The Personal is Political. The Political is Personal.

 
A. Baraka joins the ancestors

[A]s a poet, his job wasn’t so much about espousing theories as articulating the subconscious, even when it and he were wrong, or misguided.

                               New Yorker, here

If some of his statements were shockingly hateful, it’s worth noting that these sentiments were a fair record of the sentiments of his community at that time and could also be heard on any corner of any urban ghetto in America. . . . 

 I’m asking you to recognize the discomfort he inspires as a challenge to take his larger message seriously, to reconsider how far we’ve travelled since the 1950s, what’s been lost, what’s been gained, and who’s really benefited.

                     "In Defense of Amiri Baraka," the Forward, here

The above were the most thoughtful reflections TiR happened to see, iTiRho.












posted by TiR at 7:01 AM