6. Blues People: Negro Music in White America

Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones), 1963 Number 6 on my book list to read in 2014. (may or may not be read as numbered) Today I’m back in Saint Louis, in another tour with Veterans For Peace, but I just left Newark after living there for about eight years. I was a very active member of the premier grassroots organization in Newark and really all of New Jersey, the People’s Organization for Progress. As a result, I had the opportunity on several occasion to hear Amiri Baraka speak and to briefly talk to him. And while I have been aware of Mr. Baraka since I was a child because my mother had a book of poetry from Black authors, I never read any of his work.  Unfortunately Mr. Baraka died recently and as a tribute to him and to better educate myself, I am reading one of his works this year.  I picked Blues People because I have a huge interests in music, especially its develop in the U.S. via Black people and like Zora’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, Blues People is considered by many to be his best work. 1. Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 1968 2. Ali’s Greatest Fight - Finished last week of February Bingham, Howard L., Wallace, Max and Ali, Muhammad, 2012 3. The Sixth Extinction Elizabeth Kolbert, 2014 4. My Ishmael: A Sequel Daniel Quinn, 1998 5. Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston, 1937 6. Blues People: Negro Music in White America Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones), 1963 7. 12 Years a Slave Solomon Northup 8. The Art of Waging Peace: A Strategic Approach to Improving Our Lives and the World Paul K. Chappell, 2014