Collection context
Summary
- Creators:
- Baraka, Amiri
- Abstract:
- Amiri Baraka (1934-2014) was the founder and editor of the literary journals Yugen and Kulchur. An outspoken public intellectual, he was the author of poetry, plays, novels, and essays. The collection consists of poetry manuscripts and correspondence submitted to Baraka while editor of Yugen. Some material relates to Kulchur.
- Extent:
- 1.6 Linear Feet (4 boxes)
- Language:
- Materials are in English and French.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Amiri Baraka Papers (Collection 491). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
The collection consists of correspondence as well as poetry manuscripts submitted to Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones), editor of Yugen. Some material relates to Kulchur. Correspondents include Jonas Mekas, John Rechy, Diane Wakoski, and Philip Whalen.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Amiri Baraka was born Everett LeRoi Jones on October 7, 1934 in Newark, New Jersey. He attended Rutgers University and graduated from Howard University. After some graduate study in New York City, he joined the U.S. Air Force. Upon his discharge he returned to New York and took up writing poetry in earnest. To distribute the work of other poets as well, he and his wife, Hettie Cohen, founded Totem Press and the literary journal Yugen. With the poet Diana di Prima, he also founded the journal Kulchur. Always politically active, throughout the 1960s, he became more radical and embraced Black nationalism. Later, he distanced himself from Black nationalism to adopt a more globalistic Communism. For the rest of his life, he would be known as much for his controversial political views as for his poetry. Baraka died on January 9, 2014 in the city of his birth.
- Processing information:
-
Processed by Tine Brouwer; re-processed by Doug Johnson, October, 2016. Re-processed primarily to eliminate some ambiguities that were the result of unusual formatting. The collection name was also changed (from Imamu Amiri Baraka) to make it consistent with the Library of Congress subject heading.
Collections are processed to a variety of levels depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived user interest and research value, availability of staff and resources, and competing priorities. Library Special Collections provides a standard level of preservation and access for all collections and, when time and resources permit, conducts more intensive processing. These materials have been arranged and described according to national and local standards and best practices.
We are committed to providing ethical, inclusive, and anti-racist description of the materials we steward, and to remediating existing description of our materials that contains language that may be offensive or cause harm. We invite you to submit feedback about how our collections are described, and how they could be described more accurately, by filling out the form located on our website: Report Potentially Offensive Description in Library Special Collections.
- Arrangement:
-
The collection is arranged alphabetically by correspondent and manuscript author.
- Physical location:
- Stored off-site. All requests to access special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
- Terms of access:
-
Property rights to the physical objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All other rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Amiri Baraka Papers (Collection 491). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
- Location of this collection:
-
A1713 Charles E. Young Research LibraryBox 951575Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575, US
- Contact:
- (310) 825-4988