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A new collection of poems. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

At least someone's honest about who really blew up America
People like to separate out people like Amiri Baraka as a "Black radical" yet what happened on 9/11 happened to everyone and everyone needs to be just as angry over who was behind it--those who occupy the US and most of the world. Baraka lost his poet laureate title over this truthful poem, by those who occupy this country, so it's no surprise to anyone who's clued in on this horrific situation that that is exactly what happens when you reveal the truth. The poem is brilliant and immensely courageous. We don't make true heroes of the people like this anymore.

Moving and thought provoking
I was there when Baraka read this poem at the Dodge poetry festival, before the controversy. It is an incredibly moving and thought provoking poem.

It took a controversey to make anyone read this one
When this poem came out, there was a lot of controversy.Not only because of the content, but because New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey had named Amiri Baraka as the state's poet laureate shortly before, and the subsequent outrage over the poem prompted the state to rescind that title from Baraka.

Some believe Mr. Baraka (AKA Leroy Jones) was blaming the Jews in his poem "Somebody Blew Up America" for the 9-11 attack on the Twin Towers.After reading the poem, I understand Baraka's point that he was not blaming Jews, but rather ISRAELIS.

That being said, the only reason anyone bothered to read this book and its poems was because of the controversy.It's not a great of a read at all. ... Read more

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early classic, with new Preface by Amiri Baraka ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A classic text of the civil rights-black power era!
Home is essential reading for any serious student of the 1960s, particularly the Black Revolt.Standing next to such classics as The Autobiography of Malcolm X and Soul on Ice, it is one of the best accountsof the Black search for identity and liberation.Here we see Baraka'spolitical evolution. The essays are arranged chronologically, tracing hisdevelopment from "Cuba Libre," an evocative account of his firstexperience with the Cuban Revolution, to his definition of the legacy ofthe fallen leader, Malcolm X.No study of the Black Revolt of the 1960s iscomplete without a reading of "Home," written by one of thefounders of the Black Arts Movement. ... Read more

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Word count: 461. ... Read more

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"The path the slave took to 'citizenship' is what I want to look at. And I make my analogy through the slave citizen's music -- through the music that is most closely associated with him: blues and a later, but parallel development, jazz... [If] the Negro represents, or is symbolic of, something in and about the nature of American culture, this certainly should be revealed by his characteristic music."

So says Amiri Baraka in the Introduction to Blues People, his classic work on the place of jazz and blues in American social, musical, economic, and cultural history. From the music of African slaves in the United States through the music scene of the 1960's, Baraka traces the influence of what he calls "negro music" on white America -- not only in the context of music and pop culture but also in terms of the values and perspectives passed on through the music. In tracing the music, he brilliantly illuminates the influence of African Americans on American culture and history. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

Interesting & Truthful
The origin of Africans in America and the music they produced over the last three hundred years was very interesting to read. Mr. Jones provides a chronological and historically based history of the evolution of Black music in America.

He also points out that when black music is accepted by the mainstream it becomes a diluted and pitiful shell of its former greater self. I agree. If anyone notices whenever a beloved artist goes mainstream, generally his or her music is so shallow, you wonder what happened to the real person. I guess it is all about the dollars. They want to get paid. They know that most folks in the mainstream society cannot take or intellectually and spiritually relate to the rawness of our people's music. It is too powerful and personal. The black experience is unique, which affects our worldview and attitudes.

However, the black folk, the masses, always create new music or keep the real music alive. We continuously create, and the mainstream is darn well lucky. If not for black folks, I don't know what in de world they would do with dye selves. Lady this would be such a dull place.

An American Treasure
This is one of the most important books on America and American history, culture and citizenship. It would benefit the world if it were incorporated into public education. Someone said that nations are judged by their art and this book examines that subject superlatively. This study of the blues examines the evolving cosmology of the Africans and their journey and creation: the blues, one of the singular most powerful beauties of America. He shows how all American music originated from the blues and how it embraced all other peoples and cultures. Baraka's ability to inhabit the thoughts of the Blue's originators enables us to understand the profundity of their sorrow and sublimity of their joy.

gone where the Southern cross the yella dog
The other day a friend rashly claimed that art and music were equally hard to describe in words.I asked him to tell me about a certain painting of Picasso's.He did, but claimed it wasn't accurate."OK," I said, "you're right, but now tell me about Mozart's Jupiter Symphony."He opened his mouth, closed it, looked at me, and said, "Yeah, I see what you mean."Writing a book about the blues would be equally hard, it seems to me.So, LeRoi Jones did what he could, back in 1963, to tie the indescribable to the more concrete.He wrote a social history of African-Americans in the USA through the prism of music or---maybe on the principle of red and yellow tile floors (are they red with yellow designs or yellow with red designs ?)---he wrote a book on African-American music through the prism of social history.It is one of the most important books on American music (and American society) that you can find.It has stood the test of time.He begins from the Africans who came to North America as slaves bearing very different cultures, confronted by an absolutely different view of the world emanating from their new masters.Here he tries to show how African music became transformed into African-AMERICAN music and then American.He continues then up through the generations of slavery, to Emancipation, migration to the cities, World War I, the Depression, World War II and the bebop age of the Fifties.The book is pre-Civil Rights movement, pre-Martin Luther King.Jones may have looked down on the NAACP and its allies as "white liberal supported organizations", I'm not sure, but they don't appear.The times are symbolized by the use of "Negro" throughout.I agree, the tome is dated, but don't reject it, don't pooh-pooh the man.This is a very intelligent, very worthwhile book.Anyone, particularly from outside the USA, who wants to know the history of African-American music within its social environment ought still to read BLUES PEOPLE.He writes, "If Negro music can be seen to be the result of certain attitudes, certain specific ways of thinking about the world (and only ultimately about the ways in which music can be made), then the basic hypothesis of this book is understood." [p.153]Jones goes to great lengths to get to the bottom of those attitudes and thoughts.

My main criticism, apart from the fact that history dictates that we must be left a half century behind contemporary realities, is that though Jones obviously knew and loved the blues and jazz and all the various styles ( if not swing), his approach is coldly academic, highly dispassionate. He may criticize people who tried to make money, he may downplay all those who "abandoned" their roots, but my disappointment is that there is nothing of himself in the work barring a few mentions of his family.He does not share his enthusiasm.Music is beauty after all. I am sure he wanted the book to be taken as a serious essay, which it is.But in keeping himself removed from the discussion, being so analytic and professional in the style of the day, he has robbed us "readers of the future" of many insights.

African-American experience in the USA expressed itself most particularly in the blues, only later did that musical mode become part of the general American culture, often watered down, sometimes imitated by those who didn't wish to fit in or who wished to cash in.When conditions have changed, when the black middle class has entered mainstream America, and the urban underclass is wrapped up in hip-hop, gangsta rap culture, which is relentlessly commercialized by the powerful media, talking about the blues may seem a matter for historians or ethnomusicologists.Still, BLUES PEOPLE resonates strongly if we try to understand where we have been.As for where we are going---that old line sums it up---we're goin where the Southern cross the yella dog.

Blues People
This is a really interesting look at the evolution of black culture through the lense of music. Some of the author's opinions about later music (50's-60's) may seem out of touch to today's readers, but overall it is well worth reading.

The Best Starting Point
I actually purchased the first paperback edition this book a long time ago, and I learned that it had been out of print for quite some time. It was a time when I was a casual listener of blues and jazz, and didn't think about the roots of the music I was listening to. The book was interesting enough, but it didn't have information about more contemporary stuff, as it was printed in 1963.

Recently, I found this book in the upper shelves of my library, having completely forgotten about it in spite of my infatuation with the blues for the better part of the last two decades. It was a most welcome surprise for me, as it contained a compact but comprehensive introduction to the time period from the first Africans came to America to the 1920s when their music was first recorded, and laid the groundwork to how this music evolved in a sociological context. The rural lifestyle, the reflections of the exodus from the south on the music and subsequent refined, urban sound are discussed in this framework.

Although it would not really appeal to the casual reader and listener, "Blues People" is invaluable for the serious blues and jazz fan for setting the music into the general context of social life and external effects that made this music what it is today. ... Read more

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incl long out-of-print chapbooks, broadsides et al ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

One of the lesser known, great African-American playwrights
Ron Milner is one of the great overlooked African-American writers of our time. Perhaps it is because he writes plays--something most people never take the time to read.I can only imagine how great these would be performed.Milner's works are largely didactic--I have read reviews that liken them to Christian morality plays.But, the didacticism is not necessarily preachy--Milner writes what he knows.What he knows is the life of inner-city, poor, African-American youth and the temptations they face.Dealing with those temptations--drugs, sex, easy money--is the thread that connects most of Milner's works.Even Checkmates, which is ostensibly about the generation gap, has a certain amount of tension because of "easy money"--the older generation thinks the younger generation has it too easy.Critical reception of Milner's works has been mixed, though predominantly reception has been poor.He has a few stalwart supporters (Amiri Baraka and Woodie King) who feel Milner is the chronicler of the inner-city African-American youth rising out of the Black Theater movement to become the chronicler of middle class African-Americans.I think his works are certainly worth a read. ... Read more