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Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones)

PoemTalk Podcast #126, Discussing Amiri Baraka’s “Something in the Way of Things (In Town),” feat. Tyrone Williams, William J. Harris, and Aldon Nielsen

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

PoemTalk Podcast #20, Discussing Amiri Baraka's "Kenyatta Listening to Mozart"

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

  1. Introduction (0:50): MP3
  2. On Ed Dorn (1:48): MP3
  3. On the trajectory of African American literary culture and the relationship between politics and art (3:14): MP3
  4. Reading from Wise, Why's, Y's 1-3 (5:15): MP3
  5. On Kamu Brathwaite's idea of nation language and the commodification of African American language (4:57): MP3
  6. On the predicament of appropriation (2:42): MP3
  7. On the dispute surrounding "Somebody Blew Up America" (7:38): MP3
  8. Reading "El Reverendo Pedro Pietri" (6:20): MP3
  9. Closing comments (1:52): MP3
Complete recording (34:41): MP3

Reading at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, October 24, 2005

Funk Lore (3:05): MP3

Recorded by Howard Rambsy

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

Haveford College, March 20, 2002, with visual artist Theodore Harris

Produced, directed, music by Aaren Perry for Page2Stage, Drexel University. ©A aren Perry 2013, used by permission.
YouTube, PennSound archive copy

From the Dodge Poetry Festival, Waterloo, New Jersey, 2002

Lecture (43:59): MP3
Panel Presentation (56:39): MP3

Recorded by Chris Funkhouser

At the Newark Public Libary, Newark, New Jersey, 2002

Press Conference (18:30): MP3
Speech (35:38): MP3

Recorded by Chris Funkhouser

At New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, New Jersey, February 10, 2000

June 14, 1985, Allentown Community Center, Buffalo

  • Complete recording (1:11:53): MP3
  • Amina Baraka Reading (25:00): MP3
  1. Opening Remarks (1:20): MP3
  2. Soweto Song (2:45): MP3
  3. Slave Trade (2:24): MP3
  4. I Wanna Make Freedom (1:39): MP3
  5. Looking for the Lyrics (1:32): MP3
  6. Class Memories (3:08): MP3
  7. Oh Say Can You See (1:39): MP3
  8. Nicaragua on my Mind (1:16): MP3
  9. Dirge for the Lynched (1:40): MP3
  10. Moving On (0:59): MP3
  11. The Red (1:04): MP3
  12. For the Lady in Color (2:21): MP3
  13. Against Racism and Antisemitism (1:20): MP3
  14. The Last Word (1:33): MP3
  • Amiri Baraka Reading (45:29): MP3
  1. Opening Remarks (2:33): MP3
  2. Wise 1 (2:09): MP3
  3. Wise 2 (1:40): MP3
  4. Wise 3 (1:04): MP3
  5. Wise 4 (1:24): MP3
  6. Wise 5 (2:00): MP3
  7. Wise 6 (1:10): MP3
  8. Wise 8 (0:59): MP3
  9. Wise 9 (1:07): MP3
  10. Wise 10 (1:25): MP3
  11. A Note to President Pasadoekeeoh and his Wise-Ass Reply (2:19): MP3
  12. 1929, Why’d You Ask (2:07): MP3
  13. You Gotta Have Freedom (1:34): MP3
  14. Bee-Bop (for Dizzy Gillespie) (4:12): MP3
  15. Bucks Problem (0:36): MP3
  16. Reflections (for Thelonious Monk) (2:36): MP3
  17. Sounding (10:26): MP3
  18. How to Beat Reagan (5:57): MP3

Performing in 1984

featuring Steve McHall on percussion and Fred Houn on baritone sax, and courtesy of the Roulette Concert Archive
complete recording (58:04): MP3

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

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

Recording courtesy of Robert Creeley

Reading with Diane Di Prima, recorded by the Naropa Institute, July 26, 1978

  1. Introduction (6:35): MP3
  2. Statement on Art (6:17): MP3
  3. Afro-American Lyric (4:13): MP3
  4. Inside Out (2:32): MP3
  5. I Love Music (for John Coltrane) (2:15): MP3
  6. Malcolm X Remembers February '77 (7:14): MP3
  7. Against Bourgeois Art (3:50): MP3
  8. Dope (5:31): MP3
  • Full Reading (43:31): 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
    17. Discussion (24:35): MP3

    Complete reading (49:12): MP3

    "Kenyatta Listening to Mozart" is also featured on PoemTalk Episode 20.

    Reading, Date Unknown

    • Complete Recording, (1:04:48)MP3
    • Recording courtesy of Michael Davidson

    Reading "The Revolutionary Theatre," Unknown Date and Place

    Complete recording (11:40): MP3

    Recorded Poems on Harry's House Vol 2 CD

    • I Liked Us Better - Amiri Baraka (03:27): MP3
    • Somebody Call A Doctor - Amiri Baraka (00:33): MP3

    More Amiri Baraka Poems

    • Somebody Blew Up America (7:59): MP3 (Recorded by Chris Funkhouser)
    • Whoosh (3:10): MP3 (Recorded by Chris Funkhouser)
    • The Mind of the President (0:44): MP3 (Recorded by Chris Funkhouser)
    • 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 text (2001); (11:12): MP3;   YouTube
    • Something in the Way of Things (featuring the Roots) (7:04): MP3
    • The Academic Cowards of Reaction (2001) (5:21): MP3

    Baraka Reads Charles Olson (footage by Henry Ferrini):

    Optic Nerve Videos, Various Dates

    • If You're White You're All Right (4:08) Link
    • Bebop, Reading, Starting to Write (3:22) Link
    • A Salon in the Village (3:37) Link
    • Dutchman (2:33) Link
    • Civil Rights, Malcolm, Coltrane (2:21) Link
    • Sing! Fight! (1:29) Link
    • When Miles Split (3:17) Link
    • They Q Test (6:28) Link
    • Black History Musik (5:57) Link
    • We Travel the Spaceways (Sun Ra) (5:44) Link
    • Somebody Blew Up America (8:52) Link

    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. © 2009 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.