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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 15, 2014)
January 15, 2014 1 © M a r t in L u t h e r K in g J r . Page 7 2014 s p e c ia l e d itio n Agitator was a Tireless Force in American Culture Man of letters inspired generations (AP) — Amiri Baraka, the m ilitant man o f letters and tireless agitator whose blues-based, fist-shak ing poem s, plays and criticism m ade him a pro- n their weapons leaving them dead/with tongues pulled out and sent to Ireland." He was as eclectic as he was prolific: His influ ences ranged from Ray Bradbury and M ao Zedong to G insberg and John C oltrane. B araka wrote poems, short stories, novels, essays, plays, musical and cultural criticism and jazz operas. His 1963 book "Blues People" has been called the first m ajor history o f black music to be written by an African- American. A line from his poem "Black People!" — "Up continued on page 22 n Poet and social activist Imamu Amear Baraka speaks during the Black Political Convention in Gary, Ind., in 1972. (AP photo) p in n e r wnn innovative services NW to help kids and adults in our community vocative and groundbreaking force in A m erican culture, died Thursday in his hom etow n o f N ew ark, N.J. He w as 79. ' Perhaps no writer of the 1960s and 7 0 s was more radical orpolarizing than the former LeRoi Jones, and no one did more to extend the political debates o f the civil rights era to the world o f the arts. He inspired at least one generation o f poets, play wrights and musicians, and his immersion in spoken word traditions and raw street language anticipated rap, hip-hop and slam poetry. The FBI feared him to the point o f flattery, identifying Baraka as "the person who will probably em erge as the leader o f the Pan- African movement in the United States." B araka transform ed from the rare black to jo in the B eat caravan o f A llen G insberg and Jack Kerouac to leader o f the Black Arts M ovem ent, an ally o f the Black Pow er m ovem ent that rejected the liberal optim ism o f the early '60s and intensified a divide over how and whether the black artist should take on social is s u e s .. S corning art for art's sake and the pursuit o f black-w hite unity, Barak was part o f a philosophy that called for the teaching o f black art and history and producing works that bluntly called for revolu tion. "We want 'poems that kill,"' Baraka wrote in his landm ark "Black Art," a m anifesto published in 1965, the year he helped found the B lack Arts M ovem ent. "A ssassin poem s. Poem s that shoot guns/Poem s that wrestle cops into alleys/and take when we come together, dreams come true Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream burns brightly in hundreds of Kaiser Permanente employees. On January 20, we honor his legacy by volunteering to make our communities healthier. We'll lend a hand at local schools and shelters. We'll plant trees and provide health and dental care to low-income, uninsured adults. And we'll pause to reflect on Dr. King's message of service, equality, and community. "Life's most persistent and urgent question is: What are you doing for others?" — Martin Luther King, Jr. KAISER PERMANENTE- th r iV e ©2013 Kaiser Foundation Health Plan o f the Northwest
