On Saturday, March 22, 2014, Howard University’s Moorland-Spingarn Research Center (MSRC), Department of English, and Department of Afro-American Studies presented a symposium and commemorative program entitled: IN THE TRADITION, Celebrating the Life and Work of the Late Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones).
2Leaf Press authors Abiodun Oyewole and Tony Medina (pictured with Howard Dodson (left) and Haki Madhabuti (right)) were among the stellar group of African American scholars, poets, artists, playwrights, activists, musicians and writers who participated in the program.
During the day, a scholarly panel and a plenary examined Baraka’s literary and cultural legacies, which was presented by professors Dana Williams, Eleanor Traylor, Jennifer Jordan, Sandra Shannon, Shauna Kirlew, Meta Jones and Greg Carr. The evening’s festivities featured live performances, commentary, and multimedia presentations.
Oyewole and Medina shared the stage with a distringuished group of poets and writers that included Haki Madhubuti, Avery Brooks, A. B. Spellman, Babatunde, Eugene Redmond and Jessica Care Moore,
Highlights of the evening included excerpts from Keep Your Razor Sharp, a musical celebration of the 50th anniversary of Baraka’s classic book, Blues People: Negro Music in White America, which Baraka coauthored with jazz trombonist and long-time collaborator Craig Harris. Woodie King, theater impresario, brought a number of distinguished actors to the stage to perform some of Baraka’s works.
The tribute program was co-produced by MSRC and HU Library System (HULS) director Howard Dodson, veteran cultural events planner Karen Spellman, and HULS communications specialist D. Kamili Anderson.
Baraka, who died on January 9, 2014, at the age of 79, attended Howard as an undergraduate in the 1950s. He became one of America’s most renowned and prolific writers, producing 27 published books of poetry, drama, music and literary criticism, political analysis and commentary, social justice theory, biography, and autobiography. His ties to Howard University spanned six decades. Baraka frequently lectured, read, and performed on Howard’s campus, educated all of his children here, and designated the MSRC as the repository of his archival papers and memorabilia.
