African American arts

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Amiri Baraka, Poet, Playwright Radical Black Activist, Dies at 79

Amiri Baraka, an influential black writer and artist, who veered into radicalism and became a chief proponent of black separatism during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, died yesterday (Jan 9.) after a long illness. He was 79. Amiri Baraka, an influential black writer and artist, who veered into radicalism and became a chief proponent of black separatism during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, died yesterday (Jan 9.) after a long illness. He was 79. Baraka came of age during the rise of the Beat Generation in the 1950s, a time when widely accepted values about life came into question, leading up to the counter-culture revolution....