Baraka, Imamu Amiri

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Tales of the Out & the Gone
Imamu Amiri Baraka
Manufacturer: Akashic Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1933354127

Book Description

Comprising short fiction from the early 1970s to the twenty-first century-most of which has never been published-Tales of the Out & the Gone reflects the astounding evolution of America's most provocative literary anti-hero.

The first section of the book, "War Stories," offers six stories enmeshed in the vola-tile politics of the 1970s and 1980s. The second section, "Tales of the Out & the Gone," reveals Amiri Baraka's increasing literary adventurousness, combining an unpredictable language play with a passion for abstraction and psychological exploration.

Book Description

ed P Vangelisti; homages to Monk, Ellington, et al

Transbluesency: The Selected Poetry of Amiri Baraka/LeRoi Jones (1961-1995) (1961-1995)

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word beat
The Life of a Revolutionary Poet

Transbluesency: The Selected Poetry of Amiri Baraka/LeRoi Jones (1961-1995) (1961-1995)
Amiri Baraka , and Imamu Amiri Baraka
Manufacturer: Marsilio Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Criticism | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Cranial Guitar: Selected Poems
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Collected Poems

ASIN: 1568860145

Book Description

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 II African-American literature, and this volume is an important contribution to Modernist literature.

Customer Reviews:

word beat.......2001-01-24

Baraka's "Best Of..." collection is quite simply a must-read for any person with an interest in 20th century poetry. The words almost leap out against you when you open the book, and the language is mind-bending. Try to read these poems aloud to yourself, and you might just get the word-kick of a lifetime. Oop Bop Sh'Bam...

The Life of a Revolutionary Poet.......2000-05-03

This book is not for those sensitive to raw material. But if you're a fan of Mr. Baraka, this book is a 40-year collection, and a definite must for your bookshelf. In the words of Mr. Baraka, "Can you stand such beauty? So violent and transforming." This line from his poem "Return of the Native" encompasses all that is Transbluency. This book is for the true fan of protest poetry. Mr. Baraka uses blues and jazz rhythms as well as the natural essence of words to express himself in amazing ways. I enjoy this book not only because I am a fan, but because it is rare to find a poet who has mastered the art of poetic language and imagery.

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Daggers and Javelins: Essays, 1974-1979
Imamu Amiri Baraka
Manufacturer: William Morrow & Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Transbluesency: The Selected Poems of Amiri Baraka/Leroi Jones (1961-1995)

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Transbluesency: The Selected Poems of Amiri Baraka/Leroi Jones (1961-1995)
Imamu Amiri Baraka
Manufacturer: Marsilio Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Anthologies | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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Book Description

incl long out-of-print chapbooks, broadsides et al

The Fiction of Leroi Jones/Amiri Baraka (The Library of Black America)

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The System of Dante's Hell

The Fiction of Leroi Jones/Amiri Baraka (The Library of Black America)
Imamu Amiri Baraka , and Amiri Barake
Manufacturer: Lawrence Hill Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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The LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka Reader
Transbluesency: The Selected Poetry of Amiri Baraka/LeRoi Jones (1961-1995) (1961-1995)
Tales of the Out & the Gone
New Day in Babylon: The Black Power Movement and American Culture, 1965-1975
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ASIN: 155652353X

Customer Reviews:

The System of Dante's Hell.......2002-02-14

I cannot speak for this entire book, but it seems to be the only way to obtain The System of Dante's Hell these days, and this is a truly great book and a must read.

Amazon.com

First published in 1984, this is a revised edition of The Autobiography of Leroi Jones, which includes the original text (restored by the author) as well as a new introduction. Born Leroi Jones in 1934--he became Amiri Baraka in the mid-1960s---he is one of the seminal figures of contemporary black writing, a poet, playwright, novelist, critic, and political activist. Even more than those labels indicate, however, Baraka has been at the heart of literary and ideological ferment since the 1950s. Early in his career, he was strongly influenced by the Beats. During the cultural upheaval of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s, he moved uptown to Harlem, changed his name, and embraced a religion that was a hybrid of Islam and traditional African principles. And then, in the 1970s, Baraka turned his back on Black Nationalism and embraced Marxist Leninism. The autobiography, written in Baraka's inimitable style, one that we might call word-jazz, ends there.

Customer Reviews:

The Dutchman.......2006-02-23

I've read the script and seen the video. Fascinating, well-written examination of behavior, race, and social standards. Should be more well recognized as a great black writer.

frankness, humor, self-examination ...........1999-08-13

Autobiographies, even by poets, rarely reach the depths of honest self-examination one finds in their poems. One has only to think of Kenneth Rexroth's tall stories or William Carlos Williams' evasions.

But Mr. Baraka's is different. His has been a journey from a middle class background in Newark (keeping in mind that it was not a white middle class), through Howard University's elitist social structure, the racism of the Air Force; his beginnings as a poet & his drift into Charles Olson's powerful gravity. Many of America's best white poets were among his friends & he did much to promote their careers along with his own. Then his turn toward leadership of the great Black Awakening of the Sixties, his move "uptown," his embrace of socialism & subsequent return to Newark where he continues to influence young writers & activists of all colors & ethnic backgrounds.

There are also his controversial plays, his feuds, marriages & arrests. Also his witnessing of the Newark Rebellion (the full deadly story never accurately reported in the press), his deep understanding of American culture & respect for authentic expression.

That's a lot to cover, but Baraka does so with frankness, humor, self-examination & an occasional willingness to admit error without loading up on pointless regrets.

A fine account of a fallible man who, even in his most angry moments, gives the world beautiful things. & that anger is usually over our failure to see the beauty of justice.

Bob Rixon, WFMU-FM

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Politics and Art
OK but why all the hype?

Black Music
Imamu Amiri Baraka
Manufacturer: Da Capo Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0306808145

Amazon.com

This scintillating collection by Amiri Imamu Baraka, published in 1968 under his birth name Leroi Jones, covers a wide range of jazz writings from 1959 to 1967. Baraka's engaging and prophetic portraits of Sonny Rollins, Wayne Shorter, Bobby Bradford, Cecil Taylor, Thelonious Monk, Roy Haynes, Don Cherry, and John Coltrane (whom he called "the heaviest spirit") beam with an electric and fluid language that mirrors those artists' speed-of-light improvisations. In "Jazz and the White Critic," which blasts white critics who judge jazz by European, rather than African American, standards, Jones wrote, "As Western people, the sociocultural thinking of 18th-century Europe comes to us as history and legacy that is a continuous and organic part of the 20th-century West. The sociocultural philosophy of the Negro in America ... is no less specific and no less important for any intelligent critical speculation about the music that came out of it." His analysis of the burgeoning avant-garde scene in "Apple Cores #1-6," "New York Loft and Coffee Shop Jazz," and "The Jazz Avant-Garde" accurately depicts the artistic promise and peril of that period in the words of a literary genius who was there and helped create it. --Eugene Holley Jr.

Customer Reviews:

Politics and Art.......2003-06-10

Too often, Baraka is critiqued for his artistry or his politics alone--with Black Music, the floor gets opened to anyone or everyone with an opinion on jazz or blues music. Black Music is Baraka's smart, personally charged account of the forms and culture inherent to black music, and thus its political value as a testament to a nation within a nation. Reading Baraka's intimate thoughts on such a personal subject should be the sole impetus for the reader.

OK but why all the hype?.......2000-05-09

After hearing Leroi Jones on Sunny Murray and the NYAQ's records, and reading little excerpts of some of his reviews in books on free jazz, I thought I'd pick this up and check it out. I did; it was OK; but not much more than OK. I felt like most of the information available here is readily found elsewhere, and that any new perspective he brings to the issues (meaning basically a black nationalist/radical one) is easily enough visible in other places--better to read Fanon or Malcolm X than to let that music play in the background in a jazz book like this one. If that's your taste you might be better off with John Szwed's book on Sun Ra. This book is OK though, and if you haven't already read a number of jazz books you might find it fresh and interesting--I simply didn't. Well written though.

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Moving and thought provoking
It took a controversey to make anyone read this one

Somebody Blew Up America & Other Poems
Imamu Amiri Baraka
Manufacturer: House of Nehesi Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Anthologies | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

The LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka Reader
Transbluesency: The Selected Poetry of Amiri Baraka/LeRoi Jones (1961-1995) (1961-1995)
Autobiography of Leroi Jones
Tales of the Out & the Gone

ASIN: 0913441619

Book Description

A new collection of poems.

Customer Reviews:

Moving and thought provoking.......2005-11-12

I was there when Baraka read this poem at the Dodge poetry festival, before the controversy. It is an incredibly moving and thought provoking poem.

It took a controversey to make anyone read this one.......2004-04-23

When this poem came out, there was a lot of controversy. Not only because of the content, but because New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey had named Amiri Baraka as the state's poet laureate shortly before, and the subsequent outrage over the poem prompted the state to rescind that title from Baraka.

Some believe Mr. Baraka (AKA Leroy Jones) was blaming the Jews in his poem "Somebody Blew Up America" for the 9-11 attack on the Twin Towers. After reading the poem, I understand Baraka's point that he was not blaming Jews, but rather ISRAELIS.

Book Description

Poetry/American Literature

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