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Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones)

PoemTalk Podcast #20, discussing Amiri Baraka's "Kenyatta Listening to Mozart," July 30, 2009

Listen to the complete recording and read program notes for the episode at Jacket2.

Appearing on Cross Cultural Poetics, Episode #141: Challenge, May 19, 2007

  • complete recording (34:41): MP3

from Kenning, Vol. 4 No. 3 Autumn/Winter 2002-2003, Issue #12

Amiri Baraka recorded at his home in Newark, New Jersey, by Chris Funkhouser, 9 July 2001. "Wooden Negroes..." appears in XCP: Cross-Cultural Poetics #9.

"Wooden Negroes Appear at a Slam" and several "Low Coups" (5:08): MP3

Reading with Ed Dorn at the Just Buffalo Literary Center, Buffalo, NY, December 8, 1978

(recording courtesy of Robert Creeley)

Complete reading (21:44):MP3

  1. Against Bourgeois Art (recording starts in medias res) (3:48): MP3
  2. Caution, part 3 (3:50): MP3
  3. I Love Music (2:15): MP3
  4. War Clouds Over the World (5:03): MP3
  5. Dope (6:47): MP3

From the Berkeley Poetry Conference, July 1965

The Revolutionary Theatre (11:40): MP3

From a Reading at San Francisco State University, 4 March 1965

  • Introduction (4:50): MP3
  • Snake Eyes (0:40): MP3
  • A Poem for Speculative Hipsters (0:34): MP3
  • Black Bourgeoisie (0:54): MP3
  • Young Soul (0:49): MP3
  • Poem for Half-White College Students (1:46): MP3
  • Western Front (1:24): MP3
  • In One Battle (1:00): MP3
  • Bad Mouth (0:50): MP3
  • Ghosts (0:50): MP3
  • Where's the Romantic Life? (0:57): MP3
  • Three Movements and a Coda (1:28): MP3
  • Blue Whitey (0:25): MP3
  • 3rd Avenue (0:50): MP3
  • Poem for Bald Heads (1:04): MP3
  • Houdini (0:59): MP3
  • The People Burning (4:01): MP3
  • Chapter 1 of "A New World" (22:03): MP3

    Complete Recording (47:14): MP3

    From a Reading at the Asilomar Negro Writers Conference, Pacific Grove, California, early August, 1964

    1. Introduction (0:36): MP3
    2. As a Possible Lover (0:52): MP3
    3. A Contract for the Destruction and Rebuilding of Patterson (2:12): MP3
    4. The Dance (1:43): MP3
    5. A Poem for Speculative Hipsters (0:36): MP3
    6. Black Dada Nihilismus (4:02): MP3
    7. Snake Eyes (0:39): MP3
    8. Short Speech to My Friends (2:27): MP3
    9. Houdini (0:46): MP3
    10. A Poem Some People Will Have to Understand (1:20): MP3
    11. Tightrope (0:23):
    12. Kenyatta Listening to Mozart (1:08): MP3 (this poem discussed on PoemTalk at the Writers House)
    13. Mise En Scene, Newark 1947 (0:49): MP3
    14. Three Modes of History and Culture (2:49): MP3
    15. Blue Whitey (0:26): MP3
    16. The Bronze Buckaroo (2:08): MP3

    Complete Reading (24:41): MP3

    More Amiri Baraka Poems

    • Black Dada Nihilismus (DJ Spooky mix) (4:12): MP3
    • A Black Mass Part 1 (15:43): MP3
    • A Black Mass Part 2 (19:51): MP3
    • For Pharaoh Sanders (0:54): MP3
    • In Walked Bud (2:43): MP3
    • Pressure to Grow (1:30): MP3
    • The X Is Black (Spike Lie) (3:07): MP3
    • "Wooden Negroes Appear at a Slam" and several "Low Coups" (5:08): MP3 recorded at his home in Newark, New Jersey, 9 July 2001
    • Class Struggle in Music II (4:58): MP3
    • Dope (5:05): MP3
    • Somebody Blew Up America (11:12): MP3
    • Something in the Way of Things (featuring the Roots) (7:04): MP3
    • The Academic Cowards of Reaction (5:21): MP3

    Baraka Reads Charles Olson (footage by Henry Ferrini):

    For more information on Baraka's recorded output, be sure to visit The Amiri Baraka Discography Project, edited by Marc Epstein.

    Amiri Baraka on PennSound Daily

    These sound recordings are being made available for noncommercial and educational use only. All rights to this recorded material belong to the author. © 2008 Amiri Baraka. Used with permission of author and Sterling Lord Literistic, Inc. DJ Spooky mix used with the permission of Paul D. Miller.PennSound Amiri Baraka page edited by William J. Harris Distributed by PennSound.

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