Beat and Beyond: Amiri Baraka

The author Amiri Baraka (*1934, as LeRoi Jones in Newark) is considered one of the outstanding literary talents of African America. In addition to lyric poetry, Baraka authored award-winning plays during the 1960s. Furthermore, he wrote numerous essays and discourses on social and political questions, as well as on the history of Afro-American music.
Amiri Baraka has been a literary activist and observer of contemporary American culture for the past sixty years. He is an author for whom both text and performance are of equal importance – the origins of modern rap are clearly evident in Baraka’s work.

As part of the exhibition "Beat Generation / Allen Ginsberg", the ZKM presents one of the last living companions of Allen Ginsberg: an African-American Beat poet and artist, who always conceived of poetry and politics as two sides of the same coin.
Manfred Heinfeldner (SWR) will moderate the evening.