POET LAUREATE OF NJ ASKED TO STEP DOWN
Amiri Baraka, poet laureate of New Jersey, was asked to step down from his position after writing a poem that implied Israel�s advanced knowledge of the World Trade Center attack. Baraka refused Governor James E. McGreevy�s demand, saying �I will not apologize and I will not resign,� at a literary festival in the Newark Public Library in front of an audience of about two hundred.
McGreevy�s request stemmed from passages in Baraka�s poem, �Somebody Blew Up America,� such as the lines, �Who told 4,000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers / To stay home that day.� Although some festival guests refused to attend Baraka�s speech, the Newark library officials stood firm in allowing the scheduled event to take place.
Among those in attendance, mixed feelings circulated about both the poem and the poet himself. While several noted that this type of controversial outspokenness is typical of Baraka, others commented that at a time of shaky national security, Baraka should have had more sense about what he was saying. Baraka defends his poem against the accusations of Anti-Semitism, saying that �Being anti-Israel is not the same as being anti-Jewish.�
Several students and faculty members at St. Mary�s College have been following the news, as well as reacting to the actual poem, which is almost six pages in length. English professor Kaia Sand believes that the situation itself is ironic because while the actual poem investigates abuses of power, Baraka is being pressured by powerful people to censor himself. �This controversy is creating space for Baraka�s views,� Sand continues, �which don�t usually garner space in the prestige press.�
Junior English and Public Policy major Christine Neff has also been analyzing the poem and agrees that Baraka has really captured the public�s full attention. �All ears are listening,� she says, �It's time for him to voice his message to the world.�
Neff, among several SMCM faculty members, has also expressed sentiments that the content of the rest of the poem, outside of pure controversial lines, has been widely ignored as the media continues to emphasize the abuse of First Amendment rights. �It is important to remember that the poem, as a whole, is attacking oppression and oppressors and asking who it is that controls such actions,� Neff states.
This instance is not the first time Amiri Baraka has faced penalties for writing controversial poetry; in 1967 when he was on trial for his role in the Newark riots, his poem �Black People!� was actually used as incriminating evidence. �You can�t force a poet to change his or her style or message to match the needs of a �politically correct� and conservative system,� Neff states, �Especially a poet as radical, passionate and blatantly political as Baraka.�
