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American writer of poetry, drama, essays, and music criticism.
1934 - Born Everett LeRoi Jones on 7th of October in Newark, New Jersey.
Studied Philosophy and Religious studies at Rutgers University, Columbia University, and Howard University.
1954 - Baraka joined the U.S. Air Force reaching the rank of sergeant.
1957 - Discharged from United States Air Force service and moved to New York's Greenwich Village.
1958 - Founded Totem Press, which published such Beat icons as Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg.
1960-1963 - Married Hettie Cohen and they became joint editor of the Yugen, a literary magazine.
1960 - Baraka went to Cuba, which initiated his transformation into a politically active artist.
1961 - Published the Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note.
1963 - Published by Blues People: Negro Music in White America.
1964 - His play, The Dutchman, premiered and the he won an Obie Award for it.
1967 - LeRoi Jones adopted the Arabic name, Imamu Amiri Baraka, which he later changed to Amiri Baraka.
- Baraka became a lecturer at San Francisco State University.
1968 - Arrested in Newark, for illegally carrying a weapon.
1970 - He strongly supported Kenneth Gibson's candidacy for mayor of Newark.
1979 - Became a lecturer at SUNY for its Africana Studies Department.
1984 - Baraka became a full professor.
1987 - He was a speaker at the commemoration ceremony for James Baldwin.
1989 - Won an American Book Award for his works as well as a Langston Hughes Award.
1990 - Co-authored the autobiography of Quincy Jones.
1998 - Baraka was a supporting actor as a griot in Warren Beatty's film Bulworth.
2002 - The state of New Jersey made him poet laureate.
Page last updated: 2:08am, 25th Feb '07 |
Related Books
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The LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka Reader by Amiri Baraka (Paperback - Nov 21, 1999) 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... ![]() Usually ships in 24 hours |
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How I Became Hettie Jones by Hettie Jones (Paperback - Dec 6, 1996) Jones' atmospheric prose brings the Beat era to life with more gusto than any previous memoir, thanks to homely details like eating potato pancakes at the Second Avenue Deli and wearing Ukrainian... ![]() Usually ships in 24 hours |
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Transbluesency: The Selected Poetry of Amiri Baraka/LeRoi Jones (1961-1995) (1961-1995) by Amiri Baraka and Imamu Amiri Baraka (Paperback - Oct 1, 1995) The first collection of selected poetry from perhaps the preeminent African American literary figure of our time. Baraka almost single-handedly changed both the nature and the form of post-World War... ![]() Usually ships in 24 hours |
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Tales of the Out&the Gone by LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka) (Paperback - Dec 1, 2006) Comprising short fiction from the early 1970s to the twenty-first century-most of which has never been published-Tales of the Out&the Gonereflects the astounding evolution of America's most... ![]() Usually ships in 24 hours |
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From Leroi Jones to Amiri Baraka: The Literary Works by Theodore C. Hudson (Paperback - Jun 25, 1974) |
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Somebody Blew Up America and Other Poems by Imamu Amiri Baraka (Paperback - Dec 25, 2004) Poetry/American... ![]() |
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