{"id":1321,"date":"2004-11-24T13:08:20","date_gmt":"2004-11-24T13:08:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/houseofnehesipublish.com\/sxm\/?p=1321"},"modified":"2015-05-17T13:10:02","modified_gmt":"2015-05-17T13:10:02","slug":"bush-re-elected-baraka-reprinted-somebody-blew-up-america-other-poems-published-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/houseofnehesipublish.com\/sxm\/2004\/11\/24\/bush-re-elected-baraka-reprinted-somebody-blew-up-america-other-poems-published-again\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cBush re-elected! Baraka reprinted!\u201d Somebody Blew Up America & Other Poems published again"},"content":{"rendered":"

GREAT BAY, St. Martin <\/strong>(November 24, 2004) \u2014\u00a0Somebody Blew Up America & Other Poems<\/span> <\/em><\/strong>by Amiri Baraka was just reprinted here — about one year after it was first published in the Caribbean.<\/p>\n

Requests for the slim volume of poetry are continuing, according to House of Nehesi, the book\u2019s publisher, \u201cGood poetry will always find its way,\u201d said Lasana M. Sekou, House of Nehesi\u2019s projects director.<\/p>\n

Baraka, himself just back in the USA from an eight-city European tour that included\u00a0Berlin, Munich,\u00a0Zurich, Vienna, and Rome, said it was \u201cvery frustrating\u201d traveling without the book, which had sold out months earlier. He had to distribute computer printouts of the poem.<\/p>\n

The uproar generated by the book\u2019s title poem, Somebody Blew Up America<\/em>, has caused Baraka a significant loss of income over the last two years through the cancellation of lectures and recitals at US universities and other venues.<\/p>\n

Somebody Blew Up America, <\/em>with its rush of critical questions about historical transgressions, mentioning Israel in four lines that does not tow the line about the New York City World Trade Center bombings — and \u201cwho\u201d knew about the bombings beforehand — had received much media coverage in the US and Europe following its recital at the Dodge Poetry Festival in 2002. The Dodge Poetry Festival has also not invited Baraka back.<\/p>\n

Somebody Blew Up America & Other Poems<\/em> is further charged with poems of faith, fight, and approaches to the fulfillment of human liberation in ways personal, \u201cnational,\u201d and universal.<\/p>\n

There are verses in which the old warrior bard dares to challenge official US policy on Iraq; explores rare moods of Malcolm X that are virtual elegies to love; poses some uncomfortable questions about the presence of African-Americans in the USA; and testifies to revolutionary fraternity.<\/p>\n

The second printing of\u00a0Somebody Blew Up America & Other Poems <\/em>was as much a business decision for the small House of Nehesi press as it was a belief in the power and freedom of the word to make a difference in the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the wake of much turbulence in our times, war-mongering and globalization, mass hysteria materialism that is twisting citizens into tortured consumers, it would not be strange to look to the artists of the word, the song, those who image life creatively to lift the spirit, inspire new movements, advance the individual, the family, and humanity,\u201d said Sekou.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are writers, artists, and scholars who have fallen to self-censorship or pander to soulless political and cooperate establishment for security and sponsorship. Others fear to come out at all. But Baraka does not bow. His work is revolutionary, alive, free.\u201d The book is available at\u00a0www.amazon.com<\/a> and\u00a0www.spdbooks.org<\/a> .<\/p>\n

Somebody Blew Up America<\/em>, which Bob Marley scholar Kwame Dawes called a catalogue poem, was also the cause for the New Jersey legislature and Governor James McGreevey to abolish the post of that US state\u2019s poet laureate in 2003 — after Baraka refused McGreevey\u2019s request that he resign the post.<\/p>\n

In early December 2004, Baraka will be in Venezuela to attend the \u201cWorld Meeting of Intellectuals and Artists on Defense of the Humankind.\u201d He was invited by Minister of Culture Farruco Sesto Novas and will meet with the country\u2019s President\u00a0Hugo\u00a0\u00a0Ch\u00e1vez at the\u00a0Plenary Session.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GREAT BAY, St. Martin (November 24, 2004) \u2014\u00a0Somebody Blew Up America & Other Poems by Amiri Baraka was just reprinted here — about one year after it was first published in the Caribbean. Requests for the slim volume of poetry are continuing, according to House of Nehesi, the book\u2019s publisher, \u201cGood poetry will always find […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-2004"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/houseofnehesipublish.com\/sxm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/houseofnehesipublish.com\/sxm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/houseofnehesipublish.com\/sxm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/houseofnehesipublish.com\/sxm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/houseofnehesipublish.com\/sxm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1321"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/houseofnehesipublish.com\/sxm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1322,"href":"http:\/\/houseofnehesipublish.com\/sxm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1321\/revisions\/1322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/houseofnehesipublish.com\/sxm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/houseofnehesipublish.com\/sxm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/houseofnehesipublish.com\/sxm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}