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Laureate faces silence of the iambs Gary Younge in New York Tuesday July 8, 2003 The Guardian (UK) New Jersey's legislature has voted to abolish the position of state poet laureate after the governor discovered that he could not sack the current holder of the post. Amiri Baraka, who was appointed by the Republican state governor, James McGreevey, has attracted criticism since reading his poem Somebody Blew Up America at a festival last year. The poem, a series of rhetorical questions, is primarily a diatribe against American racism and imperialism, asking "Who stole Puerto Rico", "Who killed the most Jews"...

What do you do with a state poet laureate who writes "a poem" about 9-11 so laced with anti-Semitism and other bilious nonsense that it offends the Jewish community and a lot of other folks? In New Jersey, you have to pass a law to get rid of the position - in order to get rid of the poet. The poem was entitled "Someone Blew Up America" and it's likely that Amiri Baraka, a Muslim convert, has conjured up some justification for 9-11. One line from the poem was "Who told 4,000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers to stay...

Yale University is one of America's most venerable and influential institutions. The last three president have been Yalies (four, if you include co-president Hillary) along with numerous Supreme Court justices, Cabinet secretaries, dignitaries, writers, opinion-shapers and business leaders. Yet this aristocratic institution was the rude site of a professorial commencement "protest" when President Bush spoke at its graduation three years ago, has recently played host to a virulently anti-Semitic "poet" and refuses to honor and support the brave men and women of our armed forces whose sacrifices make its intellectual riches and freedoms possible.

"Somebody Blew Up America" By Amiri Baraka Somebody Blew Up America They say its some terrorist, some barbaric A Rab, in Afghanistan It wasn't our American terrorists It wasn't the Klan or the Skin heads Or the them that blows up nigger Churches, or reincarnates us on Death Row It wasn't Trent Lott Or David Duke or Giuliani Or Schundler, Helms retiring It wasn't The gonorrhea in costume The white sheet diseases That have murdered black people Terrorized reason and sanity Most of humanity, as they pleases They say (who say?) Who do the saying Who is them paying Who...

It has been an unpleasant week to be Jewish at Yale. On Tuesday, Dean Pamela George published a column to the effect that it was no more inappropriate to invite rabid anti-Semite Amiri Baraka to speak than it was to invite former members of the Israeli military. That afternoon, Baraka spoke to a standing ovation. On Wednesday, Sahm Adrangi '03 informed readers of this page that condemnation of Baraka stemmed from the eagerness of Jews in the media to shield Israel from criticism ("Not just another conspiracy theory: m anipulating anger"). For the next 24 hours, I watched more postings...

It has been an unpleasant week to be Jewish at Yale. On Tuesday, Dean Pamela George published a column to the effect that it was no more inappropriate to invite rabid anti-Semite Amiri Baraka to speak than it was to invite former members of the Israeli military. That afternoon, Baraka spoke to a standing ovation. On Wednesday, Sahm Adrangi '03 informed readers of this page that condemnation of Baraka stemmed from the eagerness of Jews in the media to shield Israel from criticism ("Not just another conspiracy theory: m anipulating anger"). For the next 24 hours, I watched more postings...

It was an act of solidarity and defiance that seemed to make no sense: the Newark School Board last month voted unanimously to name Amiri Baraka as the district's official poet laureate. The move coincides with the New Jersey legislature's efforts to force Baraka out as the state's poet laureate -- even if it means abolishing the post -- after his September 20th performance of a poem called "Somebody Blew Up America" in which Baraka rehashes the imbecilic rumor that Jews were forewarned of the World Trade Center attack. Why would the nine-member school board, funded by the state, intentionally...

After getting elected on a promise to look out for the people's money, Gov. James E. McGreevey has spent much of his first year explaining away junkets, helicopter rides and a mysterious $110,000-a-year aide. Even poetry has proved poor politics for the Democrat: He has been accused of racism for trying to remove New Jersey's poet laureate over a Sept. 11 memorial verse critics called anti-Semitic. "This administration seems to create their own problems and then rather than solve them, try to cover them up," said Carl Golden, a Republican political analyst and former aide to former Gov. Christie Whitman....

A question that occurs to every thoughtful person sooner or later, generally around age 17, is: Why have numerically tiny, not very well favored, groups of human beings — the ancient Jews, Greece in the 5th century B.C., Renaissance Italy, Tudor England — produced so many works of artistic and literary genius, when far bigger, more prosperous, more secure populations have dragged their weary lengths along for centuries without leaving behind them anything worth remembering? The population of Attic Greece at the time of the Peloponnesian War was, according to Kitto, around 350,000, of whom half were citizens, a...

<p>Newark poet Amiri Baraka did us all a great service last week. He showed us how much politicians care about multiculturalism.</p> <p>Beats me. So I called Baraka the other day to ask. But first I read some of his other poems. Check out this one from the'60s: "Rape the white girls. Rape their fathers. Cut the mothers' throats. Black dada nihilismus, choke my friends."</p>

Amiri Baraka, the new Poet Laureate of New Jersey (yes, there is one) is under fire for composing a ghastly poem full of loathing for U.S. President George Bush, "Israelis" (by which he means "Jews") and whites in general. On Wednesday, he took the podium at a Newark literary festival and embraced the conspiracy theory that Mr. Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon knew in advance of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. We at the National Post are commemorating his artistic achievements with a poem of our own. Unlike the Poet Laureate, we apologize in advance for any pain...

"Somebody Blew Up America" By Amiri Baraka Somebody Blew Up America They say its some terrorist, some barbaric A Rab, in Afghanistan It wasn't our American terrorists It wasn't the Klan or the Skin heads Or the them that blows up nigger Churches, or reincarnates us on Death Row It wasn't Trent Lott Or David Duke or Giuliani Or Schundler, Helms retiring It wasn't The gonorrhea in costume The white sheet diseases That have murdered black people Terrorized reason and sanity Most of humanity, as they pleases They say (who say?) Who do the saying Who is them paying Who...

The New Jersey Poet Laureate, Amiri Baraka, is being pressured to step down because of his anti-Israeli comments. Most reasonable people will agree that his attacks on Israel were unproven, unfair, and extreme. It is certainly understandable that most Freepers support democratic Israel in its conflict with autocratic Arab states. But I would like to assume that, if most Freepers were to choose between America's interests and Israel's interests, America's interests would come first, ahead of Israel's interests. But how come no one, conservative or liberal, is raising the issue that Mr. Baraka has a long career of anti-American rhetoric?...

<p>NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- The state's poet laureate defended a poem he wrote implying that Israel knew in advance of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and again rebuffed the demand of Gov. James E. McGreevey that he resign and apologize.</p>