Post by Sarah Faison MBA

Celebrating the life of Amiri Baraka, an awesome Poet. Born in Newark, NJ as LeRoi Jones he changed his name to Amiri Baraka after the assassination of Malcolm X. After developing an interest in poetry and jazz in high school, Baraka attended Howard University and earned his degree in English. He later attended both Columbia University and The New School (New York). In 1964, Baraka wrote a play The Dutchman, which addressed racial tensions and American blacks' repressed hostility toward whites, and this gained him fame. Bakara was fully immersed in Newark, and was a leader of the city's African-American community. He was a prolific writer, and penned more than 50 books, including fiction, music criticism, essays, short stories, poetry and plays. In 1984, Bakara published The Autobiography of LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka. He's taught at many universities, including the New School for Social Research, San Francisco State University and Yale University. Before retirement, he served as professor emeritus of Africana Studies at the State University of New York at Stony Brook for 20 years. Baraka died on January 9, 2014 in Newark, New Jersey at the age of 79. #brickcity