POETIC BIRTHDAY

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1934
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BORN ON THIS DAY - AMIRI BARAKA, poet, writer,  activist, actor, teacher, theater producer/director/writer, in Newark, New Jersey.

In 1951, Baraka won a scholarship to Rutgers University, but transferred to Howard University the next year. His major fields of study were philosophy and religion. He also studied at Columbia University and the New School of Social Research.

During the late 50s he was a central figure in the Beatniks Movement and the New York School Poets in Greenwich Village. Here he worked as an editor and critic, founded Totem Press, and published the poems of Allen Ginsburg and Jack Kerouac, who were Beat poet icons.

In 1961 he published his first book of poems, and the rest in history.

Throughout his storied career Baraka has written and edited volumes of poetry, drama, fiction, and non-fiction, as well as making literary contributions to music and films. He has also received honors from a number of prestigious foundations.

Baraka has influenced a generation of Black poets and writers. He remains one of the most prolific and controversial figures in literary history.

To read a comprehensive bio Google search his name.

To read his poetry click on  poets.org, poemhunters.com and poetryfoundation.org