Radical, controversial, influential, Amiri Baraka is one of the most sought-after speakers on the university and college scene. Howard University is proud to call Baraka a member of the world of African- American literature and culture.Commenting on issues that are deeply painful to the African-American community, Baraka addresses the topic of race relations in a sharp and unforgiving manner. Drawing from his own life experiences, he gives us a raw look at life as an African-American male in the United States:

I am inside someone

who hates me. I look

out from his eyes. Smell

what fouled tunes come in

to his breath. Love his

wretched woman.

(from "An Agony. As Now.")

Born Everette Leroy Jones on October 7, 1934, Baraka grew up in Newark, New Jersey. A quick wit and steady student, he tried his hand at a comic strip in elementary school, wrote science fiction in high school, and topped it off by graduating from high school at age fifteen. Initially accepted to Rutgers, Baraka transferred to Howard where he majored in English. While at H.U., Baraka believed the administrators and professors pushed an "assimilationist" education on the students. He said, "[T]he Howard thing let me understand the Negro sickness. They teach you how to pretend to be white." He joined the Air Force ("the Air Force made me understand the white sickness"), served for three years, then relocated to New York City. There, Baraka studied at the New School for Social Research as well as Columbia University, where he completed an M.A. in Philosophy. While teaching at area universities and as a member of the Beat Movement, Baraka established a reputation as a poet, editor, jazz critic, and playwright. It was during this time that Baraka (under the name "Jones") wrote the critically acclaimed collection of poems Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note...(1961), Blues People: Negro Music in White America(1963), an examination of contemporary African-American music, and the startling play Dutchman (1964), which won an Obie Award. Moving in predominantly white circles, however, Baraka never totally assimilated. Eventually, he left his white wife and life in Greenwich Village and started afresh in Harlem.

In Harlem, Baraka became involved with the Black Nationalist movement and shifted his literary focus to the lives and interests of the Black community. Founder of the Black Arts Repertory Theater/School, he officially changed his name to Imamu ("spiritual leader") Ameer ("blessed") Baraka ("prince"), a name subsequently simplified to Amiri Baraka. However, in the mid-seventies, Baraka severed all ties with the Black Nationalist movement and discovered his political stride in Marxist thought and the Communist movement. A trip to Cuba in 1960 had left a strong impression on Baraka personally and politically. He said, "Cuba split me open." Still a very respected creative writer and music critic, Baraka continues to advocate the Socialist cause. His present literary goal, in his own words: "I have to try and develop my own work so I can become more clearly and firmly a Marxist writer."

Essay by Allison Bolah of Howard University