The State of New Jersey V. Amiri Baraka

Andrew Ervin Eng 401 12/13/02

The State of New Jersey v. Amiri Baraka

My concerns are not centered on people. But in reflection, people cause the ironic tone they take. If I think through theories of government or prose, the words are sound, the feelings real, but useless unless people can carry them. Attack them, or celebrate them. LeRoi Jones, “Heroes Are Gang Leaders”

At the 1998 Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival, which bills itself as the “largest poetry event in North America” (grdodge.org, General), Amiri Baraka challenged his audience and fellow panelists to write poetry that resonated beyond the walls of academia and beyond the stolid literary journals and festivals. “I used to tell my students: You think your stuff is good?

See those guys digging a hole in the street there? When they get a minute off to eat a sandwich, go read them a poem. If you don’t get hit in the head, you’ve got a future” (grdodge.org, 2002

Festival). When Baraka returned to the same festival four years later, this time as Poet Laureate of New Jersey, he lived up to his own challenge in a way that no one could have predicted. He read an original work called “Somebody Blew Up America,” and by doing so ignited a public and political firestorm that would challenge his home state’s, and by extension the United States government’s, commitment to freedom of speech. In this paper, I discuss Amiri Baraka’s historic role at the forefront of American letters over the past thirty years and the immediate reaction to “Somebody Blew Up America.” I also closely examine the critical reception the poem received from the Anti-Defamation League and in the media, and then New Jersey Governor James E. McGreevey’s subsequent attempts to change the law in order to legally rescind Baraka’s title. Finally, I discuss what I have, through the course of my research, come to understand as the government’s disregard for the artist’s constitutional rights and the terrible precedent potentially set by its actions against Baraka.

To date, Baraka has published poetry, a novel, more than twenty dramatic works, and essays, almost all of which have discussed different aspects of the black experience in the United

States. He was born Everett LeRoi Jones in Newark, New Jersey in 1934. In 1954, he earned a bachelor’s degree from Howard University then spent three years in the Air Force. In the early sixties, he lived in Greenwich Village and became pals with some of the beats, including Allen

Ginsberg. In 1964, already an Obie-winning playwright, he founded the legendary Black Arts

Repertory Theater. Due in part to the 1965 murder of Malcolm X, he devoted himself to the cause of Black Nationalism and moved to Harlem. Two years later, he changed his name to

Imamu Ameer Baraka and began his lifelong project of identifying and contributing to an

African American artistic aesthetic distinct from white culture. In the 1970s, he shortened his name to Amiri Baraka and established the Congress of African People then, in 1972, organized the Black National Political Convention (Microsoft Encarta). By 1974 however he began to feel that his Black Nationalism was incongruous with his growing appreciation for Marxism, to which he still adheres. As recently as October 18, 2002 he told an audience of students in

California:

So all ye privileged who are in these schools: If you don’t come back

and help the people who got you here—you black students, you

working-class students, you students who come from poor

backgrounds—I hope there’s a curse that befalls you. If all you do is

2 come back into our communities, spouting some fragments of

European philosophy, usually bourgeois philosophy—if you come

back spouting fragments of Marx, it would be OK—[…] may a curse

befall you (Baraka in Sanford).

Despite a career of similar rabblerousing, Baraka has received fellowships from both the

Rockefeller and the Guggenheim Foundations and is a member of the American Academy of

Arts and Letters (grdodge.org, 2002 Festival). Now sixty-eight years old, he again resides in

Newark, and as Poet Laureate he is in a position to, as he advised those students to help the people who got him to such an exhausted position.

On August 28, 2002, shortly before the speech at Stanford, New Jersey Governor James

E. McGreevey, a Democrat, appointed Baraka as Poet Laureate, a two-year term accompanied with a stipend of $10,000. Baraka’s responsibility, according to McGreevey, was “to promote and encourage poetry” (Reuters).

Despite his many publications and accomplishments, Baraka is best known for his role in founding the Black Arts Movement, which was directly responsible for many important advances in African-American culture. In a 1992 essay titled ““Ethnic and Minority” Studies,”

Henry Louis Gates Jr. described Baraka as one of the movement’s “leading theoreticians”

(Gates, 291), and described its agenda:

The readings these critics advanced were broadly cultural and richly

contextualized; they aimed to be “holistic” and based formal

literature firmly on black urban vernacular, expressive culture. Art

was a fundamental part of “the people”; “art for art’s sake” was seen

as a concept alien to “pan-African” sensibility, a sensibility that was

3 whole, organic, and, of course, quite ahistorical. The movement

attacked what was identified as European or Western essentialism—

masked under the rubric of “universality”—by asserting an

oppositional black or “neo-African” essentialism. In place of

formalist notions about art, these critics promoted poetics rooted in a

social realism, indeed, on a sort of mimeticism; the relation between

black art and black life was a direct one (Gates, 291).

The organizers of the 2002 Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival were no doubt well aware of Baraka’s political history and agenda. The four-day, biennial event is held in historic

Waterloo Village, an 18th century town in northern New Jersey famous for supplying England with iron during the Revolutionary War (Waterloo). The 2002 festival was held from September

19-22; the program clearly demonstrated the organizer’s attempts to put together a multicultural program in which many different voices would be heard. The cover featured a quotation by the

13th century Sufi Muslim poet Jalal ud-din Mohammad Rumi in white letters over a photo of a clay or ceramic mask of African origin: “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there” (grdodge.org, 2002 Festival). Other featured guests and speakers included poets of different background and ethnicities, including Taha Muhammad Ali, Coleman

Barks, Robert Bly, Lucille Clifton, United States Poet Laureate Billy Collins, Mark Doty, Rita

Dove, Robert Hass, Brenda Hillman, Edward Hirsch, Marie Howe, Stanley Kunitz, Li-Young

Lee, Heather McHugh, Marilyn Nelson, Naomi Shihab Nye, Grace Paley, Robert Pinsky, and

Gerald Stern (grdodge.org, 2002 Festival).

On September 20, a day that included roundtable discussions called “Finding Poetry’s

Inner Music, Saying the Unsayable” and “Going Public With Private Feelings,” Baraka was the

4 last scheduled reader of the day, at 9 p.m. in the main concert tent (grdodge.org, 2002 Festival).

He recited “Somebody Blew Up America,” a poem he had written almost a year earlier (Matus).

That poem calls into question what the United States government knew in advance about the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. It also contextualizes that event within a larger history of violence committed against minorities by the government and its agents around the world. As

Baraka would later write, the poem’s underlying theme:

[F]ocuses on how Black Americans have suffered from domestic

terrorism since being kidnapped into US chattel slavery, e.g., by

Slave Owners, US & State Laws, Klan, Skin Heads, Domestic Nazis,

Lynching, denial of rights, national oppression, racism, character

assassination, historically, and at this very minute throughout the

U.S.” (Baraka, I Will Not).

Soon, copies of the complete text began to appear online, including on Baraka’s own web site

(Baraka, Somebody).

The reaction was swift. A week later, on September 27, the Anti-Defamation League sent an open letter to New Jersey Governor James E. McGreevey complaining about a perceived anti-Semitic sentiment in the poem. That letter, signed by ADL State Chair Elect William

Davidson and Regional Director Shai Goldstein, claims that the content of Baraka’s poetry should be held to a higher moral standard because of his position with the state of New Jersey.

“While typically ADL does not take issue with the content of poetry or other forms of expression, no matter how repugnant, the fact that Mr. Baraka is the Poet Laureate of New Jersey

[…] brings his performance to a higher level of concern and spurs us to write to you” (Davidson and Goldstein).

5 The ADL was specifically concerned with a notion, which they call “the big lie,” that the

Isreali government had advance knowledge of the September 11 attacks. Their letter to

Governor McGreevey included a four-line stanza from “Somebody Blew Up America,” a poem that in whole consists of 226 lines divided into 65 stanzas:

Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers To stay home that day Why did Sharon stay away?

It’s worth noting that the ADL’s letter did not the include any of the lines or stanzas that condemn violence against Jews, including:

Who killed the most niggers Who killed the most Jews Who killed the most Italians Who killed the most Irish Who killed the most Africans Who killed the most Japanese Who killed the most Latinos

Who? Who? Who? (Baraka, Somebody)

Who put the Jews in ovens, and who helped them do it Who said “America First” and ok’d the yellow stars (Baraka, Somebody)

The ADL’s letter continues to say that, “[W]e don’t believe that the residents of New

Jersey, nor their representatives should have such venom spewed in their names.” And it calls upon the governor to take specific action against Baraka:

[W]e are pleased that as Governor of the State of New Jersey you

condemn Amiri Baraka’s remarks and will urge him to consider

resigning from his post as Poet Laureate of the State of New

6 Jersey. What 9/11 served to underscore is that words of bigotry

lead to acts of bigotry which in turn lead to the kind of murder

that occurred on 9/11. The lesson of the Holocaust is that those

who stay silent in the face of anti-Semitism and other forms of

bigotry are responsible for the consequences of such silence”

(Davidson and Goldstein).

Needless to say, McGreevey fell for it, even if he was hesitant to take the action against

Baraka that the ADL requested. Tellingly, their letter arrived six weeks before an election and provided the governor with an issue that the Democratic Party could ride into the polling stations.

However, on September 30, MSNBC.com reported, “McGreevey spokesman Kevin

Davitt said neither the position nor the grant money could be taken away and that it was up to

Baraka whether he would continue” (Reuters).

Clearly dissatisfied with the governor’s response, on October 1 the ADL released a second statement to the media, this one titled “Amiri Baraka: In His Own Words.” That press release, an obvious and blatant attempt to discredit Baraka and spur McGreevey to action, began:

Amiri Baraka, the former Leroi Jones, has a long history of hostility

to Jews and Jewish concerns. Baraka, who was recently named poet

laureate of New Jersey, has become one of the most influential

leaders of the Black nationalist movement in the United States today.

Baraka has an extensive record of anti-Semitic and anti-white

statements going back a number of years. His latest outburst, a long

diatribe called “Someone [sic] Blew Up America,” is a poem that

7 repeats the anti-Semitic conspiracy blaming Jews and Israel for the

9/11 terrorist attacks (Anti-Defamation League).

The document then featured ten samples of Baraka’s previous writings, from 1965 to 1985, in which ADL found material they interpreted as anti-Semitic. Clearly, someone in their office had been assigned to pour through all of Baraka’s published materials, including those in such far-flung outlets as the Evergreen Review and the Journal of Socialist Thought.

The next day, Baraka released a four-page, single-spaced document of his own titled, “I

Will Not “Apologize”, “I Will Not “Resign!”“ In it, he discussed the factual bases of his poem and defended himself against the “slander and character assassination” (Baraka, I Will Not, 1) leveled against him. In one of the few passages in all caps, Baraka wrote, “I WAS NOT

SAYING ISRAEL WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ATTACK, BUT THAT THEY KNEW

AND OUR OWN CONTERFEIT PRESIDENT DID TOO!” (Baraka, I Will Not, 2) He concluded the essay by discussing the role of poet laureate and restating his commitment to that post:

NO, I WILL NOT APOLOGIZE, I WILL NOT RESIGN. In fact I

will continue to do what I have appointed to do but still have not been

paid to do. Publicize and Popularize poetry and poets throughout this

state. […] We say this because we feel that this state and indeed this

nation and this world is desperately in need of the deepest and most

profound human values that poetry can teach. That is what Keats and

Du Bois called for the poet to do, to bring Truth and Beauty. […] To

illuminate the human mind, and bring light unto the world. POET

ON! (Baraka, I Will Not, 4)

8 Around this time, Baraka appeared on “Connie Chung Tonight” and claimed, “My intention was to show that not only did Israel know, … but the United States knew. One reporter described Chung’s reaction as “aghast” (Matus).

The poet clearly wasn’t demonstrating the contrition that the ADL and the governor’s office expected of him. The next day, October 2, more newspapers nationwide picked up on the scandal brewing in New Jersey. The Philadelphia Inquirer called the poem, “an angry piece” and reported that McGreevey felt Baraka should step down but that under “legal technicalities of the appointment, neither McGreevey nor the five-member committee of poets who appointed him to the two-year post can remove Baraka” (Barrientos). The following day, an Associated

Press article about the situation appeared on the web site of London Guardian and presumably in the print edition, but it wasn’t until the following Monday, October 7, four weeks before the election, that the State of New Jersey took serious action.

That morning, the Trenton office of New Jersey State Senator Joseph C. Coniglio released a press statement titled, “News from N.J. Senate Democrats.” The only “news” item contained therein had the headline, “Coniglio Sponsors Legislation to Oust Baraka.” That document is worth quoting here at length:

“ Our country has made great strides to come together after the

terrorist attacks, but it is inappropriate for someone like Mr. Baraka

to keep a position of cultural significance like the poet laureate’s and

then use it to degrade the sensitivities of so many people who are

trying to heal,” Senator Coniglio said.

Senator Coniglio joined Democratic Senate President Richard J.

Codey and Senator Peter Inverso at a news conference to unveil the

9 legislation to authorize the Governor to oust the State’s Poet

Laureate, based on a recommendation by the Council for Humanities,

the initial appointing authority. […]

“ I find Mr. Baraka’s statements to be totally unacceptable for

someone who is representing New Jersey,” said Senator Coniglio, D-

Bergen. “The poem contained outrageous and widely discredited

conspiracy theories and his followup [sic] commentary was even

more anti-Semitic and anti-American.” […]

“The removal of Amiri Baraka as State poet laureate is merited because of his insensitive statements to the Jewish Community,” Senator Coniglio said. “An official state position cannot be used to spread malice, divisiveness and hate” (Coniglio).

Smelling blood, the national media doubled its efforts in covering the growing scandal.

At 8:18 p.m. EST, CNN.com posted another brief Associated Press story titled, “Bill introduced to remove embattled poet”:

Gov. James E. McGreevey and others called for the resignation of

New Jersey’s official state poet, Amiri Baraka, after one of his

works, “Somebody Blew Up America” was labeled anti-Semitic.

[…] Senate President Richard J. Codey introduced a bill that

would give the state Council for the Humanities the authority to

remove the poet laureate (Associated Press on CNN.com).

That article was also among the first to mention a growing support for Baraka:

Outside City Hall in Newark, where Baraka lives, members of the

New Black Panther Party and the People’s Organization for Progress,

10 a civil rights group, demanded that Baraka be allowed to stay in the

Zayid Muhammad, minister of culture for the Washington D.C.-

based Panther Party, led a half-dozen people in chants of “Hands off

Baraka!” and “Fight the power!”

We stand in support of our elder Amiri Baraka 150 percent against

the Zionists,” Muhammad said.

The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey denounced

efforts to oust Baraka as a “disregard for our nation’s founding ideal

of freedom of speech (Associated Press on CNN.com).

Of course nothing is sure to rile up the conservative media like the support of the New Black

Panther Party and the ACLU.

On Thursday, October 10, Victorino Matus, assistant managing editor of The Daily

Standard, published a column called, “Bad Attitude Baraka.” In it, he called Baraka’s poem “a rambling rant” and quoted McGreevey’s spokeswoman, Ellen Mellody. “[She] tells me that the legislation [to amend the law and allow McGreevey to force him out] is “widely supported by both Republicans and Democrats” and that they are trying to expedite its passage. She also reminds me that McGreevey has already frozen the $10,000 stipend” (Matus). He also noted that previous Poet Laureate of New Jersey, Gerald Stern, called Baraka’s poem “stupid” but also said that the effort to remove Baraka “smacks of state control” (Stern in Matus). Matus concluded his well-researched essay on a sour note, claiming in part, “The sooner McGreevey and the state assembly can agree on a resolution and get rid of Baraka, the better. Then the ex-poet laureate can write as many poems as he wants” (Matus).

11 As the story spread, the issues of censorship and denial of civil liberties became hidden behind an incredible smokescreen of vitriol. On October 10, a Web site called the Find Law

Corporate Counsel Center posted an editorial by Marci A. Hamilton, who holds a chair in Public

Law at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. Her essay, distressing from a so-called

“academic” of any political stripe, used the Baraka case as evidence that the government should not support the arts. She called the on-going situation, “a mess that could have been prevented had New Jersey not gotten into the arts-funding business in the first place.” She went on to argue that, “Public funding for art is unnecessary – especially since the Constitution already lays the groundwork for a lively private marketplace of expression, including artistic expression” and

“we need state-funded art about as much as we need a state-owned newspaper” (Hamilton).

Given what I personally perceive as government meddling in the mainstream media, we’re not too far off from having a state-owned newspaper in this county. If such a thing exists, it’s probably the Washington Times. On October 11 that paper ran an op-ed piece called “Amiri

Baraka hits a new low,” by Ward Connerly, chairman of an organization called the American

Civil Rights Institute. Connerly called Baraka, “one of America’s premier haters and anti-

Semites.” He went on to write what amounted to a witch-hunt for any artists guilty of upsetting the status quo:

Mr. Baraka’s appointment as New Jersey poet laureate is emblematic

of how deeply the infection of victimology has seeped into the

nation’s cultural pores. The tests, and I recognize that art is often

provocative, but artistic standards must be civilized [sic]. Mr.

Baraka’s are not. Now I’m starting to wonder if there aren’t more

Amiri Barakas out there, dishing out filth and hate under the guise of

12 a poet laureate of another state. It wouldn’t hurt any of us to check

this out (Connerly).

The Baraka-bashing was just hitting its peak. The same day, October 11, National

Review Online columnist John Derbyshire, who is also a contributing editor to the print version of the National Review, posted an essay, “Like an Owl Exploding,” in which he didn’t critique the poem or even call into question the funding of the arts as much as he simply attacks Baraka on a personal level. “My guess is that Mr. Baraka probably regards rhyme and meter as contemptible Ice People devices, far too verkrampt to contain his ebullient African soul”

(Derbyshire). Thinly veiling his own racism, Derbyshire implored the reader, to “just take it from me, the spelling of proper names is not Mr. Baraka’s strong suit. Spelling, after all, is just another one of those soul-constricting Ice People gimmicks” (Derbyshire). He concluded his column with a parody of the tone and tenor of “Somebody Blew Up America” that brought to my mind old footage of Al Jolson wearing blackface and singing “Mammy”:

Who’s an illiterate moron So stupid he can’t even keep his racism straight… (Derbyshire)

In an e-mail sent the evening of November 22, Baraka told me what I or other supporters could do to help his cause. That e-mail is worth quoting in full, and I have retained Baraka’s hurried spelling and punctuation:

Support letters to the Governor ...James E. McGreevey c/o PO Box 001, Trenton, NJ 08625 Fax 609 396-8979 wd be best now...and urge anyone else ...Actually a bunch of support letters, petitions, have been coming in, which I have forwarded. But every things helps. But I have seen signs that the “All CLear” might be sounding. Since the elction!

If yr interested, later, we are proceeding with our NJPL business. A year long series of poetry readings all over the state. If you want to volunteer to help in some way get back to me or write NJPL

13 Readings c/o Box 3015 Springfield Ave Station, Newark, NJ, 07108 Amiri B (Baraka, e-mail)

Two minutes later, Baraka sent me a second e-mail, the body of which was blank. Attached, however, was a prepared statement titled “Amiri Baraka Asks: Critical Questions of the Anti-

Defamation League, Governor McGreevey, the U.S. Government & the Media.” That three- page document attempts to discern the roots of the concerns raised by ADL and the State of New

Jersey. Here, I would like to reproduce a section of that document in the dramatic format in which Baraka sent it to me:

The cartoonish opportunism of New Jersey legislators bringing

(4) four resolutions to the Legislature to force me out of the Poet

Laureate position are IN VIOLATION of the Constitution of the

US. First, of my 1st amendment right to an opinion and of the

section that forbids the power to Congress and the States to make

“Ex-post Facto” laws, i.e., laws passed in the present that make

something done before that, illegal!

I have already stated my intention to sue all involved, BOTH

individually as AN ANTI-constitutional “coven”, if this outrage is

made into a fraudulent “law”! (Baraka, Critical Questions)

He ends that essay on a positive note, “Certainly there is no one who can honestly say that i’m not doing my job!”

On the morning of December 10, I sent Governor McGreevey an e-mail in which politely and diplomatically asked him or his staff to either clarify the basis of government’s stance against Baraka or to point me towards the documentation that demonstrates how the attempt to change the law doesn’t represent a violation of Baraka’s freedom of speech. As of this writing, I

14 have yet to receive a response. Today, December 12, using the contact information provided on

Senator Coniglio’s press release of October 7, I phoned Jim Manion, Senate Democrat

Spokesman for the State of New Jersey. After being grilled at some length by a secretary, placed on hold, grilled again, and placed on hold again, I was told that Manion was “unavailable” and I was invited to leave a message. I told the secretary that I am a student working on a research paper on Amiri Baraka and that my parents are residents of New Jersey, which is true. I mentioned that I was hoping to get some information about the current state of the legislation aimed at ousting Baraka and left my phone number and e-mail address.

To date, Baraka remains Poet Laureate of New Jersey and he continues to travel throughout the state and the country encouraging young artists and potential artists. Though deeply disturbing, some valuable lessons can be gleaned from his persecution at the hands of the government. First and foremost I am personally gratified to see that that poet has held fast to his beliefs. Baraka’s courage in the face of adversity and dedication to free speech and expression provide the model to which all artists should strive. As I wrote to him in an e-mail on December

Please don’t take this the wrong way, but if this kind of harassment is

going to happen I am glad it has been centered on someone as strong-

willed and determined to stand up in defiance as you are. As a

budding novelist, I am personally grateful for the strength you’ve

shown through this ordeal. My heartfelt thanks. You have already

made a huge difference for future authors by providing a great

example (Ervin).

15 Inspiration is the greatest gift a poet can bestow upon his readers, and in that sense Baraka has already fulfilled all of the obligations of a poet laureate.

Second, it’s encouraging that Baraka has received so much public support in the form of petitions and protesters. It’s great to see that there are still people willing to take a stand and act out against state tyranny. Finally, I’m pleased that now that the 2002 election is over Baraka has seen indications of what he called the “all clear” (Baraka, e-mail) and can get back to the business of being a poet and providing an example of social consciousness and courage for the

State of New Jersey and elsewhere. My fear however is that publicity surrounding the government’s attempts to force Baraka out of his position will result in the intimidation of future poets and poets laureate. Governor McGreevey’s actions in particular have established a horrifying precedent for all artists who utilize or depend upon state funding. Fortunately, Baraka has provided a shining example of how to stand up to and resist those bent on limiting the artist’s freedom to expression and our fundamental right to free speech.

16 Texts Cited

Anti-Defamation League. “Amiri Baraka: In His Own Words.”

Associated Press. “Bill Introduced to remove embattled poet.” CNN.com. October 7, 2002.

Associated Press. “N.J. Poet Laureate Won’t Resign.” Guardian Unlimited. October 3, 2002.

Baraka, Amiri. “Amiri Baraka Asks: Critical Questions Of The Anti -Defamation League, Governor Mcgreevey, The U.S. Government & The Media.” Unpublished e- mail attachment. Sent November 22, 2002.

Baraka, Amiri. “I Will Not “Apologize”, I Will Not “Resign!” October 2, 2002.

Baraka, Amiri. “Re: Introductions.” E-mail to author. November 22, 2002.

Baraka, Amiri. “Somebody Blew Up America.”

Barrientos, Tanya. “Poet laureate stands firm in a storm of criticism.” The Philadelphia Inquirer. October 2, 2002.

Connerly, Ward. “Amiri Baraka his a new low.” The Washington Times, October 11, 2002.

Davidson, William and Shai Goldstein. “ADL Writes to the Governor of New Jersey About Amiri Baraka.”

Derbyshire, John. “Like an Owl Exploding.” National Review Online. October 11, 2002.

Ervin, Andrew. “Re: Introductions.” E-mail to Amiri Baraka. December 11, 2002.

Gates, Henry Louis Jr. ““Ethnic and Minority”“ Studies” in Introduction to Scholarship in Modern Languages and Literatures. Edited by Joseph Gibaldi. New York: The Modern Language Association of America, 1992.

Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation. “General Festival Information.”

Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation. “2002 Festival.”

17 festival2002.html>

Hamilton, Marci A. “Why New Jersey Should Never Have Funded a Poet Laureate in the First Place: The Real Lesson of the Amiri Baraka Scandal.” October 10, 2002.

Jones, LeRoi. “Heroes Are Gang Leaders” in Tales by LeRoi Jones. New York: Grove, 1967.

Manion, Jim. “News From N.J. Senate Democrats.” October 7, 2002.

Reuters. “Jewish group condemns N.J. Poet.” MSNBC.com. September 30, 2002.

Sanford, John. “Poet, Conspiracry theorist Baraka recites political poems, prods audience.” Stanford Review, Oct. 23, 2002.

Waterloo Village.