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Theatre, Film, and Television Biographies
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Klaus Badelt to Christophe Beck
Amiri Baraka Biography (1934-)
Born Everett LeRoi Jones, October 7, 1934, in Newark, NJ; son of Coyette LeRoi (a postal supervisor) and Anna Lois (a social worker; maiden name, Russ) Jones; changed name to Imamu Amiri Baraka, 1968; dropped honorific title, Imamu(spiritual leader), 1974; married Hettie Roberta Cohen, October 13, 1958 (divorced, August 1965); married Sylvia Robinson (later called Bibi Amina Barakaand Amina Baraka), August, 1966; children: Kellie Elisabeth, Lisa Victoria (first marriage); Obalaji Malik Ali, Ras Jua Al Aziz, Shani Isis Makeda, AmiriSeku Musa, Ahi Mwenge (second marriage). Addresses: OFFICE: Department of Africana Studies, State University of New York, Long Island, NY 11794-4340. AGENT: Joan Brandt, Sterling Lord Agency, 660 Madison Ave., New York, NY10021.
- Nationality
- American
- Gender
- Male
- Birth Details
- October 7, 1934
- Newark, New Jersey, United States
Famous Works
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Credits; PRINCIPAL STAGE WORK; DIRECTOR
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Madheart, Black Arts Alliance, San Francisco State College, San Francisco, CA, 1967.
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Sidnee Poet Heroical, New Federal Theatre, New York City, 1975.
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S-1, Afro-American Studio, New York City, 1976.
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The Motion of History, New York Theatre Ensemble, New York City, 1977.
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Credits; ALBUMS
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New Music/New Poetry, India Navigation.
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Writings;STAGE; AS LEROI JONES
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A Good Girl Is Hard to Find, Sterington House, Montclair, NJ, 1958.
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Dante, Off Bowery Theatre, New York City, 1964, revised as The Eighth Ditch, New Bowery Theatre, New York City, 1964, published in The System of Dante's Hell, Grove, 1965, then MacGibbon & Kee, 1966.
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Dutchman, Village South Theatre, then Cherry Lane Theatre, both New York City, 1964, then London, 1967, published by Grove, 1967, then Faber and Faber, 1967, and in Dutchman [and] The Slave, Morrow, 1964, then Faber andFaber, 1965.
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The Baptism, Writer's Stage Theatre, New York City, 1964, then London, 1971, published in The Baptism [and] The Toilet, Grove, 1967.
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The Slave, St. Mark's Playhouse, New York City, 1964, then London,1972, published in Dutchman [and] The Slave, 1964, then Faber and Faber, 1965.
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The Toilet, St. Mark's Playhouse, 1964, published in The Baptism [and] The Toilet, 1967.
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J-E-L-L-O, Black Arts Repertory Theatre, New York City, 1965, published (as Imamu Amiri Baraka) by Third World Press, 1970.
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Experimental Death Unit #1, Black Arts Repertory Theatre, St. Mark's Playhouse, 1965, published in Four Black Revolutionary Plays: All Praisesto the Black Man, Bobbs-Merrill, 1969, then as Four Black Revolutionary Plays, Calder and Boyars, 1971.
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A Black Mass, Black Arts Repertory Theatre, Proctor's Theatre, Newark, NJ, 1966, published in Four Black Revolutionary Plays, 1969 and 1971.
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Slave Ship: A Historical Pageant, Spirit House Movers, Newark, 1967, then Chelsea Theatre Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn, NY, 1969, later Washington Square Methodist Church, New York City, 1970, published byJihad, 1969, and in The Motion of History and Other Plays, Morrow, 1978.
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Madheart, Black Arts Alliance, San Francisco State College, San Francisco, CA, 1967, published in Four Black Revolutionary Plays, 1969 and 1971.
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Arm Yourself, or Harm Yourself!, Spirit House Theatre, Newark, 1967, published by Jihad, 1967.
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Great Goodness of Life (A Coon Show), Spirit House Theatre, 1967,then on a bill as A Black Quartet, Gate Theatre, New York City, 1969, published in Four Black Revolutionary Plays, 1969 and 1971.
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Writings;STAGE; AS AMIRI BARAKA
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Home on the Range, Spirit House Theatre, then Town Hall, New YorkCity, both 1968, published in Drama Review, summer, 1968.
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Police, published in Drama Review, summer, 1968.
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Resurrection in Life, first produced in Harlem, NY, 1969.
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The Death of Malcolm X, published in New Plays from the Black Theatre, Bantam, 1969.
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Junkies Are full of (SHH...) and Bloodrites, both Spirit House Theatre, then Henry Street Playhouse, New York City, 1970, published in Black Drama Anthology, New American Library, 1971.
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BA-RA-KA, published in Spontaneous Combustion: Eight New AmericanPlays, Morrow, 1972.
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A Recent Killing, New Federal Theatre, New York City, 1973.
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The New Ark's a Moverin, Spirit House Theatre, 1974.
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Sidnee Poet Heroical or If in Danger of Suit, the Kid Poet Heroical, New Federal Theatre, 1975, published as The Sidney Poet Heroical, Reed andCannon, 1979.
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S-1, Afro-American Studios, New York City, 1976, published in TheMotion of History and Other Plays, Morrow, 1978.
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The Motion of History, New York Theatre Ensemble, New York City, 1977, published in The Motion of History and Other Plays, 1978.
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What Was the Lone Ranger to the Means of Production?, Ladies FortTheatre, New York City, 1979.
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Boy and Tarzan Appear in a Clearing, New Federal Theatre, 1981.
- Plays also appear in Selected Plays and Prose of Amiri Baraka/LeRoi Jones(contains Dutchman, The Slave, Great Goodness of Life, and What Was the Relationship of the Lone Ranger to the Means of Production?), Morrow, 1979.
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Writings; FILM
- (As LeRoi Jones) Dutchman, Continental, 1966.
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Black Spring, Black Arts Alliance, 1968.
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A Fable (also known as The Slave), MFR, 1971.
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Supercoon (animated short film), Gene Persson, 1971.
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Writings; POETRY
- (As LeRoi Jones) Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note, Totem/Corinth, 1961.
- (as LeRoi Jones)The Dead Lecturer, Grove, 1964.
- (as LeRoi Jones)Black Art, Jihad, 1966.
- (as LeRoi Jones) A Poem for Black Hearts, Broadside Press, 1967.
- (as LeRoi Jones) Black Magic: Sabotage; Target Study; Black Art; Collected Poetry, 1961-1967, Bobbs-Merrill, 1969, then MacGibbon & Kee, 1969.
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It's Nation Time, Third World Press, 1970.
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Spirit Reach, Jihad, 1972.
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Afrikan Revolution: A Poem, Jihad, 1973.
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Hard Facts, People's War Publishing, 1975.
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Selected Poetry of Amiri Baraka/LeRoi Jones, Morrow, 1979.
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In the Tradition: For Black Arthur Blythe, Jihad, 1980.
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Reggae or Not! Poems, Contact Two, 1982.
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Transbluency: The Selected Poems of Amiri Baraka/LeRoi Jones (1961-1995), Marsilio, 1995.
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Funk Lore: New Poems, 1984-1995, Sun & Moon Press, 1996.
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Writings; FICTION
- (As LeRoi Jones) The System of Dante's Hell, Grove, 1965, then MacGibbon & Kee, 1966.
- (as LeRoi Jones)Tales (short stories), Grove, 1967, then MacGibbon& Kee, 1969.
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Three Books by Imamu Amiri Baraka(contains The System of Dante's Hell, Tales, and The Dead Lecturer), Grove, 1975.
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Writings; ESSAYS AND NONFICTION
- (As LeRoi Jones) Cuba Libre, Fair Play for Cuba Committee, 1961.
- (as LeRoi Jones) Blues People ... Negro Music in White America, Morrow, 1963, then as Negro Music in White America, MacGibbon & Kee, 1965.
- (as LeRoi Jones)Home: Social Essays, Morrow, 1966, then MacGibbonand Kee, 1968.
- (as LeRoi Jones) Black Music, Morrow, 1967, then MacGibbon & Kee, 1969.
- (with Fundi; also known as Billy Abernathy) In Our Terribleness (SomeElements and Meaning in Black Style), Bobbs-Merrill, 1970.
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Strategy and Tactics of a Pan-African Nationalist Party, Jihad, 1971.
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A Black Value System, Jihad, 1970.
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Raise Race Rays Raze: Essays Since 1965, Random House, 1971.
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The Life and Times of John Coltrane, 1971.
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The Creation of the New Ark, Spirit Reach, 1972.
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Kawaida Studies: The New Nationalism, Third World Press, 1972.
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Crisis in Boston, Vita Wa Watu--Peoples War Publishing, 1974.
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Reggae or Not!, Contact Two, 1982.
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The Autobiography of Leroi Jones-Amiri Baraka, Freundlich, 1984.
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Daggers and Javelins, Essays, 1974-79, Morrow, 1984.
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The Music: Reflections on Jazz and Blues, Morrow, 1987.
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Jesse Jackson and Black People, Third World Press, 1994.
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Shy's Wise, Y's: The Griot's Tale, Third World Press, 1994.
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Eulogies, Marsilio Publishers (New York City), 1996.
- Also contributor of articles to journals, magazines, and periodicals.
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ALL AS EDITOR, UNLESS INDICATED
- (As LeRoi Jones) Compiler, January 1st 1959: Fidel Castro, Totem,1959.
- (as LeRoi Jones) Four Young Lady Poets, Corinth, 1962.
- (as LeRoi Jones) contributor, Soon, One Morning, Knopf, 1963.
- (as LeRoi Jones; also writer of introduction) The Moderns: An Anthology of New Writing in America, Corinth, 1963, then MacGibbon & Kee, 1965, also published as The Moderns: New Fiction in America, 1964.
- (as LeRoi Jones; also co-author)Information, Totem, 1965.
- (as LeRoi Jones)Black and White, Corinth, 1965.
- (as LeRoi Jones) Hands Up!, Corinth, 1965.
- (as LeRoi Jones; also contributor) Afro-American Festival of the ArtsMagazine, Jihad, 1966, then as Anthology of Our Black Selves, 1969.
- (as LeRoi Jones) writer of introduction, Felix of the Silent Forest, Poets Press, 1967.
- (as LeRoi Jones, with Larry Neal; also contributor) Black Fire: An Anthology of Afro-American Writing, Morrow, 1968.
- (with Neal and A.B. Spellman) The Cricket: Black Music in Evolution, Jihad, 1968, then as Trippin': A Need for Change, New Ark, 1969.
- writer of preface, Black Boogaloo (Notes on Black Liberation), Journal of Black Poetry Press, 1969.
- (also writer of introduction) African Congress: A Documentary of the First Modern Pan-African Congress, Morrow, 1972.
- (with Amina Baraka)Confirmation: An Anthology of African American Women, Morrow, 1983.
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