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Amiri Baraka Papers (1945 - 2014)
Collection IDMS #1482
Size219.5 linear feet (151 boxes)
Collection Description
Amiri Baraka (Everett LeRoi Jones) was born on October 7, 1934 in Newark to Coyt Leverette and Anna Lois Jones, a postal supervisor and a social worker. In 1952 Baraka entered Howard University, leaving before graduating. He subsequently studied at both Columbia University and the New School for Social Research in New York City, also without taking a degree. In 1954 he entered the U.S. Air Force as a gunner, stationed in Puerto Rico. Reaching the rank of sergeant, he served until 1957, when he was dishonorably discharged for the possession of prohibited political literature.
Settling in Greenwich Village, Baraka became active in the Downtown literary, arts, and music scenes, and began editing, publishing, and writing poetry. He became more prominent with the 1963 publication of his major study of blues and African-American music, "Blues People: Negro Music in White America," and his editorship of "The Moderns: An Anthology of New Writing in America." The production of his play "The Dutchman" at the Cherry Lane Theatre in New York in 1964 brought him to the attention of the drama world, and the play later won an Obie award for Best Off-Broadway Play, and a film version was made by Anthony Harvey in 1966.
Following the assassination of Malcolm X in 1965, Baraka declared himself a Black cultural nationalist. After leaving his first wife, Hettie, and their children and moving to Harlem, he founded and directed the Black Arts Repertory Theatre-School and published his first and only novel, "The System of Dante's Hell," before moving back to Newark.
In 1966 Baraka married Sylvia Robinson, and in the following year they adopted the Bantuized Muslim names of Imamu ("spiritual leader," subsequently dropped) Ameer ("Prince," later Amiri) Baraka ("blessed") and Amina Baraka. Baraka also began teaching at San Francisco State University, where he began an association with cultural nationalist leader Ron Karenga.
Durng the Newark riots/rebellion of July 1967, Baraka was arrested and badly beaten by police, who charged him with unlawful weapons possession and resisting arrest. He was convicted of a misdemeanor in November 1967, but the conviction was reversed on appeal. During this period, Baraka's political organizing became more intense, and in 1970 he helped elect <span class="highlight_word">Kennethspan> A. Gibson as the first African-American mayor of Newark. He also worked as an organizer and participant in the Congress of African Peoples, which met in Atlanta, Georgia, and the National Black Political Convention held in Gary, Indiana in 1972.
In 1979, Baraka became a lecturer in the Africana Studies Department at SUNY-Stony Brook. In the same year he was arrested during an altercation with Amina and sentenced to 48 weekends in a Harlem halfway house, during which he wrote "The Autobiography of LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka," first published in 1984. In 1984 Amiri and Amina Baraka founded Kimako's Blues People, a multimedia arts space located in their house in Newark.
In 1990 Baraka became active in a campaign to achieve curriculum reform in the Newark public schools. In the same year he was denied tenure at Rutgers University-Newark, an occurrence that became a major rallying point for anti-racism activism on the campus.
In 2002, New Jersey governor James McGreevey named Baraka as the state's first Poet Laureate. Soon after, he became embroiled in a bitter controversy over his September 11th poem "Somebody Blew Up America," which critics denounced as anti-American and antisemitic. Unable to remove Baraka from the position, Governor McGreevey and the State Legislature ultimately abolished the post of Poet Laureate. Baraka was subsequently named Poet Laureate of the Newark Public School System. Over the course of his career, Baraka received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, the PEN/Faulkner Award, a Rockefeller Foundation Award for Drama, the Langston Hughes Award from The City College of New York, and a lifetime achievement award from the Before Columbus Foundation.
Amiri Baraka died on January 9, 2014, in Newark, after being hospitalized several times in the month prior to his death. He had struggled for a long period with diabetes and died from complications following surgery. His funeral was held at Newark's Symphony Hall on January 18, 2014.
Settling in Greenwich Village, Baraka became active in the Downtown literary, arts, and music scenes, and began editing, publishing, and writing poetry. He became more prominent with the 1963 publication of his major study of blues and African-American music, "Blues People: Negro Music in White America," and his editorship of "The Moderns: An Anthology of New Writing in America." The production of his play "The Dutchman" at the Cherry Lane Theatre in New York in 1964 brought him to the attention of the drama world, and the play later won an Obie award for Best Off-Broadway Play, and a film version was made by Anthony Harvey in 1966.
Following the assassination of Malcolm X in 1965, Baraka declared himself a Black cultural nationalist. After leaving his first wife, Hettie, and their children and moving to Harlem, he founded and directed the Black Arts Repertory Theatre-School and published his first and only novel, "The System of Dante's Hell," before moving back to Newark.
In 1966 Baraka married Sylvia Robinson, and in the following year they adopted the Bantuized Muslim names of Imamu ("spiritual leader," subsequently dropped) Ameer ("Prince," later Amiri) Baraka ("blessed") and Amina Baraka. Baraka also began teaching at San Francisco State University, where he began an association with cultural nationalist leader Ron Karenga.
Durng the Newark riots/rebellion of July 1967, Baraka was arrested and badly beaten by police, who charged him with unlawful weapons possession and resisting arrest. He was convicted of a misdemeanor in November 1967, but the conviction was reversed on appeal. During this period, Baraka's political organizing became more intense, and in 1970 he helped elect <span class="highlight_word">Kennethspan> A. Gibson as the first African-American mayor of Newark. He also worked as an organizer and participant in the Congress of African Peoples, which met in Atlanta, Georgia, and the National Black Political Convention held in Gary, Indiana in 1972.
In 1979, Baraka became a lecturer in the Africana Studies Department at SUNY-Stony Brook. In the same year he was arrested during an altercation with Amina and sentenced to 48 weekends in a Harlem halfway house, during which he wrote "The Autobiography of LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka," first published in 1984. In 1984 Amiri and Amina Baraka founded Kimako's Blues People, a multimedia arts space located in their house in Newark.
In 1990 Baraka became active in a campaign to achieve curriculum reform in the Newark public schools. In the same year he was denied tenure at Rutgers University-Newark, an occurrence that became a major rallying point for anti-racism activism on the campus.
In 2002, New Jersey governor James McGreevey named Baraka as the state's first Poet Laureate. Soon after, he became embroiled in a bitter controversy over his September 11th poem "Somebody Blew Up America," which critics denounced as anti-American and antisemitic. Unable to remove Baraka from the position, Governor McGreevey and the State Legislature ultimately abolished the post of Poet Laureate. Baraka was subsequently named Poet Laureate of the Newark Public School System. Over the course of his career, Baraka received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, the PEN/Faulkner Award, a Rockefeller Foundation Award for Drama, the Langston Hughes Award from The City College of New York, and a lifetime achievement award from the Before Columbus Foundation.
Amiri Baraka died on January 9, 2014, in Newark, after being hospitalized several times in the month prior to his death. He had struggled for a long period with diabetes and died from complications following surgery. His funeral was held at Newark's Symphony Hall on January 18, 2014.
Collection Contents
The Baraka Papers contain correspondence, writings, and miscellaneous material relating to Amiri Baraka's career as a poet, writer, editor, activist, teacher, and participant in the New York City Beat, Downtown, and Black Arts literary scenes from the 1960s through the 2000s. Included are manuscripts of Baraka's numerous books of poetry, non-fiction, fiction, plays, editorial projects, and screenplays. Also included are audio/visual materials, photographs, and printed items created or collected by Baraka. The collection is especially rich in material relating to Newark-based black radical activism and cultural life.
The collection is arranged in 8 series, all containing Newark-related items, as follows:
Series I: Correspondence, 1945-2007. Contains personal and business correspondence to and from Baraka. The materials, including printed emails, include correspondence from Baraka's immediate family. Correspondents include notable cultural figures such as Allen Ginsberg and Nina Simone.
Series II: Writings, 1958-2009. Includes notes, drafts, correspondence, and editorial material pertaining to much of Baraka's published and un-published work, primarily post-1973. Also present are drafts and research material for the poem "Somebody Blew Up America," as well as drafts of essays, correspondence, petitions of support, and clippings about the subsequent New Jersey Poet Laureate controversy. Finally, there is a large body of writings -- fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and plays -- by others.
Series III: Teaching, 1976-2006. Contains materials relating to Baraka's long career as a teacher at various colleges and universities, mostly in the New York City area. Included are course descriptions, syllabi, rosters, correspondence with other faculty and administration, grades and graded tests and papers (currently restricted), and financial documents. The bulk of the items in this series are from Baraka's time at SUNY-Stony Brook (including material pertaining to his anti-apartheid activism) and Rutgers-Newark, with much material about the controversy over his tenure denial.
Series IV: Activism, 1967-2006. Files on political and cultural activism include organizational material, meeting minutes, writings, research reports, flyers, and other printed material relating to Baraka's work with groups such as the Congress of Afrikan People, the Black Radical Congress, the Afrikan Free School, the Baraka Defense Committee, the Committee for a Unified Newark, the Lincoln Park Coast Cultural District, and various Newark governmental and arts organizations including the public schools and city government. It also contains campaign materials relating to political campaigns of Baraka's son, Ras Baraka, who was elected mayor of Newark in 2014.
Series V: Kimako's Blues People, 1987-2004. Contains material relating to Kimako's Blues People, a small club, music and performance venue, arts space, and salon operated out of the Barakas basement in Newark. Included are writings about KBP, correspondence, organizational materials, photographs, flyers, and clippings.
Series VI: Personal, 1956-2014. The bulk of this series consists of Baraka's handwritten notebooks, notes, planners, and calendars. Another major grouping pertains to Baraka's family. The rest of the series consists of financial, legal, and medical documents, photographs and printed material relating to major events in Baraka's life, and FBI files on Baraka aquired through the Freedom of Information Act. Finally, there are some subject files relating to Baraka's research and writing interests.
Series VII: Audio/Visual, Visual Art, and Photographic Material, 1950-2007. Includes audiocassettes, film reels, DVDs, CDs, and graphic art, both made by Baraka and by others. The series is arranged by medium. The photographs include portraits of Baraka, as well as images of his family and personal acquaintances, readings and performances, and productions of his plays. The graphic art includes paintings, ink and pencil sketches, and computer generated (MS Paint) work. The bulk of the moving-image material documents Baraka's various political activities throughout the seventies, including his involvement in the Kawaida Towers protests in Newark. . Finally, the audio material consists primarily of produced recordings, not created by Baraka. However, of particular interest is a 1994 recording of a Baraka poetry reading, and a number of copies of a vinyl recording of songs written by Baraka, performed by The Advanced Workers with the Anti-Imperialist Singers. NOTE: Digitized versions of audio and video recordings are available for use on-site in at the Reading Room only.
Series VIII: Printed Material, 1961-2007. Consists of printed materials collected by Baraka, but produced primarily by others. There are large numbers of flyers and print announcements and advertisements for Baraka's readings, lectures, appearances, and publications, as well as non-Baraka events in visual arts, literature, film, and music. There are also many flyers pertaining to political actions. In addition, this series holds clippings and articles about Baraka and a large collection of literary journals, magazines, and newspapers that contain work by Baraka, as well as copies of a number of his broadsides and books. There is also a large general collection of literary journals and little magazines, as well as many socialist, Maoist, and other radical magazines, journals, newsletters, and newspapers from the 1960s through the 2000s.
The collection is arranged in 8 series, all containing Newark-related items, as follows:
Series I: Correspondence, 1945-2007. Contains personal and business correspondence to and from Baraka. The materials, including printed emails, include correspondence from Baraka's immediate family. Correspondents include notable cultural figures such as Allen Ginsberg and Nina Simone.
Series II: Writings, 1958-2009. Includes notes, drafts, correspondence, and editorial material pertaining to much of Baraka's published and un-published work, primarily post-1973. Also present are drafts and research material for the poem "Somebody Blew Up America," as well as drafts of essays, correspondence, petitions of support, and clippings about the subsequent New Jersey Poet Laureate controversy. Finally, there is a large body of writings -- fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and plays -- by others.
Series III: Teaching, 1976-2006. Contains materials relating to Baraka's long career as a teacher at various colleges and universities, mostly in the New York City area. Included are course descriptions, syllabi, rosters, correspondence with other faculty and administration, grades and graded tests and papers (currently restricted), and financial documents. The bulk of the items in this series are from Baraka's time at SUNY-Stony Brook (including material pertaining to his anti-apartheid activism) and Rutgers-Newark, with much material about the controversy over his tenure denial.
Series IV: Activism, 1967-2006. Files on political and cultural activism include organizational material, meeting minutes, writings, research reports, flyers, and other printed material relating to Baraka's work with groups such as the Congress of Afrikan People, the Black Radical Congress, the Afrikan Free School, the Baraka Defense Committee, the Committee for a Unified Newark, the Lincoln Park Coast Cultural District, and various Newark governmental and arts organizations including the public schools and city government. It also contains campaign materials relating to political campaigns of Baraka's son, Ras Baraka, who was elected mayor of Newark in 2014.
Series V: Kimako's Blues People, 1987-2004. Contains material relating to Kimako's Blues People, a small club, music and performance venue, arts space, and salon operated out of the Barakas basement in Newark. Included are writings about KBP, correspondence, organizational materials, photographs, flyers, and clippings.
Series VI: Personal, 1956-2014. The bulk of this series consists of Baraka's handwritten notebooks, notes, planners, and calendars. Another major grouping pertains to Baraka's family. The rest of the series consists of financial, legal, and medical documents, photographs and printed material relating to major events in Baraka's life, and FBI files on Baraka aquired through the Freedom of Information Act. Finally, there are some subject files relating to Baraka's research and writing interests.
Series VII: Audio/Visual, Visual Art, and Photographic Material, 1950-2007. Includes audiocassettes, film reels, DVDs, CDs, and graphic art, both made by Baraka and by others. The series is arranged by medium. The photographs include portraits of Baraka, as well as images of his family and personal acquaintances, readings and performances, and productions of his plays. The graphic art includes paintings, ink and pencil sketches, and computer generated (MS Paint) work. The bulk of the moving-image material documents Baraka's various political activities throughout the seventies, including his involvement in the Kawaida Towers protests in Newark. . Finally, the audio material consists primarily of produced recordings, not created by Baraka. However, of particular interest is a 1994 recording of a Baraka poetry reading, and a number of copies of a vinyl recording of songs written by Baraka, performed by The Advanced Workers with the Anti-Imperialist Singers. NOTE: Digitized versions of audio and video recordings are available for use on-site in at the Reading Room only.
Series VIII: Printed Material, 1961-2007. Consists of printed materials collected by Baraka, but produced primarily by others. There are large numbers of flyers and print announcements and advertisements for Baraka's readings, lectures, appearances, and publications, as well as non-Baraka events in visual arts, literature, film, and music. There are also many flyers pertaining to political actions. In addition, this series holds clippings and articles about Baraka and a large collection of literary journals, magazines, and newspapers that contain work by Baraka, as well as copies of a number of his broadsides and books. There is also a large general collection of literary journals and little magazines, as well as many socialist, Maoist, and other radical magazines, journals, newsletters, and newspapers from the 1960s through the 2000s.
FormatsAudio materials; Graphics; Moving images; Photographic materials; Textual materials
SubjectsAfrican-American History / Civil Rights; Literature / Authors; Music; Politics and Government; Theater / Performing Arts
Time Periods20th Century; 21st Century
LanguageEnglish
Access policyOpen for research, with restrictions
ProcessedPartially
Finding AidYes