Amiri Baraka

Amiri Baraka was a poet, playwright, essayist, fiction writer, and music critic whose work helped shape the Black Arts Movement. Writing first as LeRoi Jones, he gained major recognition with the 1964 play *Dutchman* and later founded the Black Arts Repertory Theatre in Harlem. His poetry, drama, and criticism linked literary experimentation with Black liberation, racial politics, and jazz culture.