Born in 1934 as Everett LeRoy Jones, the lifelong Newarker founded the Black Arts Movement in Harlem in the 1960s and gained fame for his Beat-influenced poetry and jazz criticism. His controversial political stances include the 2002 poem, “Somebody Blew Up America,” which claimed Israeli involvement in the 9/11 attacks and ended up costing him the title of New Jersey poet laureate. Brilliant or infuriating, Baraka can’t be ignored.
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