Campus Community
Posted: Thursday, February 26, 2009Poet, Educator, and Activist Amiri Baraka to Speak at Buffalo State
By Phillip Weiss
Poet icon and revolutionary political activist Amiri Baraka will share his words and thoughts on change, the Obama presidency, and how working people can cope in the “Great Recession” at 3:00 p.m. Thursday, March 5, in the Campbell Student Union Social Hall.
Baraka, renowned founder of Harlem’s Black Arts Movement in the 1960s, is the author of more than 40 books of essays, poems, musical history, and criticism. He has lectured extensively on cultural and political issues in the United States, the Caribbean, Africa, and Europe.
Baraka has taught at Yale, Columbia, and Stony Brook universities. His awards and honors include the Obie Award, the American Academy of Arts and Letters award, the James Weldon Johnson Medal for Contributions to the Arts, and grants from the Rockefeller Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. He is a professor emeritus of Stony Brook University and was New Jersey’s poet laureate from 2002 to 2003.
Baraka is the first of several speakers that will take part in the Alternative Speakers Series, hosted by Buffalo State Students for Peace. For more information, contactStudents for Peace, (716) 430-0922.
