Product Description

Amiri Baraka - dramatist, poet, essayist, orator, and fiction writer - is one of the preeminent African-American literary figures of our time. The Leroi Jones/Amiri Baraka Reader provides the most comprehensive selection of Baraka's work to date, spanning almost 40 years of a brilliant, prolific, and controversial career, in which he has produced more than 12 books of poetry, 26 plays, eight collections of essays and speeches, and two books of fiction. This updated edition contains over 50 pages of previously unpublished work, as well as a chronology and full bibliography.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #165190 in Books
• Published on: 1999-11-21
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 624 pages

From Publishers Weekly
In his eulogy of James Baldwin--one of this anthology's previously unpublished works--Baraka writes that Baldwin was "turned all the way up, receiving and broadcasting . . . ." The same can be said of Baraka. For more than 30 years he has been one of our most self-revising, self-assertive writers. Culling representative samples of his oeuvre, this expertly edited volume reflects Baraka's bold ventures and about-faces. The poems of 1964's The Dead Lecturer tick like small explosives. Selections from 1963's Blues People and 1968's Black Music reveal Baraka as a superb, learned critic. With remarkable candor, an excerpt from Baraka's 1984 autobiography scrutinizes his Black Arts period. Notable among the new pieces is "Why's / wise," a long poem that unfolds the story of how African-Americans' appropriation of English led to the rich oral languages of blues and jazz, from which so much of Baraka's own work proceeds. The story of Baraka's metamorphoses is itself part of the story of contemporary literature's development. Anyone seeking to understand either will find this volume indispensable. Harris wrote The Poetry and Poetics of Amiri Baraka.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Baraka is a writer who readily embraces change, and this collection reflects a life full of changes beginning with something as fundamental as a change in name. The selections included are arranged chronologically in four distinct periods: The Beat Period (1957-62), The Transitional Period (1963-65), The Black Nationalist Period (1965-74), and The Third World Marxist Period (1974-present). Editor Harris, in collaboration with Baraka, has chosen representative examples of Baraka's poems, plays, jazz writings, and social criticism. Among several new works are a eulogy for James Baldwin and an emotional analysis of Jesse Jackson's role in Democratic politics. Essential for all literature collections.
- William Gargan, Brooklyn Coll. Lib., CUNY
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
Afrikan Revolution
An Agony. As Now
Am/trak
Black Art
Black Dada Nihilismus
Citizen Cain
A Contract (for The Destruction & Rebuilding Of Patterson)
Crow Jane: Crow Jane In High Society
Crow Jane: Crow Jane The Crook
Crow Jane: Crow Jane's Manner
Crow Jane: For Crow Jane, Mama Death
Crow Jane: The Dead Lady Canonized
Das Kapital
The Dictatorship Of The Prolitariat
Dope
Hymn For Lanie Poo
I Substitute For The Dead Lecturer
In Memory Of Radio
In The Tradition (for Black Arthur Blythe)
It's Nation Time
Ka 'ba
Leadbelly Gives An Autograph
Leroy
The Liar
Look For You Yesterday, Here You Come Today
A New Reality Is Better Than A New Movie!
Notes For A Speech
Numbers, Letters
A Poem For Black Hearts
A Poem For Deep Thinkers
Poem For Halfwhite College Students
A Poem For Willie Best
A Poem Some People Will Have To Understand
Political Poem
The Politics Of Rich Painters
Preface To A Twenty Volume Suicide Note
Pres Spoke In A Language
Return Of The Native
Rhythmn & Blues (1 (for Robert Williams, In Exile)
Short Speech To My Friends
Sos
T.t. Jackson Sings
W.w.
Western Front
When We'll Worship Jesus
Why's/wise: Wise 1
Why's/wise: Wise 10
Why's/wise: Wise 11. Rough Hand Dreamers
Why's/wise: Wise 12. A Farmer Come To The City
Why's/wise: Wise 13
Why's/wise: Wise 2
Why's/wise: Wise 3
Why's/wise: Wise 4
Why's/wise: Wise 5
Why's/wise: Wise 6
Why's/wise: Wise 7
Why's/wise: Wise 8
Why's/wise: Wise 9
The World Is Full Of Remarkable Things
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

Customer Reviews

An amazing man!
Buy this book. It's that simple. This book provides the reader with a developmental history of one of the greatest LIVING revolutionary minds this country has ever produced. He hits you in the heart without bashing you over the head. You may not agree with everything he says, or how he may have lived portions of his life, but you will be affected (in some capacity) by his wit, intelligence and the fierceness of his conventions. A must for anyone who thinks that they are " a radical" or "an activist."

This book is rated UR and may not be suitable for un-realistic audiences.

Powerful words, and rasie race
I thought that this followed in Amiri baraka footsetps, as a more provacative and honest edition than the others. Very powerful and eye-opening!

The Warrior Poet
this man is the reason why i became a writer. to know leroi jones is to see the struggle etched into his face; to know him is to hear his voice, sometimes reeling with jazz and blues, others, like a hanna-barbera cartoon. he is the struggle continuing, showing you the america, mtv, cnn,and bet refuses to show. he was a beatnik, then a black nationalist and now a maoist, but always a poet. i have met him twice, and was amazed by his brillance each meeting. his words are about freedom. any of his books will tell you that. read all of them.