Amiri Baraka October 7 th January 9, 2014 BY: MORGAN BECKETT

Early Life  Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones/ Imamu Amear Baraka) was born in Newark, New Jersey, on October 7,  Baraka Graduated High school from Barringer High School at age 15 where he developed an interest in poetry and jazz.  Baraka attended Howard University and earned a degree in English in  Shortly after, Baraka joined the United States Air Force and after three years of service, Barak received a dishonorable discharge due to his owning of inappropriate texts and being accused of being a communist.  Baraka later moved to Manhattan where he attended Columbia University and The New School. He became a prominent artist in the Greenwich Village scene

Early Life and Politics  Baraka disassociated with the apolitical Beat movement in exchange of addressing racial politics, particularly within the United States.  The assassination of Malcolm X was a turning point in his life resulting in his rejection of his old life—including changing his name to Amiri Baraka and ending his marriage to his first wife, Hettie Cohen.  He later became a black nationalist and moved to Harlem where he founded the Black Arts Repertory Theatre/School.  Baraka became a Muslim in 1968 and added the prefix Imamu, which means "spiritual leader," to his full name. Although In 1974, he dropped the prefix, identifying as a Marxst.

Honors and Awards  Baraka received the Rockefeller Foundation Award for Drama and Arts  Langston Hughes Award from City College of New York in his later career  The PEN Open Book Award in 2008 for his written work, Tales of the Out and the Gone  Taught at several prestigious universities, including the New School for Social Research, San Francisco State University and Yale University.  Wrote over 50 books including fiction, essays, plays, musical criticisms, and short stories.

The Man Behind the Poetry  Baraka is known for his antagonistic, inflammatory, and overall polarizing style of writing.  Baraka’s poem "Somebody Blew up America," was meant as a response to the terrorist attacks against the United States in New York on September 11,  He was criticized for being anti-Semitic.  The opposition to his written poem was so controversial and denounced, that his position as New Jersey's poet laureate was taken away due to the massive degree of public outcry against Baraka’s poem.

Themes Within the Poem  Domestic Terrorism  The hypocrisy of White America  Past and present pain and suffering of oppressed minorities within the United States  A call for America to self-reflect on their own form of terrorism on an international scale.

“Somebody Blew Up America”  They say its some terrorist, some barbaric A Rab, in Afghanistan It wasn't our American terrorists It wasn't the Klan or the Skin heads Or the them that blows up nigger Churches, or reincarnates us on Death Row It wasn't Trent Lott Or David Duke or Giuliani Or Schundler, Helms retiring

“Somebody Blew Up America”  "Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed/ Who told 4,000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers/ To stay home that day/ Why did Sharon stay away?“ "He wears his anti-Zionism and his anti-Americanism as a badge of pride," Mr. Goldstein said of the poet. "His beliefs in this regard are not political; they are bigotry.“  -Shai Goldstein, regional director of the Anti- Defamation League, attended the committee session that stripped Baraka of his Poet Laureate title.

“Somebody Blew Up America” “…who killed the most niggers who killed the most Jews who killed the most Italians who killed the most Irish who killed the most Japanese who killed the most Latinos…. ….Who make money from war Who make dough from fear and lies Who want the world like it is Who want the world to be ruled by imperialism and national oppression and terror violence, and hunger and poverty. Who and Who and WHO who who Whoooo and Whooooooooooooooooooooo!”

Amiri Baraka’s Response  In a statement of October 2, 2002 ("Statement by Amiri Baraka, New Jersey Poet Laureate: 'I Will Not 'Apologize,' I will not resign"), Baraka offers many clues about how his poem ought to be read. He says "the poem's underlying theme focuses on how Black Americans have suffered from domestic terrorism since being kidnapped into US chattel slavery, e.g., by Slave Owners, US & State Laws, Klan, Skin Heads, Domestic Nazis, Lynching, denial of rights, national oppression, racism, character assassination, historically, and at this very minute throughout the US. The relevance of this to Bush's call for a 'War on Terrorism,' is that Black people feel we have always been victims of terror, governmental and general, so we cannot get as frenzied and hysterical as the people who while asking to dismiss our history and contemporary reality to join them, in the name of a shallow 'patriotism' in attacking the majority of people in the world, especially people of color and in the third world."

Amiri Baraka’s Influence  Baraka played a huge role in contributing support to the Black Arts movement within the United States.  He was a strong and powerful advocate for the black power movement occurring during that particular time period in his life.  His poem caused many Americans to self-reflect on the impact that the US has on other country in forms of colonial imperialism and historical and present acts of American terrorism; domestic and international.

Works Cited  "Somebody Blew Up America By Baraka." Somebody Blew Up America By Baraka. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Dec  "One Way of Reading 'Somebody Blew Up America'" Selwyn R. Cudjoe -. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Dec  "Review of Somebody Blew Up America." Review of Somebody Blew Up America. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Dec  Gates, Henry Louis, and Nellie Y. McKay. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.  Finkelman, Paul. Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present: From the Age of Segregation to the Twenty-first Century. New York: Oxford UP, Print.