One of the New York Times Book Review's 100 Notable Books
WITH AN APPENDIX OF NEVER-BEFORE-PUBLISHED WORK
Fusing the personal and the political in high-voltage verse, Amiri
Baraka was one of the preeminent literary innovators of the past
century. This volume comprises the fullest spectrum of his rousing,
revolutionary poems, from his first collection to unpublished pieces
composed during his final years.
Throughout Baraka's career as a prolific writer in several genres (also
published under the name LeRoi Jones), he was vehemently outspoken
against oppression of African American citizens, and he radically
altered the discourse surrounding racial inequality. His legacy in world
literature is matched by his widespread influence as an activist and
cultural leader. Praised for its lyricism and introspection, his early
poetry emerged from the Beat generation, while his later writing is
marked by the Black Arts Movement's intensely rebellious fervor and
subversive ideology. All along, his primary focus was on how to live and
love in the present moment despite the enduring difficulties of human
history.