Amiri Baraka

     Amiri Baraka died in January 9, 2014. Amiri Baraka is United States writer of poems and plays about racial conflict. He is famous as black radical thinkers and activist in United States. He was born in United States of America, Newark, NJ in 1934, and his maiden name was Leroy Jones. He became interested in poetry and Jazz in high school. In 1961, he published his first major collection of poetry, Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note. And he wrote a play named The Dutchman, which addressed racial tensions and American blacks’ repressed hostility toward whites.

The assassination of Malcolm X was a turning point in his life. Malcolm X is a civil rights activist. Afterward, he changed his name to Amiri Baraka. He became a black nationalist, moved to Harlem and founded the Black Arts Repertory Theatre. After a few months, he moved back to Newark and became a leader of the city’s African-American community. In 1984 he became a full professor at Rutgers University.  In 1989 Baraka won an American Book Award for his works as well as a Langston Hughes Award.

Amiri Baraka died on January 9, 2014, at Beth Israel Medical Center in Newark, New Jersey. He was 79 years old.