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.
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