TRIBUTES TO AMIRI BARAKA

People’s Organization for Progress Chairman Larry Hamm (pictured right, with Amiri Baraka) and a veteran of an old student group New Jersey Freedom Organization (which DLJ was a member of when One People’s Project began) pay tribute to their mentor.

Lawrence Hamm, People’s Organization for Progress

On Thursday, January 9th, the People’s Organization for  Progress was shaken beyond words when it was learned that the incredible revolutionary leader, thinker and artist, Amiri Baraka had passed.

He was 79 years old.
 
He was a mentor to chairman  Lawrence Hamm who had this to say in an article for The Star Ledger about a great man deeply loved by this organization.
 
“On the cultural side, he accomplished more in a lifetime than most people could in five.
 
“On the political side, he was really a foremost advocate and practitioner of  black self-determinism. A lot of people talked about black power. Baraka was actually on the ground practicing black power in Newark, and he ended having a tremendous amount of influence on the way people thought,” he finished.
 
Baraka gave him his still popular African name ‘Adhimu Chunga,’ which is Swahili for ‘people’s warrior.’
 
To Baraka’s satisfaction, Hamm grew into the name nobly over the years becoming a tireless protester and community resource.
 
Amiri Baraka was a prolific author. Only weeks ago, his highly celebrated cultural classic Blues People was celebrated for its 50th anniversary.
 
As an organizer, his Committee For a Unified Newark was key in securing the historic 1970 election of Ken Gibson as Mayor, the first African American to do so on the east coast. His Congress of Afrikan Peoples was a national effort to forge a Black United Front called for by his leader, the immortal Malcolm X.
 
Baraka’s funeral will take place on Saturday, January 18th at Newark’s Symphony Hall at 10a.m. His wake will take place on Friday, January 17th at Metropolitan Baptist Church on Springfield Avenue in Newark…

Amiri I Knew

By Matt Smith

Like so many out there, I’m heartbroken by the loss of our great mentor and friend Amiri Baraka. My heart goes out to the entire Baraka family, to his beautiful wife Amina, and to all their children. This is a profoundly sad day, and a profound loss. I know a lot of people called him Imamu, or Mr. B. He once told me his mom still called him Leroy. To us, he was always Amiri. I loved the man, and admired him immensely. He changed my life. He opened his home to us ragtag radicals from New Brunswick in search of direction in the 90’s. He sat us down at his kitchen table, in his living room, in his basement. He would get with us every chance he could, helping us keep our heads and our hearts in the right direction, on the side of good. He always taught unity before struggle, but to struggle like hell. He helped my family immeasurably, insisting to me that I need to get along with my brothers, because if we can’t unite, how are we going to defeat imperialism?

Amiri ran Kimako’s Blues People (in honor of his sister) out of his basement, holding together the greatest jazz-poetry-revolutionary politics event anywhere with shoestrings, duct tape & donations, famously quipping “You don’t have to pay to get in, but you do have to pay to leave!” Somewhere in deep storage I have many video recordings of this event that I made, & I will find them. He put me to work on organizing his own historic reel-to-reels of Ginsberg, Farrakhan, Sun Ra, the Panthers, & on & on, that used to sit in a back room by an old oil burning furnace, before he donated them to the Schomburg Center, I think. We worked with Amiri on his newspaper Unity & Struggle for years, myself often on layout, advancing the truth that, in his words, “Democracy is the one thing capitalism always offers, but can’t deliver.” Always quick on the draw with a searing comment or witty rejoinder, people would ask him how he always hits his mark. “It’s because I’m always aiming,” he would say.

When I moved to Newark in 1999, down Rt. 21 from my own home town, I worked by Amiri’s side on a great urban renewal effort called Lincoln Park/Coast Cultural District project, through which he taught us that Newark was one of the greatest Jazz hubs in the country mere decades ago; I also worked with him on his concept project called the Newark Store, which was meant to promote famous Newarkers (Sarah Vaughan, Allen Ginsberg, Ed Koch, Philip Roth, Shaquille O’neal, Lauryn Hill, etc.) while creating employment for locals. Amiri and I joined together to built a bridge from the Newark community to NJIT when I was an architecture student there, a legacy that continued until recently through the dedication of beloved professor Tony Schuman. It was Amiri that showed me Newark’s greatness, & he would lament, “Everyone wants to say they’re from Newark, but nobody wants to actually be here.” I was always torn that I left.

When Amiri was the Poet Laureate of NJ, we stood by his side while his enemies tried to knock down his pedestal for speaking truth to power, post-9/11. Come to think of it, when those planes hit the WTC towers, not knowing where to turn, I went to Amiri’s house to seek refuge and comfort. Amiri Baraka will be forever missed, forever loved, forever admired, and forever defended. I’ll never forget hearing Sonia Sanchez say to Amiri and Amina at the Sarah Vaughan Ballroom, “You are who the ancestors were talking about!” It’s so hard to believe that now he himself is with the ancestors. They’re the better for it, but we’ll keep fighting the good fight with his mighty legacy to guide us.

Down with Imperialism! Long Live Amiri!

In the 1990s Matt Smith was a member of the New Brunswick, NJ-based New Jersey Freedom Organization, a group that was mentored by Amiri Baraka.