Amiri Baraka

            LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka, playwright, author, poet, activist, critic, and educator. His life has been a changing cycle through multiple philosophy and beliefs. He has been considered a literary genius among his peers and a man we all can learn from. A leader of the Black arts movement, Baraka's numerous plays, poems, and essays inspired a generation of black folks to stand up because it was nation time (black Nation). In his long and on going life he has gone through numerous changes of philosophy. From Wild Beatnik ranting against the square world in the 1950s through the early 1960's, to black nationalist renouncing the white world from the mid sixties through the early seventies, to Marxist - Leninist rejecting monopoly capitalism from the mid seventies till present day. And in this paper I plan on talking about those three periods. And the numerous amount of literature and plays he produced during each time period in his life. .
             As a child Baraka deeply affected by his pop culture heroes he created his very own comic strips and science fiction tales. He was a very intelligent child and had a deep interest in music. Extremely smart, Baracka graduated two years early from Newark's Barrringer High school. While there he nurtured his writing skills by having a large involvement in the school newspaper. From High school he went to college at the Newark branch of Rutgers University, after one year he transferred to to a predominately black Howard University. At this time he changed the spelling of his name from LeRoy Jones to LeRoi jones the french spelling. As to whether he graduated from Howard or not I"m not too sure. My sources have conflicting information when it comes to his college education. A few of them say he gradated from Howard and from there he entered the air force as a gunner for three years. The others say he got kicked out of college and then went to the air force.