RIP Amiri Baraka, founder of the Black Arts Movement

Article by News Team | 10 Jan 2014

Amiri Baraka, a poet, novelist, activist and founding father of the Black Arts Movement, passed away yesterday at the age of 79. Initially associated with the Beat Generation, Baraka was a contemporary of Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, publishing their early work via his Totem Press imprint, before publishing his own first poetry collection, 1961's searing Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note. 

A left-wing activist and writer, he voiced support in the 1960s for Fidel Castro's Cuba, later becoming involved with the emerging 'black cultural nationalist' movement, giving voice to the angry and increasingly militant groups on the fringes of the more pacifist Civil Rights Movement led by Martin Luther King. After the assassination of Malcolm X in 1965, his poem Black Art became a manifesto for the Black Arts Literary Movement.

Baraka's acclaimed 1964 play Dutchman earned him more fame and notoriety, with critics levelling accusations of both racism and sexism – the plot involves a white woman sexually taunting a black man on a subway, and eventually murdering him. The play has since been recognised as a key work in the development of black American literature. By 1966, Baraka had fully embraced black nationalism, giving up the name LeRoi Jones, and taking the name Amiri Baraka. 

Throughout this period, he continued to write valuable critiques of the history of black arts, especially blues and jazz. In the 1970s, Baraka distanced himself from black nationalism once more, and began identifying more with Marxist cultural approaches. Having been criticised for perceived anti-semitism in his writing, he denounced some of his former statements, and described himself as an "anti-Zionist."

From the 1980s onwards, Baraka taught at American universities including Columbia and Stony Brook. In 2002 he was named the Poet Laureate of New Jersey. His poem Somebody Blew Up America, about the 9/11 attacks, which was accused of being anti-semitic, cost him the job – asked to resign, he refused. The state's governor had to remove him by completely eliminating the position of Poet Laureate.

Despite, or perhaps in some part because of the controversy that dogged his career, which saw him publicly accused of racism, homophobia and sexism at various points, he remained an utterly vital and always challenging writer whose work had a vibrancy, an incisiveness and an unflinching honesty which few could match. Although perhaps less internationally recognised as the white poets of the Beat Generation, his influence on later black arts movements, from hip-hop and spoken word to theatre and literature, cannot be overstated.  

In 2013, Baraka came to Scotland as part of the Arika festival. He discussed his history with the Black Arts Movement, and read his work. He left a lasting impression on the audience, alongside fellow poet Sonia Sanchez, critic Fred Moten, and jazz musician Wadada Leo Smith. Delivering a performance of wry, razor-sharp wit and devastating emotional honesty, it was to be his final appearance in the UK. 

Read our review of Arika 13 with Amiri Baraka and others