Interviewing Amiri Baraka

In this two-part interview with Columbia University doctoral candidate Megan French, Baraka reflects on his political and cultural activities during turbulent times. He explains his shifting perspectives on major events and gives some indication of the great ideological change he would undergo in the mid-1970s. It was through the class and racial struggles of Newark and the intense fights to create racial justice in that city that ultimately led Baraka toward a more radical political analysis embracing broader class struggles.