TruckerMythology: Review - Amiri Baraka - City Lights Bookstore at 7:pm 2/19/07

When I was twelve and recorded a Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon over the only existent video of my grandfather, I learned that 15 minutes can eliminate hours of work. Today, I made 3 hours of tiresome transportation fruitless by arriving 15 minutes later than I had initially planned for the Amiri Baraka reading at City Lights.

(Above: Some of the multitude turned away)

I told myself, arrive half an hour early at least, I told myself, I told myself. But no, I arrive at 6:46 and there I am already, a million of me, I’m seated inside, I’m crowded around the door, I’m arguing ridiculous things like that I’m a student and that I’m here for a class - I’m kicking myself for drinking at a nearby bar - I‘m asking if there‘s space left in the basement - I’m laughing alone in helpless frustration on the curb… And who would have guessed Poet Baraka would draw such a crowd? Me. When I read the announcement at citylights three weeks ago. And who’s that getting back on the bus? Oh.

But this is not what I do on this blog. I do not indulge the superfluous undulating of my life. I try to create something.

What does it mean when a poet has grown so great that he sells out? literally? not literarily. The Great Man’s 9/11 poem got him attacks from all sides as well as required the complete elimination of the position of Poet Laureate in the state of New Jersey. New Jersey State writes that “Baraka refused New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey's call for him to resign. When McGreevey attempted to fire Baraka, he found no provision in the law for removing a state poet laureate. Subsequently, on October 17, 2002, a bill was introduced to the New Jersey Senate that would eliminate the position of state poet laureate; it passed and became effective July 2, 2003.” Poet Baraka’s actual words were “NO, I WILL NOT APOLOGIZE, I WILL NOT RESIGN. In fact I will continue to do what I have appointed to do but still have not been paid to do." And get this, "Publicize and Popularize poetry and poets throughout this state." He should have said country. He achieved it. Perhaps this man is a loud dissident. But through the glass windows of the bookstore, he looked like Walt Whitman, he looked peaceful and proud. And, at 72, this man made me feel like I was at a Beatles’s concert - alright, a James Brown concert.