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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 15, 2014)
Page 22 Ì © northby northeast COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTER We honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. North by Northeast Community Health Center provides high quality health care to neighborhood adults who have Oregon Health Plan or are uninsured. If you're uninsured, we can help you get covered! \Ne are providing appointments for Cover Oregon enrollment assistance. If you are a community member needing to get health insurance coverage, please call us at (503) 287-4932 to make an appointment. 3030 NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. | Portland Oregon 97212 503-287-4932 | nxneclinic.org M a r t in 2014 L u t h e r K in g J r . s p e c i a l e d it io n January 15. 2014 Agitator was a Tireless Force in American Culture c o n t i n u e d f r o m page 7 against the wall m other f-— " — becam e a counterculture slogan for everyone from stu dent protesters to the rock band Jefferson Airplane. A 2002 poem he wrote alleging that some Israelis had advance know ledge o f the Sept. 11 attacks led to w idespread outrage. He was denounced by critics as buffoonish, homophobic, anti-Semitic, a demagogue. He was called by others a genius, a prophet, the M alcolm X o f literature. E ldridge C leaver hailed him as the bard o f the "funky facts." Ishmael Reed credited the Black Arts M ove ment for encouraging artists of all backgrounds and enabling the rise o f multiculturalism. The scholar Arnold Rampersad placed him along side Frederick Douglass and Richard W right in the pantheon o f black cultural influences. "From Amiri Baraka, I learned that all art is political, although I don't write political plays," the Pulitzer Prize-w inning dram atist A ugust W ilson once said. First published in the 1950s, Baraka crashed the literary party in 1964, at the Cherry Lane Theater in Greenwich Village, when "Dutch man" opened and made instant history at the height o f the civil rights movement. Baraka's play was a one-act show dow n betw een a middle class black man, Clay, and a sexually daring white woman, Lula, ending in a brawl of m urderous taunts and confessions. Baraka was still LeRoi Jones when he wrote "Dutchman." But the Cuban revolution, the assassination in 1965 o f M alcolm X and the N ew ark riots o f 1967, when the poet was jailed and photographed looking dazed and bloodied, radicalized him. Jones left his white wife (Hettie Cohen), cut off his white friends and moved from Greenwich Village to Harlem. He renam ed him self Im am u A m eer Baraka, "spiritual leader blessed prince," and d is m issed the Rev. M artin L uther King Jr. as a brainw ashed N egro." He helped organize the 1972 National Black Political Convention and founded the Congress o f African People. He also founded community groups in Harlem and N ew ark, the hom etow n to w hich he eventually returned. The Black Arts M ovem ent was essentially over by the m id-1970s, and B araka d is tanced him self from some of his harsher com m ents — about Dr. King, about gays and about whites in general. OUR MOST PRECIOUS ENERGY RESOURCE IS THE PEOPLE WHO KNOW HOW TO USE IT WISELY. From refrigerator recycling to solar panel installations, Oregon homeowners and businesses are teaming up with Energy Trust of Oregon to make a big impact on energy use around the state. Over the last decade, people like you-have worked with Energy Trust to save more than a billion dollars on their energy bills. See how you can reduce waste and save money. Call us at 1.866.368.7878 or visit www.energytrust.org Serving customers of Portland General Electric, Pacific Power, NW Natural and Cascade Natural Gas. EnergyTrust of Oregon
