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The Autobiography of LeRoi Jones
by
Amiri Baraka
The complete autobiography of a literary legend. Poet, dramatist, novelist, critic, teacher, and political activist Amiri Baraka, born LeRoi Jones, vividly recounts his crusading role in African American literature. Adriving force behind the Black Arts Movement, the prolific Baraka retells his experiences from his participation in avant-garde literature after World War II
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Paperback
,
496 pages
Published
March 1st 1997
by Chicago Review Press
(first published January 1st 1984)
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Community Reviews
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Aug 28, 2007
montana
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
not so squeemish people who want to intertwine arts and politics
A coming to where one is story; declaration of the difficulty of choosing the right way to act in the thick of a moment and also a testament to the going back through afterwards to learn the reason(s) it was you did act the way you acted. Self-reflective and aware with minimal attempts to make him seem like the good guy, starting with an intro about Amina, his wife, and their split politically, because of the chauvinism Amina experienced and detested within the nationalist CAP. How they both hav
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I love everything Jones/Baraka wrote in his younger days. He was the most intense, brilliant, fearless of the black writers of the '60s. His plays -- "The Toilet," "J-E-L-L-O," "Slave Ship" -- were eviscerating, and his essays -- "Home" --had a skewering depth that nobody else reached. But like the rest of us, he got older, and though he didn't exactly lose his edge, by the time of the autobio (1984) he'd lost the cohesion that made his writing unique. I can read 3 or 4 pages of this at a time,
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Everything you've ever wanted to know about Amiri Baraka but were afraid to ask.
Amiri Baraka is an important figure in US literary and piolitical history, but i read this book primarily because of his connection to the city of Newark. In his highly personal style, he describes his life up to the mid-seventies, from his childhood in Newark to the time he spent in the armed forces, to his beginnings in the NY literary scene, and finally to his role in the black liberation struggle.
i wasn't spell-bound by it, by i definitely found it to be interesting and a worthwhile read.
i wasn't spell-bound by it, by i definitely found it to be interesting and a worthwhile read.
I liked the first half of the book, since it was more personal and said a lot about what was going on inside and outside of LeRoi Jones. I would definitely prefer to read the same kind of account about his days in black movements. Here it looks more like a list of names hastily collected than a story of one man's development.
Wow, this man's story is very interesting and inspiring when you learn about all the things he did and how great of a writer he became. He has an awesome sense of humor as well.
I read this nearly 20 years ago and still vividly remember how he wrote about the Newark Eagles and going to baseball games with his father ... truly lyrical.
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Baraka was born Everett LeRoy Jones in Newark, New Jersey, where he attended Barringer High School. His father, Coyt Leverette Jones, worked as a postal supervisor and lift operator. His mother, Anna Lois (née Russ), was a social worker. In 1967 he adopted the African name Imamu Amear Baraka, which he later changed to Amiri Baraka.
The Universities where he studied were Rutgers, Columbia, and Howar ...more
More about Amiri Baraka...
The Universities where he studied were Rutgers, Columbia, and Howar ...more
