Harzelli and Guerguet 1

Mohamed Khider University of Biskra

Faculty of Letters and Languages

Department of English Language and Literature

Harzelli Meriem and Guerguet Chahra

Instructor: Salim Kerboua

M1 American Civilization

Due Date

Amiri Baraka

Outline

Introduction

A Short Biography

Dutchman and the National Black Identity Presented

The Black Arts Movements

Conclusion

Works Cited
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Introduction:

Amiri Baraka born in 1934 until 2014, also known as LeRoi Jones and Imamu Amear.

Baraka, was a black American playwright, essayist, poet, music critic, and novelist who was

a co-founder of the Black Arts Movement. He investigates the lack of freedom and equality

for black Americans. Racial tensions and violence in modern America are addressed in

numerous of his plays, including Dutchman, which premiered in March 1964 at the Cherry

Lane Theatre in New York. This research paper explores the life of Baraka, his role regarding

The Black Arts Movement and also examining one of his greatest works ; Dutchman.

1- A Short Biography :

Amiri Baraka, previously LeRoi Jones, was a prominent African-American poet,

activist, and academic. On October 7, 1934, he was born in Newark, New Jersey. Jones

joined the Greenwich Village Beatniks after serving three years in the United States Air

Force. Following Malcolm X's killing, he adopted the pen name Amiri Baraka and became

engaged in the Black Nationalist poetry and literary movements.

He has poems about love and others about pain. His struggle and pain that he had

experienced during life made him hate the whites, as it is shown in his poem , An Agony As

Now, he says:

I am in inside someone

Who hates me, I took

Out from his eyes, smell

What fouled tunes comes in

To his breath (52).

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Furthermore, Baraka is recognized for his passionate, aggressive style. His work is divisive

and has frequently alienated readers. His poem "Somebody Blew Up America," which

implied that Israel and American authorities were aware of the 9/11 attacks before they

occurred, was criticized as anti-Semitic (Biography.com Editors). Following the public

controversy over the poem. As a brilliant author, Baraka has produced more than 50 works,

including novels, jazz criticism, articles, short stories, poems, and dramas. In 1984, he wrote

The Autobiography of LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka. He's lectured at multiple colleges. The jazz

history is contained in Baraka's creative compositions; Blues People (1963), essays collected

in Home (1966), the nationalist poetry collection Black Art (1966), the play The Toilet

(1964), and The Slave published in 1964 (Koolish 10).

2-Dutchman and the National Black Identity Presented :

According to Dr. Hoda Abdel Ghaffar Salem, in her article SYMBOLISM AND

RACE IN AMIRI BARAKA’S DUTCHMAN, published by Pharos University, Egypt;

Baraka is regarded a symbol of revolution against the American white supremacist culture.

Various sorts of Afro-American literature: poetry, fiction and plays embrace the necessity to

maintain the national black identity and oppose the marginalization of black men who just

desire liberty, justice and the right of life. Dutchman is a dramatic expression that investigates

the background of the blacks-whites interaction in the American community and culture. It is

Baraka's message to African-Americans to stand up for themselves and build their own

cultural identity ( Salem).

Lula and Clay, the two main protagonists, meet on a metro train in Dutchman. Lula

seduces Clay and then mocks him for conforming to white society's ideals and hiding his

black identity throughout their conversation. Clay dismisses her, claiming that he doesn't

require her consent. Lula, enraged, stabs Clay to death, then instructs the subway passengers
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to toss the body off the train, which they do. Lula seduces another black man on the train at

the following stop. The play is a metaphor for Clay, a twenty-year-old black American, being

seduced by Lula, a thirty-year-old white lady, and then being murdered by her. Lula's

comments, as a representative of white Americans, symbolically act out many historical

patterns; her lines are contrasted with Clay's innocent and naive reactions, which show his

slave mindset. Lula, Clay, and the silent passengers' metaphorical train ride reflect a racist

society on the verge of extermination (symbolized by the murder of Clay). Lula's masochistic

deed symbolizes the murderous character of white races, and the play encourages black males

to stand up to any sort of mistreatment.

In a myth-like scenario, the drama portrays the hatred and rage aimed toward white

American civilization.

The mythic quality of the play is revealed in the initial stage directions: “In

the flying underbelly of the city steaming hot, and summer on top, outside.

Underground. The subway heaped in modern myth” (The Dutchman,76). The

words “underground” and “myth” suggest that the play depicts a myth, just

like the racial discrimination over a long period of time […] Baraka in this

play explores the anger of the African Americans against the age-old

sufferings of racism [….] The play, thus, illustrates the continuity of the racial

violence that was rampant in America in the sixties of the twentieth century in

particular (Hoda Abdel Ghaffar)

Dutchman is a dramatic performance that looks at the history of the black-white divide in

American society and culture. It is Baraka's message to black Americans that they must stand

up for themselves and build their own culture and identity. Baraka's perspective of American

civilization is dominated by psychological and physical violence (Salem). Baraka highlights

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the difficulty of assimilation among blacks and whites in a racist society through the play's

action; in other words, the play is a social protest against racism (Salem).

3-The Black Arts Movements :

Following the Black Power Movement, a collection of politically motivated black

poets, painters, dramatists, musicians, and authors formed the Black Arts Movement.

(Hannah Foster). “LeRoi Jones has been cited by many critics as the creator of and

foremost writer in the new black arts movement, and he is acknowledged by many

other black artists as their inspiration or model” (Letitia Dace). As a result, he is

largely regarded as the founder of the Black Arts Movement, which lasted from 1965

until 1975.

Following the assassination of Malcolm X on February 21, 1965, individuals who

supported the Black Power movement were divided into two camps: Revolutionary

Nationalists (represented by the Black Panther Party) and Cultural Nationalists (Hannah

Foster). The latter group advocated for the production of poetry, novels, visual arts, and

theater to honor black culture and heritage. This new focus affirmed black artists' autonomy

in creating black art for black people as a method of awakening black awareness and

achieving freedom (Foster). The Black Arts Movement was formally established in 1965

when Baraka opened the Black Arts Repertory Theater in Harlem. The movement had its

greatest impact in theater and poetry.

Although it began in the New York/Newark area, it soon spread to Chicago,

Illinois, Detroit, Michigan, and San Francisco, California. In Chicago, Hoyt

Fuller and John Johnson edited and published Negro Digest (later Black

World), which promoted the work of new black literary artists. Also in

Chicago, Third World Press published black writers and poets. In Detroit,
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Lotus Press and Broadside Press republished older works of black poetry

(Hannah Foster).

The movements and the innovative poets gained fame due to these Midwestern publishing

enterprises.

The Black Arts Movement Highlighted Black people's right to self-determination, a

distinct cultural life on their own conditions, and the attractiveness and virtue of being Black

(Peotry Foundation). In his essay, Larry Neal claims that “The Black Art Movement” :

The Black Arts Movement proposes a radical reordering of the western

cultural aesthetic. It pro-poses a separate symbolism, mythology, critique, and

iconology. The Black Arts and the Black Power concept both relate broadly to

the Afro-American's desire for self-determination and nationhood. Both

concepts are nationalistic. One is concerned with the relationship between art

and politics; the other with the art of politics (Neal 29).

Black Arts poets articulated these ideas in a proudly Black poetry language that relied on

Black musical traditions, particularly jazz; Black vernacular speech; African folklore; and

radical sound, spelling, and grammatical experimentation ( Foster) .

Collaboration also existed between the Black Arts Movement's cultural nationalists

and mainstream black artists, notably noted jazz performers. Jazz, according to cultural

nationalists, is a uniquely black art form that is more politically attractive than soul, gospel,

rhythm and blues, and other black music genres (Hannah Foster) .  Although the movement's

artistic works were frequently profound and original, its sheer shock value, which often

embraced brutality, alienated both black and white mainstream society. Some of the most

well-known works have been accused of being racist, homophobic, anti-Semitic, and

misogynistic ( Foster). Many works present a black toxic masculinity in reaction to

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the historical dehumanization of African American men, however this is often at the

disadvantage of some black female perspectives.

Nonetheless, the movement started to decline in the mid-1970s, when Baraka and

other senior members changed from Black Nationalism to Marxism, alienating many who

had previously associated with the movement. Additionally, when their writings were

acclaimed by the white mainstream, Baraka and others gained cultural and economic renown.

Conclusion :

Imamu Amiri Baraka is one of the most extensively published African American

writers of his time, as an artist, activist, and African-American leader. Throughout his long

career in American literature, he was able to raise several significant political problems in

support of Black Power, which was a constant battle for African-American intellectuals in the

1960s and 1970s.

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Works cited

"An Introduction To The Black Arts Movement | Poetry Foundation". Poetry Foundation,

2022, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/collections/148936/an-introduction-to-the-

black-arts-movement.

Amiri Baraka. " The Dutchman." The Dead Lecturer; Poems, edited by William J Harris,

Thunder Mouth Press, P 76. Print

Amiri Baraka. "An Agony as Now." The Dead Lecturer; Poems, edited by William J Harris,

Thunder Mouth Press, Publication Date, P 52. Print

Biography. 2022. Amiri Baraka. [online] Available at:

https://www.biography.com/writer/amiri-baraka [Accessed 22 April 2022].

Foster, Hannah. "The Black Arts Movement (1965-1975) ". Blackpast.Org, 2022,

https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/black-arts-movement-1965-

1975/.

Godfrey, Mark, Allie Biswas, Zoe Whitley, and Marion Perkins. The Soul of a Nation

Reader: Writings by and About Black American Artists, 1960-1980. , 2021. Print.

Inge, M T. Black American Writers: Bibliographical Essays. , 1978. Print.

Neal, Larry. "The Black Arts Movement". The Drama Review: TDR, vol 12, no. 4, 1968, p.

28. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1144377. Accessed 21 Apr 2022.

Salem, Hoda Abdel Ghaffar, Symbolism and Race in Amiri Baraka's Dutchman. European

Journal of English Language and Literature Studies, Vol. 9, No. 4, pp. 1-9, 2021

https://ssrn.com/abstract=3865763

Simanga, M. Amiri Baraka and the Congress of African People: History and Memory.

Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. Print.