LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka, playwright, author, poet, activist, critic, and educator. ... Also with Diane di Prima he founded, in 1961 the American Theater for Poets, an experimental dramatic troupe which read the works of various poets and dramatist in local coffee houses. ... He was growing tired of the Bohemians, he joined the Beat generation because he regarded its members as spiritual outsiders who were against white middle - class America. ... He felt that the Black artist must express his American experience in forms that spring from his own unique culture and that his art must be eval...

• Word Count: 2297
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: High School

It was here that he met Countee Cullen, who is an American poet, and Herman W. ... Baldwin has exposed the racial and sexual polarization of American society. ... "America is not fixed. ... Baldwin perceived the civil rights and Black Power movements as portents of significant change in America, particularly for African American. ... "There is no dearth of scholarship on the life and writing of essayist, novelist, and playwright James Baldwin" (Smith 235)....

• Word Count: 1511
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography

Giovanni's Room told of a white American expatriate and his coming to terms with his homosexuality. ... First, in 1968, he published Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone as a bitter account of American racism. ... (Both of these recent events have increased African-American political awareness and unity.) ... Essentially, Baldwin is not particularly dramatic, but he can be extremely eloquent, compelling, and sometimes irritating as a playwright committed to his approach to life. ... While African-American anger is definitely a part of Blues for Mr. ...

• Word Count: 1677
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School