Poetry, jazz and
radical politics aren't exactly strangers to counter-cultural
activity. As the black civil rights movement grew during the 1960s,
so jazz grew ever free-er and subversive as words and music cried out
for liberation. One of the pioneering provocateurs of black American
poetry is Amiri Baraka, the New Jersey-born poet and playwright who
has been agitating, educating and organising ever since he moved into
Greenwich Village, where he discovered jazz and Beat writers such as
Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg.
Since then, the artist
formerly known as LeRoi Jones has become one of the most significant
writers of his generation, courting controversy with every line that
questioned what he saw as an oppressive establishment. This has been
the case whether in volumes of jazz criticism, revolutionary inclined
poems that were a clear influence on early rap, or as a figurehead of
the radical Black Arts Movement. Baraka's poem, Black Art, in which
he called for 'poems that kill', became a manifesto for the movement.
More recently, his status as Poet Laureate was undermined and the
post abolished following publication of his post 9/11 poem, Somebody
Blew Up America, which claimed there was an Israeli conspiracy
involved in the bombing of the World Trade Centre.
Baraka's visit to
Glasgow next weekend is a major coup for Freedom is a Constant
Struggle, Episode 4 of the Arika organisation's ongoing weekend
platforms based around one form of left-field sonic activity or
another. Where Arika previously ran experimental music festivals,
Instal and Kill Yr Timid Notion, these series of Episodes go beyond
the mere gig experience to explore the ideas, thinking and social
context that formed the music being presented. As Baraka's presence
suggests, Freedom is A Constant Struggle looks at the Black
experience via several major figures. While Baraka will be appearing
alongside bass player Henry Grimes, who has played alongside
iconoclasts such as Albert Ayler, Charles Mingus and Cecil Taylor, as he makes clear, this is no exercise in radical chic nostalgia.
“It's changed,”
Baraka says of jazz today compared to the 1960s. “It's
fundamentally the same music, but it got into a much free-er role. My
poetry has evolved in the same way along with my own consciousness.
You have to take into account all the things that have happened since
then, and apply that to what you're doing now.”
One of the things that
has happened is that America now has a black President. This is a
move which Baraka supports, albeit cautiously.
“It's kind of
contradictory in some ways,” he says. “Even though I support
Obama, because I couldn't vote for Milt Romney and all the other
lunatics, he's provided a kind of cool-out mechanism for black
people. Obama's in a dead-end struggle with the Republicans, who are
dedicated to rejecting everything he proposes, and trying to keep it
a corporate, bank-run economy. But the Republicans are in the early
stages of fascism. They want to block everything Obama does, which is
stopping the whole development of America.”
Baraka discovered the
power of words from an early age.
“I was writing when I
was a small child,” the seventy-eight year old remembers. “I had
a newspaper when I was ten or eleven. There were seven of us, and we
called ourselves the Secret Seven, so I made seven copies, which I
wrote out by hand. Then when I got to High School I took a writing
class, and at college I started doing my own stuff, which I continued
doing when I was in the army, and it all got rejected from
everywhere I sent it.”
After a dishonourable
discharge following accusations of being a Communist, Baraka found
more receptive responses to his work in the Village.
“It was more
accepting,” he says, “which was to do with what was going on
around the world politically. The civil rights movement has begun,
and there was a lot of revolutionary activity.”
Baraka's work became
notable for its directness, which may have something to do with some
of the controversies which have flared up in its wake.
“If you try to tell
the truth,” he says, “and be direct, and put things in a language
most people understand, then people react to it more directly, both
positively and negatively. That's what I learned when I came to New
York, to write in my own speaking voice and conversational tone,
which gives things deeper substance.”
Which brings us to the
furore over Somebody Blew Up America.
“I was reading it to
4000 people,” he says, “and then a couple of people complained,
and they cut the post of Poet Laureate to get rid of me, and declare
their ignorance to the world.”
While Baraka won't be
silenced, with such a reaction to any kind of dissent, can art ever
be truly revolutionary?
“That's the point,”
he says. “You have to try and make it that way. Poetry and music
have to shape it. That's what the Black Arts movement tried to do
with it, to try and make poetry and music relevant to social
struggle. That's what the bourgeoisie does with their ideas, they
pump it out at people, so you have to pump it right back at them."
Amiri Baraka appears at
Freedom is a Constant Struggle, Tramway, Glasgow, April 18th-21st
Free Players – Other
artists appearing at Freedom is A Constant Struggle
John Tilbury –
Pianist Tilbury has consistently applied radical thinking ton his
work, ever since his days working with composer and Scratch Orchestra
founder Cornelius Cardew, as well in the group AMM. Tilbury appears
solo and in a duo with Wadada Leo Smith
William Parker –
Bassist Parker has been seen in Scotland playing alongside some of
free jazz's major figures, including percussionist Hamid Drake and
violin player, Billy Bangs. His book, who Owns Music?, collected his
political thoughts, poems and musicological essays. Parker appears in
duo with saxophonist Daniel Carter.
Sonia Sanchez –
Radical poet and author of more than a dozen volumes, Sanchez was
associated with the Black Arts Movement, and has won numerous major
awards for her work.
Wadada Leo Smith –
Trumpeter and multi-instrumentalist Smith has been a key figure in
the musician-led AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative
musicians), and has recorded with the likes of composer Anthony
Braxton and guitarist Derek Bailey's group, Company. With guitarist
Henry Miles, Smith has released several tribute albums to Miles
Davis' lesser-known 1970s electric period. Smith will play solo and
in duo with John Tilbury, and will take part in The Experiment, a
conversation with Amiri Baraka, poet Sonia Sanchez and writer Fred
Moten.
The Herald, April 12th 2013
ends
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