Amiri Baraka

The poem “Somebody blew up America” by Amiri Baraka centers around the attack on the world Trade Center and the media’s claims of Osama Bin Laden being the master mind behind the attack. In this poem, Baraka shows the hidden messages of systematic racism that has long been embedded in the United States history. The 9/11 poem takes a different approach, as each stanza in Baraka’s poem explains the act of racial terrorism being the main reason behind the 9/11 attack. Over the years, Baraka’s work has seen a transitional change from Nationalist to Third World Socialist. Baraka remained a difficult figure to approach, especially when he created his most controversial poem “Somebody blew up America”. One poet who believed that Baraka’s has seen a transitional change from Nationalist to Third World Socialist is poet Vernon Shetley. In The News Vernon Shetley states the following about Baraka “As a brief coda, let me return to Amiri Baraka – return, in fact, to a time when he was LeRoi Jones(Gray 43). In this quote, Shetley believes Baraka’s The Dead Lecture, from 1964, makes powerful poetry out conflicts and ambivalences that Baraka resolved in later transformations of his poetic style and political orientation.…

general empathy. The poems these poets create invoke subjective feelings within those who experience them, causing the interpreted meaning of the poems to be largely subjective. An individual’s opinion on a work of literature can only be justified through the means of a critical analysis. The meaning in Amiri Baraka’s poem, “ Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note,” is established through the use of symbolism, personification, and juxtaposition. “Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note” is…

“Recitatif” is Toni Morrison’s, an African American author, first and only published short story. This particular short story was fiction. In 1983, William Morrow Publishing in New York City published and released this short story. Toni Morrison had husband and wife, Imamu Amiri Baraka and Amina Baraka edit and review “Recitatif” before having it published. Morrison was born in 1931, making her 52 years old when “Recitatif” was published. Toni Morrison was a well educated woman who when to two…

African American Men Ready for War Dutchman refers to the old folk tale of the Flying Dutchman or what is known as Fleiger Hollander in Dutch (Jacques 7). This tale speaks of a flying ghost ship that never reaches a destination and sails the ocean forever. In Amiri Baraka’s “Dutchman”, he uses this close analogy to refer to the eerie feeling that readers gain from being taken on a journey while aboard this train. African American men are at battle daily, which also gives one the eerie feeling…

In Amiri Baraka play “The Dutchman,” is basically about the relationship that blacks and whites go through in the United States during the 1960s or the Civil Rights Era. It is said that his play is based off the “Flying Dutchman.” The Flying Dutchman is basically a ghost ship that is said to sail the sea forever. In The Dutchman Clay is bound to be either killed, in jail, or just another black working under the white man. The characters Lula and Clay seem to act out what our mom, dads, aunts,…

wake of the Black Power movement. The movement was established by Amiri Baraka in 1963, who opened a Black Arts Repertory theater in Harlem. The movement was also provoked by the assassination of Malcolm X. The movement inspired black people to initiate magazines, journals, art institutions, and publishing houses. The black arts movement saw artistic manufacture as the key to re-evaluate black Americans recognition of themselves and was believed to be an essential element of the political,…

In one instance of "Black Art", Baraka indicates that his writing is a tool to counter racism when he says, "Poems are bullshit unless they are / teeth or trees or lemons piled / on a step. Or black ladies dying" (1-4). Through this writing, Baraka abandons traditional structure and presents his overarching belief in active action as opposed to passive resistance. The stream-of-consciousness flow also found in "Black Art" creates a connection to Baraka's African-American audience, uniting them…

On the onset, there does not seem to be any difference between poetry and song. After all, there are several different lyrics used in songs that have been derived from poetry. Two examples of this idea can be found in the musical poetry of Amiri Baraka's poem "Wailers" and Todd Rundgren's "Wailing Wall". Both poetry and song are literary poems that deal with the emotions of a particular individual, regarding a particular instance or situation. Therefore, poetry verses and the lines of a song…

Baraka seemed to me to come off quite aggressivly in his piece “The Revolutionary Theatre.” Such aggression I think might not of been absolutely necessary. It is easy for me to say that it is absolutely necessary now, but the 60’s when Baraka was saying these things it was not quite as radical. This piece was interesting to read for a number of reasons, but particularly because it provided a window into the life of an oppressed African-American in the 60’s. In all honesty, I grew up in…

Poetry is utilized as way for people to express their feeling in a different way. There is more to it than rhythm schemes and different tones. African Americans have utilized poetry as voice because they never had one during slavery and segregation era. The Angles of Ascent: an anthology of Contemporary African American Poetry has showed their respect for the many poets that are recognized within this anthology. There are over five hundred poems that can help create a vision of what is like…