An Evening with Amiri Baraka

Visions and Voices: The USC Arts & Humanities Initiative

• Date:
  Wednesday, November 16, 2011
  
• Time:
  7:00 PM
• Campus:
  University Park Campus
• Venue:
  Ronald Tutor Campus Center (TCC)
• Room:
  Grand Ballroom
• Cost:
  Admission is free. Reservations required. To RSVP, click on USC students, staff and faculty or general public beginning October 24 at 9 a.m.
  
  Photo: Frank Stewart
• Email:
  visionsandvoices@usc.edu

Summary:

Black Arts Movement founder, poet and political activist Amiri Baraka presents an evening of poetry, performance and conversation about his life and his life’s work.

Description:

In ways more forceful than its literary predecessors, the Black Arts Movement, as the aesthetic counterpart to the Black Power Movement, championed a Black Nationalist agenda, challenged Eurocentrism in U.S. literature, reminded us that “Black Is Beautiful,” and uplifted the work of many writers who would illustrate the political potential of the arts.

An extremely accomplished writer, Amiri Baraka is professor emeritus at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He has won numerous awards, including an Obie for Dutchman, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, the Langston Hughes Award from the City College of New York, the Rockefeller Foundation Award for Drama, the James Weldon Johnson Medal for contributions to the arts, and the Before Columbus Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award.

A reception will follow.

Organized by Javon Johnson (American Studies and Ethnicity).