“He was a literary genius,” says Dr. Cornel West, a professor at Union Theological Seminary and a longtime friend to Baraka, to Diverse. “He was a revolutionary who was always on fire and most importantly, he never sold out.”
Born Everett LeRoi Jones in 1934 in Newark, N.J, Baraka (who later changed his name several times) emerged as a powerful literary voice during the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s. A polymath of sorts, Baraka mastered poetry, essays and other works of non-fiction. His play Dutchman made its debut at the Cherry Lane Theater in Greenwich Village in 1964 and later won an Obie Award. He was lauded for his 1963 book Blues People, which chronicled the music of African-Americans from spirituals to blues and jazz. He was also a spoken-word artist who captivated audiences with his soul-stirring performances on college campuses and in nightclubs.
