Amiri Baraka lecture notes : manuscript.

Washington, D.C. ; New Haven, Connecticut ; New York, New York, 1978.

1 volume (68 pages) ; 22 x 28 cm

English

Purchased from Between the Covers on the Edwin J. Beinecke Book Fund, 2021.

This material is open for research.

Amiri Baraka (1934-2014), was a poet, playwright, and author. He was born Everett LeRoi Jones in Newark, New Jersey. Early in his career, his avant-garde poetry, influenced by blues and jazz music, placed him among the Beat Poets. He converted to Islam in 1967 and changed his name to Imamu Amiri Baraka, eventually dropping Imamu in 1974. He published poems, produced plays, and wrote essays often focusing on black nationalism and then later socialism.

One spiral notebook containing Baraka’s lecture notes. Baraka was the Jenny McKean Moore Fellow at George Washington University in 1978 and a section of the notes is labeled as “George Washington Lectures September 5, 1978”. The cover has “Notes for Yale/Columbia lectures” written in Baraka’s hand. The notebook potentially includes notes from lectures Baraka gave at all three institutions. The notes focus on African American history and literature.

August 26, 2021

Amiri Baraka lecture notes. James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection in the Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

Amiri Baraka lecture notes. James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection in the Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.