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Episode Description:

Amiri Baraka and Rob Brown

Amiri Baraka, poetry
Rob Brown, saxophone

Newark and New York City

Poetic icon and revolutionary political activist Amiri Baraka performs with Rob Brown, an eloquent and versatile saxophonist with a deep knowledge of jazz, in a reading from his book Somebody Blew Up America & Other Poems. The recital of the provocative poem Somebody Blew Up America engaged the poet warrior in a battle royal with the governor of New Jersey, who demanded his resignation as the state’s Poet Laureate. With influences on Baraka’s work ranging from musical orishas such as Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, Thelonius Monk, and Sun Ra to the Cuban Revolution, Malcolm X and world revolutionary movements, he is renowned as the founder of the Black Arts Movement in Harlem in the 1960s that became, though short-lived, the virtual blueprint for a new American theater aesthetic.

“While Amiri paints images of the varied lives of folks around him in different circles, Rob does a swell job of matching the feelings that Amiri stirs in us: bluesy, jazzy phrases and tasty licks that help to swallow harsh and real medicine that Mr. Baraka dishes out. I dig the way Amiri makes us question who is God and who is the Devil while Rob plays those festive bebop melodies.” Downtown Music Gallery

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