01/10/14 01/10/14 >> from pacifica, this is democracy now! want me and myself and what that is what i be and who it is i am going to and be here. self-determination. you could make 300 years of a blue-chip stock. you want to be paid in a central

bank, all those years that we gave it free. legendary they write and poet amiri baraka has died at the age of 79. just like martin luther king told me the week before he died in my house, he said what we must have is a united front. will spend the hour looking at the life and legacy of amiri baraka. poet sonyajoined by sanchez, philippe a lily -- larry hamm, and more. welcome to democracy now!,

democracynow.org, the war and peace report. president obama met with privacy advocates at the white house thursday as part of his ongoing surveillance reform. groups included the american civil liberties union and the electronic privacy center aesented the president with number of demands. a white house panel last month issued a similar call among several others to reign in the widespread spying exposed by edward snowden. at the white house, jay carney said a bomb he would unveil his policy changes in the coming weeks. he is still soliciting input, which he did today, reviewing the scope of the matter and some of the ideas presented in the review group report which was released publicly. obviously close to the end of this review in the sense that

he will be giving remarks about his conclusions and the steps forward he wants to take within beforet couple of weeks, january 28. a european parliament committee has invited edward snowden to testify as part of its ongoing probe into u.s. spying. the move by the parliaments of justice defies calls from the u.s. government to prevent snowden's appearance. he will testify by video link from russia where he has been granted temporary asylum. declared aia has state of emergencncy in nine counties over a chemical spill in the elk river. 300,000 people have been ordered to avoid tap water after the company freedom industries leaked a foaming agent use for extracting coal. the announcement forced

residents to scramble for bottled water at local stores. schools and businesses across the area have been ordered closed. new jersey governor chris christie has fired an eight and cut ties with another after it was armored and that his administration cause traffic delays to exact political revenge. his deputy chief of staff bridget anne kelly personally ordered the closure of lanes leading to the closure of the george washington bridge, apparently to punish the mayor for declining to support christie's reelection bid. he apologized and said his aides had deceived him. i come out here today to apologize to the people of new jersey. i apologize to the people of four lead, and i apologize to the members of the state legislature. humiliatedassed and

by the conduct of some of the .eople on my team there is no doubt in my mind actions they exhibited is unacceptable and shows a lack of respect for the appropriate role of government, and for the people that we are trusted to serve. in addition to firing kelly, governor christie severed limbs to a longtime political adviser bill stepien. namedr high school friend avid wildstein appear before state assembly panel but invoked his fifth amendment right to avoid self-incrimination. the u.s. attorney has announced an inquiry into the closures. later in the day, christine visited fort lee to apologize to residents and mayor mark socha lich. the scandal could delay his

expected candidacy for the 2016 presidential nomination. critics say even if christie was left in the dark, it reflects a culture of intimidation that took place under his watch. hamid karzai has ordered the release of prisoners. they were involved in killing u.s. troops and afghan civilians. karzai says there is insufficient evidence to warrant their continued detention. it is the latest issue to strain u.s. afghan relations amid the standoff with the white house over a long-term security pact. a number of lawmakers have threatened to cut aid to afghanistan over their release. adding to their rift what washington, afghan officials accuse the u.s. of continuing to operate illegal black prisons, where prisoners are tortured.

afghan officials reported u.s. forces accidentally shot dead a four-year-old boy in helmand province earlier this week. two service members and a civilian died when their plane crashed in eastern province. haven government forces killed dozens of rebel fighters in the city of homs. least 45 rebels died as they tried to repel the army siege. the rebels have faced disarray .his week with heavy clashes in other violence, 18 people were killed on thursday when a car bomb exploded. the interim president of central africa republic has resigned after months of violence that has left over one million displaced. came to power as a rebel leader but has faced growing calls to step down.

the south sudan government and rebel fighters are facing a deadlock in these talks amid continued fighting. the sides met for the first time in ethiopia this week but came to an impasse after the government refused to free 11 rebels detained last year. thousands fled from the south sudanese cities as government expelledosed in two the rebels. a spokesperson accused uganda of carrying out attacks on behalf of the south sudan government. there was a bombing on the eighth and ninth of january. struckitary airplanes indiscriminately, killing innocent civilians. also thursday, the obama administration warned south sudan risks going into civil war

and encouraged negotiations. arrested journalists. two other al jazeera , andalists, mohamed bodnar another, have been arrested for months. devyani khobragade, india's deputy counsel in new york was arrested last month, prompting charges of inappropriate treatment. she is charged with committing visa fraud to win entry into the country. she left the united states on thursday after the indian government rejected a request to waive her diplomatic immunity.

the first guantánamo bay prisoner to go in front of a new government panel has been cleared for transfer abroad. he was previously deemed too dangerous to be freed but also unfit for prosecution because of a lack of evidence or jurisdiction. the obama administration set up the review panel last year. despite being cleared, no decision has been made on whether he will actually be released. an american catholic priest known worldwide for his activism on previous and social justice has been dismissed from the international judges religious order. john deere has been arrested several times for acts of civil disobedience. archbishop desmond tutu nominated him for the nobel peace prize in 2008. obstinatelyt he was disobedient to their directives.

he says superiors have been trying to stop his course of activism in the jesuit order. half of all african-american men will be arrested by the time they are 23 years old, according to one study. a study from 1997 until 2000 and eight showed 48% had been arrested by the time they turned 23. a transgender african-american woman in prison for the fatal stabbing of a man who reportedly harassed her is set for early release next week. wasshaun "cece" mcdonald sentenced to 41 months in prison after pleading guilty to second- degree manslaughter to avoid a murder trial. supporters say she was the victim after two women and a man began harassing her with racial and homophobic slurs. while the events of the night are unclear, the ensuing flight

dead- left dean schmidt from a stabbing. ae case has emerged as rallying point in the battle against transgender people in the criminal justice system. a prisoneen held in for men despite her transgender identity. those are some of the headlines. >> welcome to all of our listeners and viewers around the country and world. rest of thed the hour remembering the life and legacy of the poet, playwright and political play writer amiri baraka. ofdenied -- died at the age 79. he was a leading force in the black arts movement but first came to prominence as a be generation poet when he cofounded a journal and published the works of allen

ginsberg, jack kerouac, and others. at the time, he was known as leroi jones. he published "blues people: ,"gro music in white america which has been called the first account of black music in america. he later published "the dead lecturer." >> dutchman was the last play that he wrote under his birth name leroi jones. he soon became the leader of what was known as the black arts movement. in 2007, he appeared on democracy now! and talked about his name change. >> my grandfather's name was every. theamily came to newark in 1920s. my father's name was leori. -- leroi.

i changed my name when we became aware of the african revolution and the whole question of our african roots. i was named by the man who buried malcolm x. the name he gave me was arabic. i brought it down into swahili land. so it is amiri baraka. if it was arabic, i would probably have more difficulty flying. >> amiri baraka moved back to his hometown of newark and began focusing on political organizing. nearly beaten by police during the uprising in newark. he was once identified as the person that would emerge as leaders of the pan african movement in the united states. in 1970, he formed the congress of african people.

he continued writing performance poetry up until he was hospitalized late last year. in 2002, he was named poet laureate of new jersey, a post that was eliminated after a poem about thefter the -- september 11 attacks which created a firestorm throughout the country and state. baraka's work also influenced a younger generation of hip-hop artists and slam poets. in a moment we will be joined by four guess to talk about his life and legacy, but first let's the jama performance on poetry. why is we americans? why is we americans?

[singing] real. want is me, for what i see in what i see and feel and who is me and what it is and who it is. like i said, self-determination. but i income from a foolish tried. you can make 300 years of blue- chip stocks. we want to be paid. plus we want damages for all the killings and the fraud, lynchings, missing justice, the ups, unwarranted jailing, character assassinations, ugly

caricatures. want to be paid for every hurtful thing you said or did, for all the land you took. the street you destroyed, the miseducation, jobs lost, the disease that eight and killed us , for all the music and dances you still. the language, the careers you stopped. all of these are suits. the damage is paid to the african-american nation. [singing] we want education for all of us and anyone else hurt by slavery. for all the native peoples. even those white people that you show funny all the time. them,t reparations for for the mexicans, whose land you

stole from north mexico. all that. [singing] all that you have got to give the. americans, self- determination, regional autonomy. 200 years. we want a central stash, a central bank with democratically elected trustees to map out the referendum we set up, what we want to spend it on, self- reliance, self-respect. consciousness, simply the psychology of freedom. singing]

then we can talk about being american. listen without the undercurrent of desire to first set your -- on fire. we will only talk about voluntary unity if there is democracy in you. that is where it will be shown. this is the only way that we as americans, the only way that the truth can be told. otherwise there is no truth between us. we is also at the end of our silence and said down. we're at the end of being under your intentional help. give us our lives are plenty for print your own. >> primary barack of performing his poem why is we americans.

amiri baraka died on thursday. he was 79 years old. in a moment, we will be joined ,y sonia sanche, felipe luciano larry hamm, and historian komozi woodard.

>> amiri baraka, reading his poem wailers. the poem dedicated to bob marley and larry neal. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. are spending the hour remembering the poet and playwright and political organizer amiri baraka. baraka was a leading force in the black arts movement of the 1960s and 1970s. to talk more about his legacy, we are joined by four guests. in philadelphia, sonia sanche. a renowned poet, playwright, activist, one of the leaders of the black studies movement. she is the author of more than a books.outes --

here in new york, we are joined ,y three people, felipe luciano my longtime comrade, poet, journalist, and writer. he knew amiri baraka for 43 years. he was an original group of the group the last poets. komozi woodard is a professor of history at sarah lawrence college, author of "a nation within a nation: amiri baraka and black power politics." is with us, chairman of the people's organization for progress. to start with sonya sanchez. your reaction to the news of amiri baraka's death.

>> good morning to you, my brothers and sisters. how are you doing? it is good hearing all of you. juan, likether everyone else, we were more than shocked. we could never imagine ourselves on this earth without dear brother amiri and his father. he started out in the day, he would say hello to his family in newark. he would say hello to all of those brothers and sisters that i would call the magnificent generation of the 1960s, these men and women who proceeded to change the world. they came out and decided to change the world.

tor first response is -- have seen you in to see you no more. after you say that and move and go outside and walk 12 blocks, you come back and realize, simply, that he lived, he will always live in the hearts of all of us, in the hearts of young poets and people that have some kind of moral grounding. this man moved in such a large way to effect change in this place called america and in the world. komozi woodard you wrote a book about amiri baraka, "a nation within a nation: amiri baraka and black power politics ." give us a thumbnail sketch of his life.

>> he was born in newark, new jersey during the great jones,ion in 1934, leroi named after his father. he went to howard university where he met toni morrison, other people like that. he graduated from howard, but he dropped out in his last semester of his senior year, and joined the air force. he got kicked out of the air force. then he joined the beat poet village where he -- it is kind of phenomenal. he became an editor of beat poetry. he took it upon himself to see if he could collect that new american poetry. in 1960 with a

delegation of black writers. he met robin williams there, the famous naacp activist. when he got back, he hooked up with malcolm x. late is a famous meeting x,uary, 1965 between malcolm amiri baraka, and others, where they discussed black liberation. malcolm x is killed a few weeks later. founds the black repertory theatre school. held a concert to raise money for the new school and theater.

he found his political voice by setting the blues. the rest is history. he formed many black power organizations. at his 75th earth day celebration, he and sonya celebrated his 75th birthday a , and there were perhaps 1000 artists and actors there. it occurred to me in the middle of that celebration, all of those people were his former students. his mentor was asked, what is your greatest work? he said, my students. i think barack would say the same thing. met him in that period the black arts movement, a member of the last poets.

talk about that first meeting in his influence on your life. >> 1967, we started a group called the last poets. the first of and puerto rican aggregation. it had not happened before. i met him with enormous trepidation. we followed in that tradition four years later. immediately he embraced me. amiri was the only black intellectual that i have met who was able to bring together militancy with intellect. progressive action with scholarship. he was an incredibly learned it man. yeats,d quote wordsworth, tennyson, he introduced me to allen ginsberg. he always told me it was important to read and write.

the first thing he told me, what is the use of being a serial and escapist and romantic? take the words and make them do something. it was his poetry and motivation that led me into the young poets. a team that,go to chronicling his life, komozi woodard could you set up this problem for us? eimeria baraka reading the poem at thenation time" congress of the founding of african people. a warning, the n is repeated numerous times in this. the workload was heavy. one person late at night said, what time is it, as if they

wanted to go home. an old man said, it is nation time. and thatard the story, turned into this epic poem. [indiscernible] nation time. get up santa claus. it is nation time. get up, nigga.

>> that was a very baraka reading his poem "it is nation time." , larry hamm,year that you first met amiri baraka. to speak at my high school in 1970 in newark, new jersey. that was our first encounter. i had been appointed to the age of 17. the youngest school board member in the country. i was appointed by mayor gibson, whose election as the first african-american mayor of newark, was made possible in part by amiri baraka. was augusteeting 1971. nameuested an african

after being a delegate to the national black clinical convention in gary, indiana of march 1972. i came up of the ghetto in ridgewood avenue. going to the national black political convention was an epiphany for me, it was my revolutionary transformation. after that, i asked baraka for an african name. amiri baraka's was a great american revolutionary. whatever desire i have in me for revolutionary social transformation comes from him. i want to talk about newark, to turn to another clip of unmarried baraka. in 2007.ed on the show i asked him to talk about why the uprising began. >> you have to start with slavery. those abuses have never been

eradicated. people are not living in slums because they voted two. their children are not in jail because they wanted them to. these are the results of people who have been oppressed. in a city like new york, the third oldest city in the united states, were all of these abuses comverge, and the racism on top example --one absurd one time i was directing a play and the police rushed in and the man took the script out of my .ands that day, we had been picketing because they had beat up a black cab driver. people gathered at that precinct, and it was explosive that night. picketing.y we were

that is where it happened. by the time the sun started going down -- >> could you talk about the political climate, the mayors regime? what was the climate that the majority population of the black community was feeling? he was giving one percent of the city's budget to the mob, the mayor. it was interesting, when the police beat me up, they did not take me to prison, they took me to an office and threw me on the floor. just like a rabbit out of the movies, they got you. but i am not dead.

the police chief. they brought me to his office, not jail. name,i had given my birth they could deny it until my wife got a hold of allen ginsberg, who got a hold of jean-paul sartre, and they would call the police station. the reason my life was saved was because of the people in the apartment building, where they were beating me, they started throwing things out of the apartment building. by then you were already well-known. the town is too small to be doing something. they have police stopping a poetry reading. they would ride up and down the street and make remarks at my wife and other ladies on the

block, calling them all types of slurs. this was a nightly thing. it became a back-and-forth. finally, it just corrupted. we were putting out literature suggesting that we could have a mayor, city council. painting the power on these buildings. they knew who it was. once i got arrested, they ran into my house to destroy all of the leaflets. my wife was smart enough to get that stuff out of their and move it to someone else's house down the street, but they destroyed machines, my car. it was search and destroy. in thatw who it was

city, asbut the whole harper's magazine said, the worst city. 18,000 people in one square mile , talking about the projects. it was a city that was always on the verge. inthat was amiri baraka 2007. , there was a days significant puerto rican, latino community. voting unity and cooperation between the two communities. could you talk about that and his stance at that time as a black nationalist, reaching out to a broader front of people suffering from discrimination and oppression -- oppression? >> he went from revolutionary nationalism to socialism.

he calls me one day and says come over. we have been working to try to get ken gibson elected, the mayor -- the first black mayor of newark. him withinking with the puerto rican community and black community. why don't we start a mutual defense practice? i said, are you serious? it is difficult enough dealing with black folk in newark. it is like baltimore. to put, let's try together a black and puerto rican pact. it was the first mutual defense pact between african-americans and puerto ricans. his foresight was astounding. he loved latino culture. -- dancem and grant the mambo was great.

he embraced everyone. postcolonial, ritude movementeg was started in 1964 by amiri baraka. was along those lines that mayor gibson was elected. they organize the black and puerto rican convention, and that took place at what today is university high school. gibson was not elected just by the black vote. it was an alliance between african-americans and puerto ricans. ramon rivera, who continue to be an activist. he and amiri's had a very close

relationship. komoziwoodard -- >> woodard, my angelou called unmarried baraka the greatest living poet. talk about that. baraka was a poet. my angelou and others called a protest because of the death of the mambo. baraka had been arrested. realized the other people he was demonstrating with more poets. his politics and poetry kind of ran together. they were experimenting with poetry. i think he found his poetic voice.

at the blues people, you can hear that each does and jazz aesthetic, much of it he got from langston hughes. >> we have a great picture of my angelou and amiri baraka dancing. we are going to go to a break and then come back to this discussion. he died yesterday at the age of 79, being held in this country and around the world. we will be back in a minute.

remembering unmarried baraka. he was surrounded by friends and family yesterday. he was 79 years old. the poet, activist, organizer. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. unmarried baraka delivered a eulogy at james bolden's funeral. is our oppressed african

nation that i am eulogizing, so leavee butchering editors their dead eraser fingers from our celebration. there will be and should be reams and reams of analysis, even praise, for our friend, but also even larger measures of not analysis and condemnation for james baldwin, the negro writer. alas we have all the power to render completely sterile the errors of our lives. but the wind cap, the world standing of this between the james baldwin of yellow journalism and english departments, and here we thought this was america, and jimmy baldwin of our real lives is stunning. he was trying to get you ready

for it even then. deathlyr the piles of prose citing influences and criticisms that will attempt to tell us about our older brother simply because for the most part they will be retelling old allies or making up new ones worshiping yet another black life to fit the great white stomach. inthat was unmarried baraka 1987 remembering the great essayist, novelist, playwright, poet james baldwin. is."was played on "like it today, we are remembering amiri baraka. he died yesterday at 79 years old. larry hamm,re

felipe luciano, who wrote a book . we are also joined by felipe luciano who was in some ways politically raised by amiri baraka. cofounder of the young lawrence. in philadelphia, out of sight but not out of mind, sonia sanchez. we are in new york city but she is in philadelphia. the great poet, activist, playwright are, dear friend of amiri baraka. as you listen to his poetry, talk more about your relationship with him and his affect on your work and the work of so many around the world. >> i am glad you claimed that

speech, that eulogy he gave for brother jimmy. called it the, he black revolutionary mouth. our dear brother baraka was also god's revolutionary mouth. he also said in that eulogy that jimmy baldwin was not only a writer, an international literary figure, but he was also andn, spirit, voice, terrible as that first ancestor. morrison, maya, you mentioned them. that may be the measure of our lives. the measure of our dear brother's life was the language that he did. how he took that language and crossed the cities and countries and how he helped to document

our bones. how he stood tall as lightning, heard the trumpeters, the tears of death, calling racism and colonialism, have his tongue caught fire at all of those things and he moved us all away from the graveyards here in this place called america. cloud.ms exploded from he embroidered his tongs with pyramid's. >> you write a haiku every morning just to wake yourself up. can you share one with us? isthe one i wrote for him the words that carry your creation. carry your words creation.

his words carry the spirit of creation. he sewed himself into the sleeves of history and turned around and said, come on, hate, keep up with me. you have to learn and do these things called language, freedom, do this thing called change. we listened and we smiled and we did this thing called change with the dear brother and all the brothers in the studio also. was almostd baraka's killed by the police in 1967. komozi woodard, could you talk about what happened? it the new worker riots, others describe it as the newark rebellion, as amiri describes it. >> he was nearly beaten by the police. van.pulled him out of his

i guess they knew who he was. they surrounded him and beat him. stood by the side and assume that they would beat him to death. apparently, people began to throw litter and bottles at the police. they had to take him to jail but then they lost him, and then sartre help to find him. one of the interesting people that saved his life was this wino named rabbit. leroi?, where is i said, this is crazy. we had the committee for unified newark at the time. toaka comes down and talked

the wino for about five minutes, gave him five dollars. he said that was the man who saved his life, the man who testified and said that he was beaten by the police. baraka had a thousand different paces and he knew all kinds of people. that was one of his lessons, to treat everyone equally. thenmarried baraka was first i heard call the newark riots a rebellion and placed those riots in the context of the black freedom struggle, that it was not simply a momentary occurrence that could easily be put down by a handful of police. newark had a police force of close to 1500. they had to bring in 700 eight troopers. they could not stop it. 27 people were killed.

it was baraka who helped me understand that this was part of black people's struggle for liberation, that it was more than simply a riot, that it was part of a continuum of collective struggle in this country. you said he was constantly pushing the edges of political thought, being african-american, as well as the mainstream community. i remember in 1984 covering the democratic national convention, by that time, amiri had moved much closer to socialism and marxism. there he was in a hotel room in san francisco essentially holding court as one after another establishment black political figure came up to meet him. he was not a part of the party, but they felt the need to talk to him about what they were doing in the convention.

could you talk about as he turned from more revolutionary to marxism, how other leaders in the black community responded? >> it is important to understand , baraka did not make this change quickly. he pointed me and people like me to africa, revolutionary african leaders. you cannot read these people and not eventually moved to the left. many of them either call themselves socialists or marxist. members of the african congress were studying these people. from an intellectual point of view, it is almost inevitable that they would move in that direction. remember, baraka

form of- followed this black nationalism. as 1972.as early he was way ahead, or maybe he was in his time and we were behind, and he was on point. >> in 1960, after fidel moved to havana, it was amiri baraka, with a group of 300 black intellectuals, who starts a fair play for cuba committee. said, the first one who let's bring together these communities. i had never read this type of poetry. sita black puerto rican to

and understand that a black intellectual was sitting down and is causing global socialism was, for me, mind-boggling. he said it was not enough to write the stuff and to be an armchair liberal -- which is why he loves allen ginsberg so much. he told me, this is the guy. whitman, robert frost, ginsberg, there is unmarried baraka. -- amiri baraka. >> i want to play this clip from new jersey. >> just like martin luther king told me the week before he died, in my house, he said, what we must have is a united front. theatter whether it is panthers, the cultural nationalists, whether you believe in rap or hip-hop, where

you are a muslim or christian, vegetarian -- we have got to put that together first to beat bush. the overall theme has to be to fight for a people's democracy. , it may sanchez surprise people to know that despite his radical politics, he was getting out there and people to vote. >> and his son is running for mayor. caller barack i would people and say, come help us with this campaign. we did a fundraiser here in philadelphia for him. talking about socialism and communism, one of the things that brother baraka told me, the reason he really became involved in that was because of amina.

she began and involved study in brother communism -- baraka's wife. we understood that it was not just his movement, but it was the two of them, beginning to move to the left. what is needed is to hold oneself like a lever to the heart of the world, to upset is necessary, the chain of command. this brother stood up to the world. this brother stood up to the world. he said, i am doing vital for the creation of the human world. he was doing battle for the human world. on that note, we have to wrap up the show but we will continue the conversation and put it online. sonia sanchez, thank you for

joining us. ,arry hamm, komozi woodard felipe luciano, thank you for