Baraka recap

Well, he was a very angry black man. I may or may have fallen asleep through parts of it; that head-jerky church sleep. Here's what he talked about:

• He went off on Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice while I was out. Nina summarized for me.



• "You're in college because some people love you and those people who love you, that's who you serve."
• He brought up the idea of having a sort of united black political party a lot.
• He referred to white people as "our enemies" throughout the talk.
• "skin is thin, class with kick your ass"
• a beautiful bit of a poem, something like: "was it ever so quiet that the room started asking you questions"
• Lauryn Hill and his son, Ras Baraka have collaborated on a couple songs.
• recommended this guy: Sekou Sundiata, The Blue Oneness of Dreams
• Nina's note: LOTS of anger/conspiracy theory

Well, I'm glad I went. The audience was about 1/3 white. There were about 150 people there. He ended the evening by reading his super-controversial poem "Somebody Blew Up America" (read it here) He introduced it by saying "Let me read this poem that got me thrown out of being a poet laureate of New Jersey." And, he said later, that they didn't technically throw him out, but actually removed the position. So, right now, New Jersey is the only state that doesn't have a poet laureate. Haha. Hearing him read the poem was amazing. There's a section where he asks "who? Who? WHO?" and he read it like I read a Dr. Seuss book. He was almost sing-songy in parts and shrieking in others.