Newark riots . He was subsequently sentenced to three years in prison. His poem "Black People", published in
3696-523: The name LeRoi Jones) published Blues People: Negro Music in White America , his account of the development of black music from slavery to contemporary jazz. When the work was re-issued in 1999, Baraka wrote in the Introduction that he wished to show that "The music was the score, the actually expressed creative orchestration, reflection of Afro-American life ... That the music was explaining
3773-536: The name LeRoi Jones) wrote an acclaimed, controversial play titled Dutchman , in which a white woman accosts a black man on the New York City Subway . The play premiered in 1964 and received the Obie Award for Best American Play in the same year. A film of the play, directed by Anthony Harvey , was released in 1967. The play has been revived several times, including a 2013 production staged in
3850-736: The novel Your Blues Ain't Like Mine , which was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and the winner of the NAACP Image Award for Literature; her memoir, Sweet Summer: Growing Up With and Without My Dad ; and her first nonfiction book, Successful Women, Angry Men: Backlash in the Two-Career Marriage . Her essays, articles, and excerpts appear in many anthologies. Born Elizabeth Bebe Moore , an only child, and reared in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania , she graduated from
3927-467: The prison, Baraka was allowed to serve his 48 consecutive weekends in a Harlem halfway house. While serving his sentence he wrote The Autobiography , tracing his life from birth to his conversion to socialism . In 1980 Baraka published an essay in the Village Voice that was titled Confessions of a Former Anti-Semite . Baraka insisted that a Village Voice editor titled it and not himself. In
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#17327879770514004-516: The rank of full professor in early 1990 (in part due to the proximity between the university's campus in New Brunswick, New Jersey and his home in Newark), he did not attain the requisite two-thirds majority of the senior faculty in a contentious 9–8 vote that favored his appointment. Baraka would go on to collectively liken the committee to an " Ivy League Goebbels " while also characterizing
4081-721: The seminal Apple Cores columns from Down Beat magazine. Around this time he also formed a record label called Jihad, which produced and issued only three LPs, all released in 1968: Sonny's Time Now with Sunny Murray , Albert Ayler , Don Cherry , Lewis Worrell , Henry Grimes , and Baraka; A Black Mass , featuring Sun Ra ; and Black & Beautiful – Soul & Madness by the Spirit House Movers, on which Baraka reads his poetry. In 1967, Baraka (still LeRoi Jones) visited Maulana Karenga in Los Angeles and became an advocate of his philosophy of Kawaida ,
4158-427: The senior faculty as "powerful Klansmen ", leading to a condemnation from department chair Barry Qualls. Thereafter, Baraka was nominally affiliated with Stony Brook as professor emeritus of Africana Studies until his death. In 1987, together with Maya Angelou and Toni Morrison , he was a speaker at the commemoration ceremony for James Baldwin . In 1989 Baraka won an American Book Award for his works as well as
4235-416: The sense of divine favor". In 1970 he supported Kenneth A. Gibson 's candidacy for mayor of Newark; Gibson was elected as the city's first African-American mayor. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Baraka courted controversy by penning some strongly anti-Jewish poems and articles. Historian Melani McAlister points to an example of this writing: "In the case of Baraka, and in many of the pronouncements of
4312-493: The streets in agony, if it means some soul will be moved." In opposition to the peaceful protests inspired by Martin Luther King Jr. , Baraka believed that a physical uprising must follow the literary one. Baraka's decision to leave Greenwich Village in 1965 was an outgrowth of his response to the debate about the future of black liberation. In 1966, Baraka married his second wife, Sylvia Robinson , who later adopted
4389-492: The university's print media from Stony Brook Press , Blackworld , and other student campus publications. These articles included a page-one exposé of his positions in the inaugural issue of Stony Brook Press on October 25, 1979, discussing his protests "against what he perceived as racism in the Africana Studies Department, as evidenced by a dearth of tenured professors". Shortly thereafter, Baraka took
4466-470: The vaunted Jewish support of Black civil rights organizations was in order to use them. Jews, finally, are white, and suffer from the same kind of white chauvinism that separates a great many whites from the Black struggle. ... these Jewish intellectuals have been able to pass over into the Promised Land of American privilege. In the essay he also defended his position against Israel, saying, " Zionism
4543-452: The violence required to "establish a Black World". Baraka even uses onomatopoeia in "Black Art" to express that need for violence: "rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr ... tuhtuhtuhtuhtuhtuht ..." More specifically, lines in "Black Art" such as "Let there be no love poems written / until love can exist freely and cleanly", juxtaposed with "We want a black poem. / And a Black World", demonstrate Baraka's cry for political justice during
4620-772: The work of a core ogroup of actors including Branson, Jonas Chaney, Milton Thompson, Chrystal Bates, and Anthony Thompson. Theatre in Pittsburgh Black Horizons Theater (BHT) (note the "s" in the name, which is the authentic title of the theater group, with all of its plural and future-oriented intention) was created after a meeting of Black Action Society ( BAS ) of the University of Pittsburgh representative's Curtiss E. Porter (now Ph.D. and Chancellor of Penn State Greater Allegheny Campus in White Oak/ McKeesport, Pa.), Jake Milliones, Ph.D. (deceased, former City Council President of
4697-567: The worlds of society, music, and literature. 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, though some have said his work is an expression of violence, misogyny , and homophobia . Baraka's brief tenure as Poet Laureate of New Jersey (in 2002 and 2003) involved controversy over
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#17327879770514774-432: Was "For Tom Postell, Dead Black Poet", which contained lines including ...Smile jew. Dance, jew. Tell me you love me, jew. I got something for you ... I got the extermination blues, jewboys. I got the hitler syndrome figured ... So come for the rent, jewboys ... one day, jewboys, we all, even my wig wearing mother gonna put it on you all at once. During the 1982–83 academic year, Baraka returned to Columbia University as
4851-704: Was a member of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill and a founding member of NAMI-Inglewood. Her book 72 Hour Hold also deals with mental illness. Her first play, Even with the Madness , debuted in New York City in June 2003. This work revisited the theme of mental illness and the family. As a journalist, Campbell wrote articles for The New York Times Magazine , The Washington Post ,
4928-452: Was a social worker. Jazz was something Baraka became interested in as a kid. He wanted to be just like Miles Davis . "I wanted to look like that too — that green shirt and rolled up sleeves on Milestones ...always wanted to look like that. And be able to play " On Green Dolphin Street " or " Autumn Leaves " ... That gorgeous chilling sweet sound. That's the music you wanted playing when you
5005-878: 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 . Baraka's plays, poetry, and essays have been described by scholars as constituting defining texts for African-American culture. 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
5082-457: Was an AntiSemite published by The Village Voice on December 20, 1980, vol. 1], he held a specific animosity for Jews, as was apparent in the different intensity and viciousness of his call in the same poem for 'dagger poems' to stab the 'slimy bellies of the ownerjews' and for poems that crack 'steel knuckles in a jewlady's mouth.'" Prior to this time, Baraka prided himself on being a forceful advocate of Black cultural nationalism; however, by
5159-581: Was born in June 1962. Baraka visited Cuba in July 1960 with a Fair Play for Cuba Committee delegation and reported his impressions in his essay "Cuba Libre". There he encountered openly rebellious artists who declared him to be a "cowardly bourgeois individualist" more focused on building his reputation than trying to help those who were enduring oppression. This encounter led to a dramatic change in his writing and goals, causing him to become emphatic about supporting black nationalism. In 1961 Baraka co-authored
5236-516: Was coming into a joint, or just looking up at the sky with your baby by your side, that mixture of America and them changes, them blue African magic chants." The influence of jazz can be seen throughout his work later in life. He won a scholarship to Rutgers University in 1951 but transferred in 1952 to Howard University . His classes in philosophy and religious studies helped lay a foundation for his later writings. He subsequently studied at Columbia University and The New School without taking
5313-475: Was described as one of the most influential books of 1992 by The New York Times Magazine . This book, which was inspired by the murder of Emmett Till in 1955, describes the impacts of this senseless crime experienced by the victim's family. Campbell, inspired by the Rodney King beating and the subsequent Los Angeles riots, wrote her second novel, titled Brothers and Sisters . This novel would be named as
5390-535: Was established. BAS provided honoraria to Penny and Wilson and funds for rent and publicity. The plays went into production at the A. Leo Weil Elementary School. The connection of the BAS was incipient to the early development of the BHT. BAS provided the theater with leadership, funding, and major portions of the early audiences. Students from the University of Pittsburgh attended under the auspices of their Black Studies classes. One such student would have been best-selling author, Elizabeth "Bebe" Moore-Campbell . Through
5467-1002: Was here that, inspired by Beat poets back in the mainland US, he began to write poetry. The same year, he moved to Greenwich Village , working initially in a warehouse of music records. His interest in jazz evolved during this period. It was also during this time that he came in contact with the avant-garde Black Mountain poets and New York School poets. In 1958 he married Hettie Cohen , with whom he had two daughters, Kellie Jones (b. 1959) and Lisa Jones (b.1961). He and Hettie founded Totem Press, which published such Beat poets as Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg . In cooperation with Corinth, Totem published books by LeRoi Jones and Diane di Prima , Ron Loewinsohn , Michael McClure , Charles Olson , Paul Blackburn , Frank O'Hara , Gary Snyder , Philip Whalen , Ed Dorn , Joel Oppenheimer and Gilbert Sorrentino and an anthology of four young female poets, Carol Berge , Barbara Moraff , Rochelle Owens , and Diane Wakoski . They also jointly founded
5544-568: Was his first play to be produced by a resident company. Wilson, Penny, and poet Maisha Baton also started the Kuntu Writers Workshop to continue the tradition of Centre Avenue Poets' Theater Workshop. In the early 1990s, Elva Branson founded the New Horizon Theater as a tribute to Black Horizon Theater and a platform for Pittsburgh's burgeoning community of African-American theater artists. This company showcased
5621-678: Was no mechanism in the law to remove Baraka from the post, and he refused to step down, the position of state poet laureate was officially abolished by the State Legislature and Governor McGreevey. Baraka collaborated with hip-hop group The Roots on the song "Something in the Way of Things (In Town)" on their 2002 album Phrenology . In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante included Amiri Baraka on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans . In 2003, Baraka's daughter Shani, aged 31, and her lesbian partner, Rayshon Homes, were murdered in
5698-513: Was one of the first responses to Malcolm's death to be exposed to the public. The poem is directed particularly at black men, and it scoldingly labels them "faggots" in order to challenge them to act and continue the fallen activist's fight against the white establishment. Baraka also promoted theatre as a training for the "real revolution" yet to come, with the arts being a way to forecast the future as he saw it. In "The Revolutionary Theatre", Baraka wrote, "We will scream and cry, murder, run through
5775-551: Was released after a day in custody pending his appeal. At the time it was noted that if he was kept in prison, "he would be unable to attend a reception at the White House in honor of American poets." Baraka's appeal continued up to the State Supreme Court. During the process, his lawyer, William M. Kunstler , told the press that Baraka "feels it's the responsibility of the writers of America to support him across
5852-637: Was to be for two years and came with a $ 10,000 stipend. Baraka held the post for a year, during which time he was mired in controversy, including substantial political pressure and public outrage demanding his resignation. During the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival in Stanhope, New Jersey , Baraka read his 2001 poem on the September 11th attacks "Somebody Blew Up America?", which was criticized for anti-Semitism and attacks on public figures. Because there
5929-499: Was using federal antipoverty welfare funds for his theater. Baraka became a leading advocate and theorist for the burgeoning black art during this time. Now a "black cultural nationalist", he broke away from the predominantly white Beats and became critical of the pacifist and integrationist Civil Rights Movement . His revolutionary poetry became more controversial. A poem such as "Black Art" (1965), according to Werner Sollors of Harvard University , expressed Baraka's need to commit
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