baraka-amiri - Casa della poesia

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La “x” è nera

Saggio 1

Amiri Baraka Stati Uniti inglese

Amiri Baraka, nato nel 1934, a Newark, New Yersey, USA, è autore di più di 40 libri di saggi, poesie, teatro e storia e critica della musica, poeta icona e attivista politico rivoluzionario che ha recitato poesia e tenuto lezioni e conferenze si temi di politica e culturali negli USA, nei Caraibi, Africa ed Europa.
Le influenze sul suo lavoro variano dagli orishaa musicali quali Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, Thelonius Monk, e Sun Ra fino alla Rivoluzione Cubana, Malcolm X e i movimenti rivoluzionari mondiali. Baraka è riconosciuto come il fondatore del Black Arts Movement ad Harlem negli anni '60, che divenne, nonostante la breve vita, il progetto virtuale di un nuovo teatro estetico americano. Il movimento e i suo lavori pubblicati e rappresentati come lo studio sulla musica afro-americana "Blues People", (1963) e il dramma "Dutchman", (1963) praticamente furono il seme del "corollario culturale al nazionalismo nero" di quell'ambiente rivoluzionario americano. Altri titoli variano da "Selected Poetry of Amiri Baraka/LeRoi Jones" (1979), a "The Music" (1987), un'affascinante raccolte di poesie e monografie su Jazz e Blues di cui erano autori Baraka e sua moglie la poetessa Amina, e l'ardita selezione di saggi "The Essence of Reparations" (2003).
"The Essence of Reparations" è la prima raccolta di saggi di Baraka pubblicata in forma di libro che esplora in maniera radicale quello che diventerà il movimento spartiacque del ventunesimo secolo dei Neri con i temi correlati di razzismo, oppressione nazionalistica, colonialismo, neo-colonialismo, auto-determinazione e liberazione nazionale ed umana, ai quali si è a lungo rivolto sia in maniera creativa che critica. È stato detto che Amiri Baraka è impegnato nella giustizia sociale coem nessun altro scrittore americano. Ha insegnato a Yale, Columbia, e alla State University of New York at Stony Brook.
"Somebody Blew Up America & Other Poems" è la prima raccolta delle poesie di Baraka pubblicata nei Caraibi ed include la poesia che dà il titolo al libro che lo ha portato all'attenzione dei media in modi piuttosto rari per poeti ed autori.
La lettura della poesia "in questione" ha impegnato il poeta guerriero in una battaglia campale con lo stesso governatore del New Jersey e con una schiera di detrattori che hanno richiestole sue dimissioni da Poeta Laureato dello Stato a causa della provocatoria domanda poetica in "Somebody Blew Up America" (in alcuni versi della poesia) su chi ci fosse dietro il bombardamento al New York City World Trade Center nel 2001.
La deflagrazione della poesia ha fatto sì che la foto e le parole dell'autore siano state pubblicate sulle pagine del New York’s Amsterdam News e del New York Times, e trasmesse dalla CNN - solo per citare alcuni media nazionali ed internazionali che hanno riportato la notizia.
Baraka vive a Newark con sua moglie la poetessa Amina Baraka; hanno cinque figli e guidano il word-music ensamble, "Blue Ark: The Word Ship" e sono co-direttori di Kimako’s Blues People, lo "spazio artistico" ospitato nel loro teatro nel seminterrato da più di quindici anni.
I suoi riconoscimenti e premi includono un Obie, l'American Academy of Arts & Letters award, il James Weldon Johnson Medal for contributions to the arts, Rockefeller Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts grants, Professor Emeritus at the State university of New York at Stony Brook, e il Poet Laureate del New Jersey.
Ha partecipato nel 2004 e 2005 a "Il cammino delle comete", nel 2005 a "Altre Americhe" (Salerno), "Napolipoesia nel Parco", nel 2007 a "VersoSud" (Reggio Calabria).
In Italia in questo momento due i libri disponibili:
"Il Popolo del Blues", Shake, Milano 2007.
"Amiri Baraka. Ritratto dell'artista in nero", a cura di Franco Minganti e Giorgio Rimondi, Bacchilega, Imola 2007.

Amiri Baraka si è spento il 9 gennaio 2013.
OPERE TEATRALI
* (Sotto di nome di LeRoi Jones) A Good Girl Is Hard to Find, prodotto a Montclair, NJ, 1958.
* (Sotto di nome di LeRoi Jones) Dante (atto unico; estratto dal romanzo The System of Dante's Hell; vedi di seguito), prodotto a New York, NY, 1961, prodotto come The Eighth Ditch, 1964.
* (Sotto di nome di LeRoi Jones) Dutchman (vedi di seguito; prodotto Off-Broadway, 1964; prodotto in London, 1967), Faber & Faber (London, England), 1967.
* (Sotto di nome di LeRoi Jones) The Baptism: A Comedy in One Act (vedi di seguito; prodotto Off-Broadway, 1964, prodotto in London), Sterling Lord, 1966.
* (Sotto di nome di LeRoi Jones) The Toilet (vedi di seguito; prodotto con The Slave: A Fable Off-Broadway, 1964), Sterling Lord, 1964.
* Dutchman [and] The Slave: A Fable, Morrow (New York, NY), 1964.
* (Sotto di nome di LeRoi Jones) J-E-L-L-O(commedia in un atto unico; vedi di seguito; prodotto a New York, NY, by Black Arts Repertory Theatre, 1965), Third World Press, 1970.
* (Sotto di nome di LeRoi Jones) Experimental Death Unit #1 (atto unico; vedi di seguito), prodotto Off-Broadway, 1965.
* (Sotto di nome di LeRoi Jones) The Death of Malcolm X (atto unico; prodotto a Newark, NJ, 1965), pubblicato in New Plays from the Black Theatre, edito da Ed Bullins, Bantam (New York, NY), 1969.
* (Sotto di nome di LeRoi Jones) A Black Mass (vedi di seguito), prodotto a Newark, NJ, 1966.
* Slave Ship (vedi di seguito; prodotto come Slave Ship: A Historical Pageant at Spirit House, 1967; prodotto a New York, NY, 1969), Jihad, 1967.
* Madheart: Morality Drama (atto unico; vedi di seguito), prodotto al San Francisco State College, 1967.
* Arm Yourself, or Harm Yourself, A One-Act Play (vedi di seguito; prodotto alla Spirit House, 1967), Jihad, 1967.
* Great Goodness of Life (A Coon Show) (atto unico; vedi di seguito), prodotto alla Spirit House, 1967; prodotto Off-Broadway al Tambellini's Gate Theater, 1969.
* The Baptism [and] The Toilet, Grove (New York, NY), 1967.
* Home on the Range (commedia in un atto; vedi di seguito), prodotto alla Spirit House, 1968; prodotto a New York, NY, 1968.
* Junkies Are Full of SHHH... , prodotto alla Spirit House, 1968; prodotto con Bloodrites (vedi di seguito), Off-Broadway, 1970.
* Board of Education (dramma per bambini), prodotto alla Spirit House, 1968.
* Resurrection in Life (pantomima in un atto), prodotto come Insurrection in Harlem, NY, 1969.
* Four Black Revolutionary Plays: All Praises to the Black Man (contiene Experimental Death Unit #1, A Black Mass, Great Goodness of Life (A Coon Show), and Madheart), Bobbs-Merrill (New York, NY), 1969.
* Black Dada Nihilism (atto unico), prodotto Off-Broadway, 1971.
* A Recent Killing (tre atti), prodotto Off-Broadway, 1973.
* Columbia the Gem of the Ocean, prodotto a Washington, DC, 1973.
* The New Ark's A-Moverin, prodotto a Newark, NJ, 1974.
* The Sidnee Poet Heroical, in Twenty-nine Scenes (commedia in un atto; vedi di seguito; prodotto Off-Broadway, 1975), Reed & Cannon, 1979.
* S-1: A Play with Music (vedi di seguito), prodotto a New York, NY, 1976.
* (Con Frank Chin e Leslie Siko) America More or Less (musical), prodotto a San Francisco, CA, 1976.
* The Motion of History (quattro atti; vedi di seguito), prodotto a New York, NY, 1977.
* The Motion of History and Other Plays (contains Slave Ship e S-1), Morrow (New York, NY), 1978.
* What Was the Relationship of the Lone Ranger to the Means of Production? (atto unico; vedi di seguito; prodotto a New York, NY, 1979 ), Anti-Imperialist Cultural Union, 1978.
* Dim Cracker Party Convention, prodotto a New York, NY, 1980.
* Boy and Tarzan Appear in a Clearing, prodotto Off-Broadway, 1981.
* Money: Jazz Opera, prodotto Off-Broadway, 1982.
* Song: A One-Act Play about the Relationship of Art to Real Life, prodotto in Jamaica, NY, 1983.
* General Hag's Skeezag, 1992.
E' anche autore delle opere teatrali "Police", pubblicato in "Drama Review", summer, 1968; "Rockgroup", publicato in "Cricket", December, 1969; "Black Power Chant", pubblicato in "Drama Review", December, 1972; "The Coronation of the Black Queen", pubblicato in "Black Scholar", June, 1970; "Vomit and the Jungle Bunnies, Revolt of the Moonflowers", 1969, "Primitive World", 1991, "Jackpot Melting", 1996, "Election Machine Warehouse", 1996, "Meeting Lillie", 1997, "Biko", 1997, and "Black Renaissance in Harlem", 1998. Opere teatrali inserite in antologie, incluse Woodie King and Ron Milner, editors, Black Drama Anthology (include Bloodrites e Junkies Are Full of SHHH . . .), New American Library, 1971; and Rochelle Owens, editor, Spontaneous Combustion: Eight New American Plays (includes Ba-Ra-Ka), Winter House, 1972.
SCENEGGIATURE
* Dutchman, Gene Persson Enterprises, Ltd., 1967.
* Black Spring, Jihad Productions, 1968.
* A Fable (basato su The Slave: A Fable), MFR Productions, 1971.
* Supercoon, Gene Persson Enterprises, Ltd., 1971.
POESIA
* April 13 (broadside), Penny Poems (New Haven, CT), 1959.
* Spring and So Forth (broadside), Penny Poems (New Haven, CT), 1960.
* Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note, Totem/Corinth, 1961.
* The Disguise (broadside), (New Haven, CT), 1961.
* The Dead Lecturer (also see below), Grove (New York, NY), 1964.
* Black Art (also see below), Jihad, 1966.
* Black Magic (also see below), Morrow (New York, NY), 1967.
* A Poem for Black Hearts, Broadside Press, 1967.
* Black Magic: Sabotage; Target Study; Black Art; Collected Poetry, 1961-1967, Bobbs-Merrill (New York, NY), 1969.
* It's Nation Time, Third World Press, 1970.
* Spirit Reach, Jihad, 1972.
* Afrikan Revolution, Jihad, 1973.
* Hard Facts: Excerpts, People's War, 1975, 2nd edition, Revolutionary Communist League, 1975.
* Spring Song, Baraka, 1979.
* AM/TRAK, Phoenix Bookshop, 1979.
* Selected Poetry of Amiri Baraka/LeRoi Jones (includes "Poetry for the Advanced"), Morrow (New York, NY), 1979.
* In the Tradition: For Black Arthur Blythe, Jihad, 1980.
* Reggae or Not!, Contact Two, 1982.
* LeRoi Jones—Amiri, Thunder's Mouth Press, 1991.
* Transbluency: The Selected Poems of Amiri Baraka/LeRoi Jones (1961-1995), Marsilio, 1995.
* Funk Lore: New Poems, 1984-1995, Sun & Moon Press, 1996.
* Beginnings and Other Poems, House of Nehesi (Fredericksburg, VA), 2003.
* Somebody Blew up America and Other Poems, House of Nehesi (Philipsburg, St. Martin, Caribbean), 2003.
SAGGI
* Cuba Libre, Fair Play for Cuba Committee (New York, NY), 1961.
* Blues People: Negro Music in White America, Morrow (New York, NY), 1963, reprinted, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 1980, published as Negro Music in White America, MacGibbon & Kee (London, England), 1965.
* Home: Social Essays (contains "Cuba Libre," "The Myth of a 'Negro Literature,'" "Expressive Language," "The Legacy of Malcolm X, and the Coming of the Black Nation," and "State/ meant"), Morrow (New York, NY), 1966, Ecco Press (Hopewell, NJ), 1998.
* Black Music, Morrow (New York, NY), 1968.
* Raise, Race, Rays, Raze: Essays since 1965, Random House (New York, NY), 1971.
* Strategy and Tactics of a Pan-African Nationalist Party, Jihad, 1971.
* Kawaida Studies: The New Nationalism, Third World Press, 1972.
* Crisis in Boston!, Vita Wa Watu People's War, 1974.
* Daggers and Javelins: Essays, 1974-1979, Morrow (New York, NY), 1984.
* (With wife, Amina Baraka) The Music: Reflections on Jazz and Blues, Morrow (New York, NY), 1987.
* Jesse Jackson and Black People, 1996.
* The Essence of Reparation, House of Nehesi (Fredericksburg, VA), 2003.
Contributor of essays to Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun; and The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window, Vintage Books (New York, NY), 1995.
EDITORIA
* January 1st 1959: Fidel Castro, Totem, 1959.
* Four Young Lady Poets, Corinth, 1962.
* (And author of introduction) The Moderns: An Anthology of New Writing in America, 1963, published as The Moderns: New Fiction in America, 1964.
* (And co-author) In-formation, Totem, 1965.
* Gilbert Sorrentino, Black & White, Corinth, 1965.
* Edward Dorn, Hands Up!, Corinth, 1965.
* (And contributor) Afro-American Festival of the Arts Magazine, Jihad, 1966, published as Anthology of Our Black Selves, 1969.
* (With Larry Neal and A. B. Spellman) The Cricket: Black Music in Evolution, Jihad, 1968, published as Trippin': A Need for Change, New Ark, 1969.
* (And contributor, with Larry Neal) Black Fire: An Anthology of Afro-American Writing, Morrow (New York, NY), 1968.
* A Black Value System, Jihad, 1970.
* (With Billy Abernathy under pseudonym Fundi) In Our Terribleness (Some Elements of Meaning in Black Style), Bobbs-Merrill (New York, NY), 1970.
* (And author of introduction) African Congress: A Documentary of the First Modern Pan-African Congress, Morrow (New York, NY), 1972.
* (With Diane Di Prima) The Floating Bear, A Newsletter, No.1-37, 1961-1969, McGilvery, 1974.
* (With Amina Baraka) Confirmation: An Anthology of African-American Women, Morrow (New York, NY), 1983.
ALTRO
* The System of Dante's Hell (novel; includes the play Dante), Grove (New York, NY), 1965.
* (Author of introduction) David Henderson, Felix of the Silent Forest, Poets Press, 1967.
* Striptease, Parallax, 1967.
* Tales (short stories), Grove (New York, NY), 1967.
* (Author of preface) Black Boogaloo (Notes on Black Liberation), Journal of Black Poetry Press, 1969.
* Focus on Amiri Baraka: Playwright LeRoi Jones Analyzes the 1st National Black Political Convention (sound recording), Center for Cassette Studies, 1973.
* Three Books by Imamu Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones), (contains The System of Dante's Hell, Tales, and The Dead Lecturer), Grove (New York, NY), 1975.
* Selected Plays and Prose of Amiri Baraka/LeRoi Jones, Morrow (New York, NY), 1979.
* The Autobiography of LeRoi Jones/ Amiri Baraka, Freundlich, 1984, Lawrence Hill Books (Chicago, IL), 1997.
* (Author of introduction) Martin Espada, Rebellion Is the Circle of a Lover's Hand, Curbstone Press, 1990.
* (Author of introduction) Eliot Katz, Space, and Other Poems, Northern Lights, 1990.
* The LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka Reader, Thunder's Mouth Press, 1991.
* Thornton Dial: Images of the Tiger, Harry N. Abrams (New York, NY), 1993.
* Jesse Jackson and Black People, Third World Press, 1994.
* Shy's Wise, Y's: The Griot's Tale, Third World Press, 1994.
* (With Charlie Reilly) Conversations with Amiri Baraka (also see below), University Press of Mississippi (Jackson, MS), 1994.
* Eulogies, Marsilio Publishers (New York, NY), 1996.
* The Fiction of LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka, foreword by Greg Tate, Lawrence Hill, 2000.
Works represented in anthologies, including A Broadside Treasury, For Malcolm, The New Black Poetry, Nommo, and The Trembling Lamb. Contributor to Black Men in Their Own Words, 2002; contributor to periodicals, including Evergreen Review, Poetry, Downbeat, Metronome, Nation, Negro Digest, and Saturday Review. Editor with Diane Di Prima, The Floating Bear, 1961-63. Baraka's works have been translated into Japanese, Norwegian, Italian, German, French, and Spanish.
LETTURE AGGIUNTIVE
VOLUMI
* Allen, Donald M., and Warren Tallman, editors, Poetics of the New American Poetry, Grove (New York, NY), 1973.
* Anadolu-Okur, Nilgun, Contemporary African American Theater: Afrocentricity in the Works of Larry Neal, Amiri Baraka, and Charles Fuller, Garland (New York, NY), 1997.
* Baraka, Amiri, Tales, Grove (New York, NY), 1967.
* Baraka, Amiri, Black Magic: Sabotage; Target Study; Black Art; Collected Poetry, 1961-1967, Bobbs-Merrill (New York, NY), 1969.
* Baraka, Amiri, The Autobiography of LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka, Freundlich Books, 1984.
* Baraka, Amiri, and Charlie Reilly, Conversations with Amiri Baraka, University Press of Mississippi (Jackson, MS), 1994.
* Baraka, Amiri, and Larry Neal, editors, Black Fire: An Anthology of Afro-American Writing, Morrow (New York, NY), 1968.
* Benston, Kimberly A., editor, Baraka: The Renegade and the Mask, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT), 1976.
* Benston, Kimberly A., editor, Imamu Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones): A Collection of Critical Essays, Prentice-Hall, 1978.
* Bigsby, C. W. E., Confrontation and Commitment: A Study of Contemporary American Drama, 1959-1966, University of Missouri Press, 1968.
* Bigsby, C. W. E., The Second Black Renaissance: Essays in Black Literature, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 1980.
* Bigsby, C. W. E., editor, The Black American Writer, Volume II: Poetry and Drama, Everett/ Edwards, 1970, Penguin (Harmondsworth, England), 1971.
* Birnebaum, William M., Something for Everybody Is Not Enough, Random House (New York, NY), 1972.
* Black Literature Criticism, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1991.
* Brown, Lloyd W., Amiri Baraka, Twayne (New York, NY), 1980.
* Concise Dictionary of American Literary Biography, Volume 1: The New Consciousness, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1987.
* Contemporary Literary Criticism, Gale (Detroit, MI), Volume 1, 1973, Volume 2, 1974, Volume 3, 1975, Volume 5, 1976, Volume 10, 1979, Volume 14, 1980, Volume 33, 1985.
* Cook, Bruce, The Beat Generation, Scribner (New York, NY), 1971.
* Dace, Letitia, LeRoi Jones (Imamu Amiri Baraka): A Checklist of Works by and about Him, Nether Press, 1971.
* Debusscher, Gilbert, and Henry I. Schvey, editors, New Essays on American Drama, Rodopi, 1989.
* Dictionary of Literary Biography, Gale (Detroit, MI), Volume 5: American Poets since World War II, 1980, Volume 7: Twentieth-Century American Dramatists, 1981, Volume 16: The Beats; Literary Bohemians in Postwar America, 1983, Volume 38: Afro-American Writers after 1955: Dramatists and Prose Writers, 1985.
* Dukore, Bernard F., Drama and Revolution, Holt (New York, NY), 1971.
* Elam, Harry Justin, Taking It to the Streets: The Social Protest Theater of Luis Valdez and Amiri Baraka, University of Michigan Press (Ann Arbor, MI), 1997.
* Ellison, Ralph, Shadow and Act, New American Library (New York, NY), 1966.
* Emanuel, James A., and Theodore L. Gross, editors, Dark Symphony: Negro Literature in America, Free Press (New York, NY), 1968.
* Fox, Robert Elliot, Conscientious Sorcerers: The Black Postmodernist Fiction of LeRoi Jones/ Baraka, Ishmael Reed, and Samuel R. Delany, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 1987.
* Frost, David, The Americans, Stein & Day, 1970.
* Gayle, Addison, The Way of the New World: The Black Novel in America, Anchor/Doubleday (New York, NY), 1975.
* Gayle, Addison, editor, Black Expression: Essays by and about Black Americans in the Creative Arts, Weybright & Talley, 1969.
* Gwynne, James B., editor, Amiri Baraka: The Kaleidoscopic Torch, Steppingstones Press, 1985.
* Harris, William J., The Poetry and Poetics of Amiri Baraka: The Jazz Aesthetic, University of Missouri Press, 1985.
* Haskins, James, Black Theater in America, Crowell (New York, NY), 1982.
* Henderson, Stephen E., Understanding the New Black Poetry: Black Speech, and Black Music as Poetic References, Morrow (New York, NY), 1973.
* Hill, Herbert, Soon, One Morning, Knopf (New York, NY), 1963.
* Hill, Herbert, editor, Anger, and Beyond: The Negro Writer in the United States, Harper (New York, NY), 1966.
* Hudson, Theodore, From LeRoi Jones to Amiri Baraka: The Literary Works, Duke University Press, 1973.
* Inge, M. Thomas, Maurice Duke, and Jackson R. Bryer, editors, Black American Writers: Bibliographic Essays; Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, and Amiri Baraka, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1978.
* Jones, LeRoi, Blues People: Negro Music in White America, Morrow (New York, NY), 1963.
* Jones, LeRoi, The Dead Lecturer, Grove (New York, NY), 1964.
* Jones, LeRoi, Home: Social Essays, Morrow (New York, NY), 1966.
* Keil, Charles, Urban Blues, University of Chicago Press (Chicago, IL), 1966.
* King, Woodie, and Ron Milner, editors, Black Drama Anthology, New American Library (New York, NY), 1971.
* Knight, Arthur, and Kit Knight, editors, The Beat Vision, Paragon House, 1987.
* Kofsky, Frank, Black Nationalism and the Revolution in Music, Pathfinder, 1970.
* Lacey, Henry C., To Raise, Destroy, and Create: The Poetry, Drama, and Fiction of Imamu Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones), Whitson Publishing Company, 1981.
* Lewis, Allan, American Plays and Playwrights, Crown (New York, NY), 1965.
* Littlejohn, David, Black on White: A Critical Survey of Writing by American Negroes, Viking (New York, NY), 1966.
* O'Brien, John, Interviews with Black Writers, Liveright (New York, NY), 1973.
* Olaniyan, Tejumola, Scars of Conquest/Masks of Resistance: The Invention of Cultural Identities in African, African-American, and Caribbean Drama, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1995.
* Ossman, David, The Sullen Art: Interviews with Modern American Poets, Corinth, 1963.
* Rexroth, Kenneth, With Eye and Ear, Herder & Herder, 1970.
* Rosenthal, M. L., The New Poets: American and British Poetry since World War II, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1967.
* Sollors, Werner, Amiri Baraka/ LeRoi Jones: The Quest for a "Populist Modernism," Columbia University Press (New York, NY), 1978.
* Stepanchev, Stephen, American Poetry since 1945, Harper (New York, NY), 1965.
* Weales, Gerald, The Jumping-off Place: American Drama in the 1960s, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1969.
* Whitlow, Roger, Black American Literature: A Critical History, Nelson Hall (New York, NY), 1973.
* Williams, Sherley Anne, Give Birth to Brightness: A Thematic Study in Neo-Black Literature, Dial (New York, NY), 1972.
PERIODICI
* African-American Review, summer-fall, 2003, special Baraka issue.
* American Book Review, February, 1980; May-June, 1985.
* Atlantic, January, 1966; May, 1966.
* Avant Garde, September, 1968.
* Black American Literature Forum, spring, 1980; spring, 1981; fall, 1982; spring, 1983; winter, 1985.
* Black Issues Book Review, Robert Fleming, "Trouble Man," p. 22.
* Black World, April, 1971; December, 1971; November, 1974; July, 1975.
* Booklist, January 1, 1994, p. 799; February 15, 1994, p. 1052; October 15, 1995, p. 380.
* Book Week, December 24, 1967.
* Book World, October 28, 1979.
* Boundary 2, number 6, 1978.
* Callaloo, summer, 2003, Matthew Rebhorn, "Flying Dutchman: Maosochism, Minstrelsy, and the Gender Politics of Amiri Baraka's 'Dutchman', " p. 796.
* Chicago Defender, January 11, 1965.
* Chicago Tribune, October 4, 1968.
* Commentary, February, 1965.
* Contemporary Literature, Volume 12, 1971; winter, 2001, Michael Magee, "Tribes of New York," p. 694.
* Detroit Free Press, January 31, 1965.
* Detroit News, January 15, 1984; August 12, 1984.
* Dissent, spring, 1965.
* Ebony, August, 1967; August, 1969; February, 1971.
* Educational Theatre Journal, March, 1968; March, 1970; March, 1976.
* Esquire, June, 1966.
* Essence, September, 1970; May, 1984; September, 1984; May, 1985.
* Jazz Review, June, 1959.
* Journal of Black Poetry, fall, 1968; spring, 1969; summer, 1969; fall, 1969.
* Library Journal, January, 1994, p. 112; November, 1995, pp. 78-79.
* Los Angeles Free Press, Volume 5, number 18, May 3, 1968.
* Los Angeles Times, April 20, 1990.
* Los Angeles Times Book Review, May 15, 1983; March 29, 1987.
* Nation, October 14, 1961; November 14, 1961; March 13, 1964; April 13, 1964; January 4, 1965; March 15, 1965; January 22, 1968; February 2, 1970; November 18, 2002, Art Winslow, "Prosody in Motion," p. 11.
* Negro American Literature Forum, March, 1966; winter, 1973.
* Negro Digest, December, 1963; February, 1964; Volume 13, number 19, August, 1964; March, 1965; April, 1965; March, 1966; April, 1966; June, 1966; April, 1967; April, 1968; January, 1969; April, 1969.
* Newsweek, March 13, 1964; April 13, 1964; November 22, 1965; May 2, 1966; March 6, 1967; December 4, 1967; December 1, 1969; February 19, 1973.
* New York, November 5, 1979.
* New Yorker, April 4, 1964; December 26, 1964; March 4, 1967; December 30, 1972; October 14, 2002, Nick Paumgarten, "Goodbye, Paramus."
* New York Herald Tribune, March 25, 1964; April 2, 1964; December 13, 1964; October 27, 1965.
* New York Post, March 16, 1964; March 24, 1964; January 15, 1965; March 18, 1965.
* New York Review of Books, May 22, 1964; January 20, 1966; July 2, 1970; October 17, 1974; June 11, 1984; June 14, 1984.
* New York Times, April 28, 1966; May 8, 1966; August 10, 1966; September 14, 1966; October 5, 1966; January 20, 1967; February 28, 1967; July 15, 1967; January 5, 1968; January 6, 1968; January 9, 1968; January 10, 1968; February 7, 1968; April 14, 1968; August 16, 1968; November 27, 1968; December 24, 1968; August 26, 1969; November 23, 1969; February 6, 1970; May 11, 1972; June 11, 1972; November 11, 1972; November 14, 1972; November 23, 1972; December 5, 1972; December 27, 1974; December 29, 1974; November 19, 1979; October 15, 1981; January 23, 1984; February 9, 1991.
* New York Times Book Review, January 31, 1965; November 28, 1965; May 8, 1966; February 4, 1968; March 17, 1968; February 14, 1971; June 6, 1971; June 27, 1971; December 5, 1971; March 12, 1972; December 16, 1979; March 11, 1984; July 5, 1987; December 20, 1987.
* New York Times Magazine, February 5, 1984.
* Salmagundi, spring-summer, 1973.
* Saturday Review, April 20, 1963; January 11, 1964; January 9, 1965; December 11, 1965; December 9, 1967; October 2, 1971; July 12, 1975.
* Skeptical Inquirer, January-February, 2003, Kevin Christopher, "Baraka Buys Bunk," p. 8.
* Studies in Black Literature, spring, 1970; Volume 1, number 2, 1970; Volume 3, number 2, 1972; Volume 3, number 3, 1972; Volume 4, number 1, 1973.
* Sulfur, spring, 1992.
* Sunday News (New York, NY), January 21, 1973.
* Time, December 25, 1964; November 19, 1965; May 6, 1966; January 12, 1968; April 26, 1968; June 28, 1968; June 28, 1971.
* Times Literary Supplement, November 25, 1965; September 1, 1966; September 11, 1969; October 9, 1969; August 2, 1991.
* Tribune Books (Chicago, IL), March 29, 1987.
* Village Voice, December 17, 1964; May 6, 1965; May 19, 1965; August 30, 1976; August 1, 1977; December 17-23, 1980; October 2, 1984.
* Washington Post, August 15, 1968; September 12, 1968; November 27, 1968; December 5, 1980; January 23, 1981; June 29, 1987.
* Washington Post Book World, December 24, 1967; May 22, 1983.
ONLINE
* Academy of American Poets Web site, http://www.poets.org/ (July 19, 2001), "Amiri Baraka."
* Amiri Baraka Home Page, http://www.amiribaraka.com/ (July 25, 2006).
Poeta, narratore, scrittore di teatro, saggista, critico musicale, editore e attivista politico: questi sono i volti di Amiri Baraka, alias LeRoi Jones. Nato a Newark, in New Jersey, dopo gli studi universitari e alcuni anni nell’aviazione americana, si trasferì a New York dove frequentò negli anni Sessanta i circolo artistici del Greenwich Village. Insieme alla moglie diresse la rivista letteraria d’avanguardia “Yugen” e fondò la casa editrice Totem Press, dove uscirono, fra l’altro, le prime opere di Allen Ginsberg e Jack Kerouac. Il suo libro d’esordio, Preface to a Twenty-Volume Suicide Note (Prefazione a una nota suicida in venti volumi) è del 1961. Del 1963 è il suo celebre studio sulla storia della musica afroamericana, Blues People (il popolo del blues, 1963), di cui è uscita una nuova edizione italiana nel 203. Con il dramma Dutchman and the Slave (“L’Olandese e lo schiavo”), rappresentato al Cherry Lane Theatre di New York nel 1964 e vincitore di un premio per la migliore opera off Broadway, si affermò come autore di teatro. Nel 1965, a seguito dell’assassinio di Malcom X, diede una svolta radicale alla sua vita, rompendo il matrimonia e trasferendosi ad Harlem dove fondò il Black Arts repertory Theatre. Nel 1967 sposò la poetessa afroamericana Sylvia Robinson (Amina Baraka) e a Newark diede vita alla compagnia Spirit House che mise in scena opere di Baraka, ormai vicino al partito delle antere Nere, con forti connotazioni politiche. Nel 1968 divenne musulmano e prese il nome Amiri Baraka mettendosi a capo della sua organizzazione musulmana Kawaida come imamu (leader spirituale), un titolo che abbandonò negli anni Settanta avvicinandosi alla filosofia marxista. È stato anche il fondatore del Congress of African People, un’organizzazione panafricana. Baraka, a cui sono andati numerosi riconoscimenti, ha insegnato in diverse università e ha conquistato con i suoi reading un pubblico internazionale. La sua poesia, partita con obiettivi puramente estetici, è andata via via riflettendo le sue scelte politiche e ha messo in questione il ruolo dell’arte e dell’artista. «Ho sempre pensato alla scrittura come ad un’arte morale – ha scritto Baraka –, vedo cioè l’artista come un moralista che esige una costruzione morale del mondo e chiede un’immagine più pulita della società». Nei suoi versi, che talvolta sembrano precorrere ritmi rap e hip-hop, è anche trasfusa la sua passione per il blues e il jazz.
Antonella Francini

(da La Biblioteca di Repubblica, Poesia straniera, Americana, 2004)