Amiri Baraka: The Politics and Art of a Black Intellectual

592 Pages·2001·2.391 MB·English

by  Jerry Watts

AMIRI BARAKA

JERRY GAFIO WATTS
AMIRI BARAKA
The Politics and Art of a Black Intellectual
a
New York University Press • New York and London
For Traci Cassandra West
“life companion”
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York and London
© 2001 by New York University
All rights reserved
Grateful acknowledgment is made to Amiri Baraka and to the
Sterling Lord Agency for permission to reprint excerpts from Baraka’s
works.The New York Public Library is acknowledged for permission
to use the LeRoy McLucas photograph ofBaraka on the cover.
Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Watts,Jerry Gafio.
Amiri Baraka :the politics and art ofa Black intellectual / Jerry
Gafio Watts.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8147-9373-8
1.Baraka,Imamu Amiri,1934– —Political and social views.
2.Politics and literature—United States—History—20th century.
3.Baraka,Imamu Amiri,1934– —Criticism and interpretation.
4.African Americans—Politics and government. 5.African
Americans—Intellectual life. 6.Blacks—Politics and government.
7.African Americans in literature. 8.Blacks—Intellectual life.
9.Blacks in literature. I.Title.
PS3552.A583 Z93 2001
818'.5409—dc21 2001002006
New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper,
and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability.
Manufactured in the United States ofAmerica
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Preface x
Introduction 1
1 Birth ofan Intellectual Journey 21
2 Bohemian Immersions 44
3 AnAlien among Outsiders 85
4 Rejecting Bohemia:The Politicization ofEthnic Guilt 141
5 The Quest for a Blacker Art 171
6 Toward a Black Arts Infrastructure 210
7 Black Arts Poet and Essayist 225
8 Black Revolutionary Playwright 259
9 Kawaida:Totalizing the Commitment 291
10 The Slave as Master:Black Nationalism,Kawaida,and the
Repression ofWomen 325
11 New-Ark and the Emergence ofPragmatic Nationalism 348
12 Pan-Africanism 374
13 National Black Political Convention 401
14 Ever Faithful:Toward a Religious Marxism 420
15 The Artist as Marxist / The Marxist as Artist 444
Conclusion 464
Notes 481
Bibliography 553
Index 571
About the Author 577

Acknowledgments
Like my first book,this volume has its origins in my dissertation.I had the
great fortune to study political science at Yale University during the late 1970s
and early 1980s.The political science department gave me the freedom to en-
gage my humanist sensibilities, an act of intellectual toleration that went
against the prevailing tendencies in the discipline.I want to thank my com-
mittee ofRobert Lane,Juan Linz,and particularly David Apter,the chairman,
for helping guide a confused graduate student through the bureaucracy ofac-
ademia and doing so in a way that provided the space for me to follow my cu-
riosity. In addition, I benefited from the intellectual generosity of Douglas
Rae,James Scott,Stanley Greenberg,and the late Philip White.
While writing this work,I received encouragement and intellectual sup-
port from many friends and acquaintances,including associates from my Yale
days: Horace Porter,Carla Carr,Frank Gonzales,Randall Kennedy,Adolph
Reed, Eileen Hormel,Angelo Messore, Rabbi Arnold Wolfe, Marcus Bruce,
Eugene Rivers, Henry Louis Gates, Norris Sakwe-Mante, Isabelle Gunning,
MaryDavis,Deborah King,and the late Carl Price.I also benefited from my
association with Kathy Rees,Larry Jackson,Helura Lyle,Tanya Green,Paul
Kumar,Kris Graves,Eric Greene,Ethan Flad,Eve Goldberg,Fred Montas,Na-
talie Difloff,Joy Anderson,Nina Karnovsky,Steve Vacarro,Lisa Freeman,Al-
ford Young,Carla O’Connor,Amy Randall,Beau Dunning,Josh Freely,“L.T.,”
Maureen Kay,Tanya Jones,Denise Burgher,the Whitters family,and former
Wesleyan colleagues: Robert O’Meally,Peter Marx,Georgie Leone,Barbara
Craig,Steven Gregory,Michael Harris,Ollie Holmes,Clarence Walker,Mar-
shall Hyatt, Nat and Erness Brody, Alex Dupuy, Richard Williams, Robert
Wood,and Mary Ann Clawson.Lee Siegel’s unsolicited close reading ofa very
early version ofthis manuscript was a true gift.Dan Clawson and Gerald Gill
have been two constant sources ofencouragement and sanity.To Pop Kantor
in Norfolk,I owe a special thanks for supplying me with good bourbon and
good books. For almost three decades David Evans has helped me stay
grounded.To Martin Kilson I owe a debt ofimmense gratitude for the time,
energy,and spirit he has invested in me for a quarter century.Jackie Lindsay
was there at the beginning.Melvin Fowler,E.J.Davis,and Melvin Maddox
vii
viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
were inexhaustible suppliers ofgood conversation.Emma Ketteringham and
Amy Randall remain foundational,though my behavior doesn’t show it.Ash-
ley Hammarth,Erin Blakeley,Roberta Gold,Jill Kantor,Stephanie Mandell,
and Sandy Sydlo persist as soulmates.Although I can do without Mandell’s
terrible jokes,I do miss her.During the writing ofthis book,Lisa and Steve,
Al and Carla,Kris and Fred and Joy have added new members to the Ameri-
can intellectual community.Congrats!
I want to thank supportive Trinity colleagues:Vijay Prashad,Raymond
Baker,Joan Hendrick,Susan Pennybacker,Berel Lang,Steve Valocchi,Carol
Clark,Renny Fulco,Laurie Waite,Noreen Channels,Hugh Ogden,Clinton
Bailey,Dave Winer,Jack Chatfield,Stephanie Chambers,Peter Burns,Wally
Swist,Maryam Elahi,Cheryl Greenberg,Ronald Spencer,Dianne Zannoni,
and,gone but not forgotten,Lynn Tallit,Naomi Amos,Jeffrey Melnick,Van
Gosse,Maurice Jackson,Jack Waggett,Hank Lewis,and Salim Washington.
Different as “night and day,”Johnny Williams and Margo Perkins have added
humor,vitality,and a healthy dose of skepticism to my life at Trinity.Judy
Moran is the only known spirit-replenishing mathematician.Barbara Sicher-
man and Dina Anselmi have been two of Trinity’s gifts to my life.Dear and
special friends,Barbara and Dina have tried to keep me whole through their
humor, generosity, and critical introspection. Both have taught me a great
deal about the expansiveness and intimacy of friendship.Whereas Barbara
has a knack for expecting answers to endless questions about things ofgreat
and minor significance,Dina is the only person that I know who enjoys,more
than I do,baiting people into arguments over minutia.Barb,I can’t remem-
ber! Dina,you win! With love,I celebrate the deviance ofboth women.Mani-
jeh Zavareei,a kind,decent,and thoughtful colleague who died far too pre-
maturely,will always be remembered for,among other things,trying to teach
me how to write my name in Farsi.
Myimmediate and extended families have always supported my intellec-
tual ambitions.I want to thank Maria and James Watts,my mother and fa-
ther,for the love they have always given me.I also give them credit for my var-
ious neuroses.I have been blessed to have my brothers James and Robert;my
sister Brenda, and my nephews Jim, Gregory, and Michael. I also want to
thank my in-laws—Bil Wright,Jean Powell Watts,Beckett Logan,Robynne
West,Richard Perkins,Karen Amore and Estelle Amore,my “main man”Kyle,
and Ravae,my favorite and very special niece.My late Uncle James and Aunt
Sally were always among my most avid supporters—as is my Aunt Julia.Paula
West’s spiritedness will never be forgotten.
Cornel West, Werner Sollors, Traci C. West, Gerald Hudson, Michelle
Wallace,Martin Luther Kilson,Farah Griffin,and James A.Miller have signif-
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix
icantly informed my view of Baraka. Miller, a former Trinity College col-
league,will probably reject most ofthe findings and arguments in this book.
Because of that as well as his friendship with Baraka,I threatened to write
here:“Jim Miller has been singularly responsible for shaping all the assess-
ments contained within.”Jokes aside,I could not have written this book with-
out the writings of Werner Sollors, Kim Benston, Henry Lacey, Houston
Baker,William J.Harris,David Smith,Lloyd Brown,Harold Cruse,Theodore
Hudson,and Komozi Woodard.
While this book is highly critical ofAmiri Baraka,it should be clear that
I think that his intellectual journey was one of the pathbreaking models for
mygeneration.I thank him for giving us a corpus ofworks worthy ofserious
engagement.More important,I salute him for living a life full ofrisks and the
resultant bruises,regrets,and bumps.
The staffat the Moorland-Spingarn Collection ofHoward University de-
serve special thanks,particularly Joellen El-Bashir.Similar thanks go to the
prints and photographs division ofthe Schomburg Library.I also am grateful
toEric Zinner and Despina Papazoglou Gimbel at New York University Press.
Werner Sollors has once again shown phenomenal generosity toward me.
This book is dedicated to Traci Cassandra West,a true companion,advo-
cate for justice,and partner in crimes ofpolitical opposition.Traci was pres-
ent when this project began as a thesis prospectus.From its very inception she
steadfastly insisted that I grapple with issues offeminism not only in my life
but in my work.In sharing her life with me,she inspired and reinforced what-
ever ethical impulses I now have.Most important,she helped me recognize
that the goal ofwriting is not to hit flies with sledgehammers.In helping me
control my abundantly endowed demons, particularly crude ambition, an
unbridled desire for acclaim,and a resilient will to compare myselfwith oth-
ers, I have become far more capable of accepting the limits and unpre-
dictability oflife.No means exist to adequately convey my gratitude to her for
steadfastly contesting my sense oflife as a burden.