Description
The controversial American poet and writer Amiri Baraka was known as LeRoi Jones until 1968 when, as a consequence of his estrangement from America and his adoption of black nationalist politics, he converted to Islam. From its beginnings in the 1950s, Baraka’s poetry was always political, as he used it to chart the history of black oppression in America. Stylistically he was influenced by Beat poets like Allen Ginsberg, writing incantatory, ecstatic verse that he directed toward the cause of African American rebellion; at one point he explicitly said he did not write to, nor did he want, a white audience. Yet a series of powerfully wrought works like Blues People (1963) and Slave Ship (1970) forced America to reckon with both Baraka and the cause he represented.
Image
Gelatin Silver Print
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
