Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones) RIP

[medjuck]

Thanks for posting. The comments are interesting especially the last one.

[mjzee]

"It was while acting as poet laureate of New Jersey that Baraka wrote his poem about the attacks of 11 September 2001, Somebody Blew Up America, based on the suggestion that information about the forthcoming assault was known in government circles: "Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed / Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers / To stay home that day / Why did Sharon stay away?" Accusations of antisemitism flew at once, and the governor of New Jersey, James McGreevey, demanded that he resign as poet laureate. When Baraka refused, the governor abolished the post."

This is pure disgusting hatred. The guy was a creep.

Edited January 12, 2014 by mjzee

[Quasimado]

"Evergreen Review" period was nice ... then seriously downhill. Anyway, RIP.

Q

[ArtSalt]

"It was while acting as poet laureate of New Jersey that Baraka wrote his poem about the attacks of 11 September 2001, Somebody Blew Up America, based on the suggestion that information about the forthcoming assault was known in government circles: "Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed / Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers / To stay home that day / Why did Sharon stay away?" Accusations of antisemitism flew at once, and the governor of New Jersey, James McGreevey, demanded that he resign as poet laureate. When Baraka refused, the governor abolished the post."

This is pure disgusting hatred. The guy was a creep.

This is the problem I have with him, his work is forever tainted by his descent into the vile bile of anti-semitism. As a European, with our history, we need no excuse from poets or anyone else encouraging this. For that reason I am totally turned-off from exploring the works of Baraka further.

Which is probably a shame, because I see a lot of positive comments on here, but he strayed too far from the spirit of jazz and the light for my comfort.

Edited January 12, 2014 by ArtSalt

[J.A.W.]

"It was while acting as poet laureate of New Jersey that Baraka wrote his poem about the attacks of 11 September 2001, Somebody Blew Up America, based on the suggestion that information about the forthcoming assault was known in government circles: "Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed / Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers / To stay home that day / Why did Sharon stay away?" Accusations of antisemitism flew at once, and the governor of New Jersey, James McGreevey, demanded that he resign as poet laureate. When Baraka refused, the governor abolished the post."

This is pure disgusting hatred. The guy was a creep.

This is the problem I have with him, his work is forever tainted by his descent into the vile bile of anti-semitism. As a European, with our history, we need no excuse from poets or anyone else encouraging this. For that reason I am totally turned-off from exploring the works of Baraka further.

Which is probably a shame, because I see a lot of positive comments on here, but he strayed too far from the spirit of jazz and the light for my comfort.

Totally agreed.

[Face of the Bass]

It's more complicated than that. The same poem also references the Jews who were murdered at Auschwitz. That line wasn't good, but if you refuse to explore his works because of it, it's your loss.

"It was while acting as poet laureate of New Jersey that Baraka wrote his poem about the attacks of 11 September 2001, Somebody Blew Up America, based on the suggestion that information about the forthcoming assault was known in government circles: "Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed / Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers / To stay home that day / Why did Sharon stay away?" Accusations of antisemitism flew at once, and the governor of New Jersey, James McGreevey, demanded that he resign as poet laureate. When Baraka refused, the governor abolished the post."

This is pure disgusting hatred. The guy was a creep.

This is the problem I have with him, his work is forever tainted by his descent into the vile bile of anti-semitism. As a European, with our history, we need no excuse from poets or anyone else encouraging this. For that reason I am totally turned-off from exploring the works of Baraka further.

Which is probably a shame, because I see a lot of positive comments on here, but he strayed too far from the spirit of jazz and the light for my comfort.

His main legacy was his capacity for making liberals very uncomfortable. "Strayed too far" is exactly why he is so important.

[mjzee]

It's more complicated than that. The same poem also references the Jews who were murdered at Auschwitz. That line wasn't good, but if you refuse to explore his works because of it, it's your loss.

"It was while acting as poet laureate of New Jersey that Baraka wrote his poem about the attacks of 11 September 2001, Somebody Blew Up America, based on the suggestion that information about the forthcoming assault was known in government circles: "Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed / Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers / To stay home that day / Why did Sharon stay away?" Accusations of antisemitism flew at once, and the governor of New Jersey, James McGreevey, demanded that he resign as poet laureate. When Baraka refused, the governor abolished the post."

This is pure disgusting hatred. The guy was a creep.

This is the problem I have with him, his work is forever tainted by his descent into the vile bile of anti-semitism. As a European, with our history, we need no excuse from poets or anyone else encouraging this. For that reason I am totally turned-off from exploring the works of Baraka further.

Which is probably a shame, because I see a lot of positive comments on here, but he strayed too far from the spirit of jazz and the light for my comfort.

His main legacy was his capacity for making liberals very uncomfortable. "Strayed too far" is exactly why he is so important.

Really? Let's follow his logic:

Jews (because Israelis, after all, are Jews, and Jews run the government) found out early (how early is unclear from Baraka's hateful rant) that planes were about to crash into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. When they found this out, they didn't notify the U.S. Government; instead, in an act of utter depravity, they notified only the Jews who worked in the WTC (Baraka also doesn't say how they were notified; perhaps it's on the special Jew-phone that all Jews are issued?) to leave the WTC or not arrive, knowing full well that huge numbers of people would die when the planes crashed into their destinations. The plane traveling to the Pentagon would also disable the U.S.'s defenses when it crashed there, but somehow (in Baraka's twisted, hateful logic) that wouldn't bother the Israelis.

So in Baraka's mind, Jews are capable of the most stunning acts of depravity. And after all, what's the difference between Israeli Jews and American Jews other than geography? So he must believe all Jews can think this way.

Do you really want to "learn" anything from someone like this? It should make everyone uncomfortable, not just (as you say) "liberals." He sounds rabid.

[Face of the Bass]

If you want to understand Baraka, read "Cuba Libre," his essay from 1960. Read his autobiography. Read his poems. Read his jazz criticism. Read Blues People. Read his letters, recently published, between himself and Ed Dorn. The man was one of the most prolific writers of the 20th century. If you want to bury him for one stupid line in a poem he wrote near the end of his career, that says more about you than it does about him.

For the record, what Baraka said about this line was that he believed that the intelligence services of the world knew about 9/11 in advance. I think he's wrong and I think he was stupid to put that in his poem, but I'm not going to allow it to determine how I view his entire oeuvre. Indeed, I even think the rest of that poem is pretty good.

Edited January 12, 2014 by Face of the Bass

[ElginThompson]

RIP

[mjzee]

If you want to understand Baraka, read "Cuba Libre," his essay from 1960. Read his autobiography. Read his poems. Read his jazz criticism. Read Blues People. Read his letters, recently published, between himself and Ed Dorn. The man was one of the most prolific writers of the 20th century. If you want to bury him for one stupid line in a poem he wrote near the end of his career, that says more about you than it does about him.

For the record, what Baraka said about this line was that he believed that the intelligence services of the world knew about 9/11 in advance. I think he's wrong and I think he was stupid to put that in his poem, but I'm not going to allow it to determine how I view his entire oeuvre. Indeed, I even think the rest of that poem is pretty good.

Well, Jews have been on the receiving end of that sort of "analysis" for many hundreds (thousands?) of years now, usually with genocidal results. Thanks, but I do prefer to be on the lookout for these sorts of sentiments, and to judge him accordingly. Maybe others have the luxury of judging him by other criteria, but I don't think we do.

[Face of the Bass]

If you want to understand Baraka, read "Cuba Libre," his essay from 1960. Read his autobiography. Read his poems. Read his jazz criticism. Read Blues People. Read his letters, recently published, between himself and Ed Dorn. The man was one of the most prolific writers of the 20th century. If you want to bury him for one stupid line in a poem he wrote near the end of his career, that says more about you than it does about him.

For the record, what Baraka said about this line was that he believed that the intelligence services of the world knew about 9/11 in advance. I think he's wrong and I think he was stupid to put that in his poem, but I'm not going to allow it to determine how I view his entire oeuvre. Indeed, I even think the rest of that poem is pretty good.

Well, Jews have been on the receiving end of that sort of "analysis" for many hundreds (thousands?) of years now, usually with genocidal results. Thanks, but I do prefer to be on the lookout for these sorts of sentiments, and to judge him accordingly. Maybe others have the luxury of judging him by other criteria, but I don't think we do.

Sorry, but that line of reasoning is as spurious as the line in Baraka's poem.

[Larry Kart]

If you want to understand Baraka, read "Cuba Libre," his essay from 1960. Read his autobiography. Read his poems. Read his jazz criticism. Read Blues People. Read his letters, recently published, between himself and Ed Dorn. The man was one of the most prolific writers of the 20th century. If you want to bury him for one stupid line in a poem he wrote near the end of his career, that says more about you than it does about him.

For the record, what Baraka said about this line was that he believed that the intelligence services of the world knew about 9/11 in advance. I think he's wrong and I think he was stupid to put that in his poem, but I'm not going to allow it to determine how I view his entire oeuvre. Indeed, I even think the rest of that poem is pretty good.

Well, Jews have been on the receiving end of that sort of "analysis" for many hundreds (thousands?) of years now, usually with genocidal results. Thanks, but I do prefer to be on the lookout for these sorts of sentiments, and to judge him accordingly. Maybe others have the luxury of judging him by other criteria, but I don't think we do.

Sorry, but that line of reasoning is as spurious as the line in Baraka's poem.

But Baraka didn't say in the poem (or did he?) that the intelligence services of the world knew about 9/11 in advance. What he did say in the poem was that the Israelis who worked at the WTC stayed home that day (because I guess, according to Baraka, they were forewarned by their government to do so). Is there any evidence out there in the real world that a lot of Israelis worked at the WTC and didn't show up for work that day? Yes, I know it's a poem, not a news report, but it's not like that portion of the poem were some sort of lyrical effusion that only a fool would take at face value.

In any case, that poem and other instances of Baraka going over the top or around the bend along these lines do not make him a figure I need to or want to despise. Rather, I think of these instances as ... I don't know, "acts" (though they're not an act) in which Baraka, being who he is, was compelled to engage at those times in order to state and further -- and again, I don't know about the term -- his ongoing political/emotional "identity."

[Guy Berger]

But Baraka didn't say in the poem (or did he?) that the intelligence services of the world knew about 9/11 in advance. What he did say in the poem was that the Israelis who worked at the WTC stayed home that day (because I guess, according to Baraka, they were forewarned by the their government to do so). Is there any evidence out there in the real world that a lot of Israelis worked at the WTC and didn't show up for work that day? Yes, I know it's a poem, not a news report, but it's not like that portion of the poem were some sort of lyrical effusion that only a fool would take at face value.

In any case, that poem and other instances of Baraka going over the top or around the bend along these lines do not make him a figure I need to or want to despise. Rather, I think of these instances as ... I don't know, "acts" (though they're not an act) in which Baraka, being who he his, was compelled to engage at those times in order to state and further -- and again, I don't know about the term -- his ongoing political/emotional "identity."

It's like Wagner. The guy's world view had some foul aspects that he publicly expressed. It's possible to appreciate his positive contributions while condemning the foul ones. I also perfectly understand/empathize with people for whom these foul aspects make appreciation of the rest of his work impossible, just like people who refuse to listen to Wagner for the same reason.

[JSngry]

I've been listening to a fair amount of Wagner lately, and find a lot of it stirring, and not in a "nice" or "polite" way. But not once does what I feel translate in "let's round up all the jews and then kill'em, yee-ha auf wiedersehen". It's more like a general garrrrUMMMPHHHHTZZZLLLLLL!!!!!????? rage at life being as...small as it so often is. It's easy to turn that into looking for somebody/anybody to blame, but the reality is that there's no blame to be effectively placed than within one's own self. To the extent that the rage does in fact get processed inwardly, then it serves its purpose. To the extent that one lets it fall prey to others' odious - and inevitably small, tritefully small (murder is an act with a large impact, but in terms of human spirit/character, it perhaps the tritest act of all, indeed vile, but perhaps most because it is such a failure of anything even halfway progressive, trite, it is. Foul and trite.) - manipulations, it fails.

But the simple fact of its existence and of one's confrontation of it, hell I think you really gotta worry about is anybody who doesn't have to deal with that at some point at some time. Nobody's life is that damn good all the time.

[Larry Kart]

Ishmael Reed on Baraka:

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2014/01/12/ishmael-reed-on-the-life-and-death-of-amiri-baraka/

Interesting, but it includes what strikes me as quite a non sequitur:

'Even though the obituaries refer to him as an antisemite because of the controversy around his poem “Somebody Blew Up America,” he has two brilliant daughters whose mother is Jewish, the author Hettie Cohen.'

[JSngry]

Hettie Cohen is his two brilliant daughters?

That's damn near non-scientific!

[Larry Kart]

On Wagner and the Jews, anti-Semitic themes are abundant in his writing; he did after all gives us the ferocious pamphlet "Judaism in Music." About his own music, many have claimed to find the same themes there, particularly in "Parsifal" and "Meistersinger," but I feel that the Wagner's music and libretti are too complex to be treated in such a reductionist manner.

On the other hand and FWIW, in 1940 no less a figure than Thomas Mann wrote:

'I find an element of Nazism , not only in Wagner's questionable literature: I find it also in his "music", in his [creative] work, similarly questionable, though in a loftier sense -- albeit I have so loved that work that even today I am deeply stirred whenever a few bars of music from this world impinge upon my ear. .. The Ring emerges from the bourgeois-humanist epoch in the same manner as Hitlerism. With its...mixture of roots-in-the-soil and eyes-toward-the-future, its appeal for a classless society, its mythical-revolutionism it is the exact spiritual forerunner of the "metapolitical" movement today terrorizing the world.'

[JSngry]

People who look for a more perfect world will not find it in this one.

GEE-HAW Silver and AWAYYYYYY!!!!!!

[Face of the Bass]

If you want to understand Baraka, read "Cuba Libre," his essay from 1960. Read his autobiography. Read his poems. Read his jazz criticism. Read Blues People. Read his letters, recently published, between himself and Ed Dorn. The man was one of the most prolific writers of the 20th century. If you want to bury him for one stupid line in a poem he wrote near the end of his career, that says more about you than it does about him.

For the record, what Baraka said about this line was that he believed that the intelligence services of the world knew about 9/11 in advance. I think he's wrong and I think he was stupid to put that in his poem, but I'm not going to allow it to determine how I view his entire oeuvre. Indeed, I even think the rest of that poem is pretty good.

Well, Jews have been on the receiving end of that sort of "analysis" for many hundreds (thousands?) of years now, usually with genocidal results. Thanks, but I do prefer to be on the lookout for these sorts of sentiments, and to judge him accordingly. Maybe others have the luxury of judging him by other criteria, but I don't think we do.

Sorry, but that line of reasoning is as spurious as the line in Baraka's poem.

But Baraka didn't say in the poem (or did he?) that the intelligence services of the world knew about 9/11 in advance. What he did say in the poem was that the Israelis who worked at the WTC stayed home that day (because I guess, according to Baraka, they were forewarned by their government to do so). Is there any evidence out there in the real world that a lot of Israelis worked at the WTC and didn't show up for work that day? Yes, I know it's a poem, not a news report, but it's not like that portion of the poem were some sort of lyrical effusion that only a fool would take at face value.

In any case, that poem and other instances of Baraka going over the top or around the bend along these lines do not make him a figure I need to or want to despise. Rather, I think of these instances as ... I don't know, "acts" (though they're not an act) in which Baraka, being who he is, was compelled to engage at those times in order to state and further -- and again, I don't know about the term -- his ongoing political/emotional "identity."

It needs to be said at this point that Baraka did not invent this concept that Israelis had stayed home on 9/11. It had appeared in the international press prior to this poem. Baraka said he got it from Ha'Aretz. Obviously that doesn't excuse the fact that he kept it in there. But I don't think it should poison his entire oeuvre. What you say about his ongoing struggle with his political "identity" hits the mark pretty well, I think, and is one of the main reasons why I find him to be such a compelling writer and figure.

FWIW, I'm not convinced that Baraka was an anti-Semite, to me the evidence for that is thinner than the frequent misogyny and homophobia that showed up in his writing. (And which, in the case of his homophobia, he later regretted.)

Edited January 13, 2014 by Face of the Bass

[jlhoots]

I thought discussion of politics was not allowed.

[JSngry]

I think he's been somewhat "irrelevant" for a little bit now...

It was with Somebody Blew Up America that I feel he jumped the shark once and for all. Yesterday's palate spilled on (then) today's canvas...wholly irrelevant, like ok, what am I supposed to do with THIS?

So 1965-ish, and...not even in a "sting"-y way any more. Just....silly. And sad. Precisely because it was silly. You don't want to think of Amiri Baraka & "silly" in the same breath, anything but "silly". Yet, there it was.

Now that he's passed, time will, hopefully, restore the balance so that the great and the trivial can begin to take their rightful positions.

And I still maintain that "In The Tradition" is the greatest "jazz poem" ever written. If a better one comes along, it will be about a different type of "jazz" (and its people), which is, I think already here, but I'll leave it to those who feel a need for it.

[JSngry]

I thought discussion of politics was not allowed.

It's a thin line (and it might get thinner) but right now, the conversation seems to be about the life and work of Amiri Baraka, which although it was certainly was political in may aspects, was not per se "politics", it was, as they used to say, "Arts & Letters". If somebody starts to apply Baraka's positions, or opposition to them, to current events, then I think the line gets crossed.

But yes, a thin line, one of which The Staff And Management Of Jim's Organissimo Burger Bar, Bowling Alley, & Bulletin Board are fully aware.

[Mark Stryker]

Baraka reading "In the Tradition." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgmCpn_jILk

Wow.

[Larry Kart]

Snopes on the canard that Jews and/or Israelis stayed home from the WTC on 9/11:

http://www.snopes.com/rumors/israel.asp

In fact, at least 400 Jews died at the WTC on 9/11.

[mjzee]

Thanks for posting that, Larry.