When he was a little boy Amiri Baraka (aka Leroi Jones) wanted to play the trumpet and be like trumpeter Miles Davis.I mean why not. He grew up next to Sara Vaughn. Instead of using words to make music; he used words to create a his own language.
He'll be the first to tell you, he dreads doing re-writes and loves Spanish culture especially the architecture. "I was an odd kid," explains Baraka, who describes his mother as intelligent and made him memorize a lot of things."
"When you are a writer and you have something to say, you have to have a confidence in what you think," explains the 75-year-old poet and author. "You must value your own rationale and perception because what you have to say is important."
Even though, he was kicked out of college for expressing too much of his opinion, Baraka adds he quickly joined the Air Force so he wouldn't have to break the bad news to his parents. While a member of the Force, he was the librarian and order his group's records, magazines, and books. A voracious reader, he found himself sitting in the library with up to 10 guys while they questioned what they read.
The turning point for him, as a writer, came when he thought about how writers were reflecting on the world he lived in and what he had to share. "Most black writers have reflected on the world through protests. Then I read the words of Garcia Lorca's Gypsy Ballad. "It was beautiful. The language was hauntingly beautiful.
"For me, poetry is a form of music.The emphasis is on the the rhythmic emphasis. The prose focuses on sensitivity and careful attention to the language, " continues Baraka, who is a fan of the Haiku poem and Japanese poetry. "The rhythm is driven. If it wasn't, it would be too boring."
Born in Newark, New Jersey, he is the author of such books as Blues People, Daggers & Javelins, Preface To A 20- Volume Suicide, Home, and Somebody Blew Up America. His controversial play, Dutchman, won an Obie award. His newest book of poems, Somebody Blew Up America" received controversy because the then Governor of New Jersey, who resigned when he was caught having a same-s*x affair with a co-worker, felt Baraka should apologize for the hated filled messages it contained. " He may have not liked it, I wasn't apologizing for it and we live in America so I have a right to say it."
Back in the 1960's, Baraka says that writing was his way of doing something positive and concrete to prevent his disillusionment with the world. "I had a big mouth and put my words on paper. Back then, we had to fight back. I didn't like the way we lived. I believe in unity and struggle," he continues. "We thought all we had to do was get whites out of power and put blacks in power, but it turns out that we had to deal with Negroes. That was a whole nuther mess."
Baraka attended Rutgers University and then became a student at Howard University, where he was a student of poet/author Sterling Brown. Over the years, he has written more than 30 books tracking the changes in our country. "As I get older, I have mellowed, " he continues. "Awards are nice and everything, but I still would like to know where the rewards are."
Posted By: Marsha Jones
Sunday, December 19th 2010 at 5:00PM
You can also
click
here to view all posts by this author...
