There Was a Party for Langston

Amiri Baraka is a key character and, along with Maya, attends the party for Langston in the library. He is illustrated as a slender Black man with medium brown skin; tightly textured, gray hair; and a beard. At Langston’s party, he wears a brown suit, a blue shirt, and round glasses. A flashback illustration of a younger Amiri depicts him with black hair, a green shirt, and a beaded necklace.

As a historical figure, Amiri’s (1934-2014) birth name was Everett Leroy Jones. He was a poet, playwright, and activist. Before the mid-1960s, he attended graduate school, wrote multiple plays and poems, and founded a literary magazine. The assassination of the civil rights leader Malcolm X in 1965 drastically changed his life. Amiri “repudiated his former life” in lower Manhattan, where he was part of “a loose circle of Greenwich Village artists, musicians, and writers” that were part of the Beat Generation, like Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, whose early work he platformed in his literary magazine (“Amiri Baraka.” Academy of American Poets). He moved to Harlem, platforming Black creators and writing pieces “that were intended for a [B]lack audience” (“Amiri Baraka”). He became increasingly politicized, converting to Islam and changing his name, writing “plays against police brutality,” and “perform[ing] as a benefit for the Black Panther Party” (“Amiri Baraka”). On page 43, Amiri is illustrated dancing. His arms and legs are outstretched, forming the letter “X.” Front lighting projects the silhouette of the letter largely behind him, and the large “X” is covered in sparkles. This conveys Artistic Interpretation and Its Influence Across Generation, as Amiri is one of Langston’s “word-children.” The legacy of Malcolm X also shaped his identity.

Rather than discussing how Amiri transforms several words as Maya does, the narrator instead focuses on how Amiri transforms his “favorite word,” “Black,” into many things. One of the things that Amiri’s poetry does is “make the word BLACK sound like it could be red” (40). This is likely a reference to the poem “Black Art,” in which Amiri says that people “want live / Words of the hip world live flesh & / Coursing blood” (Baraka, Amiri. “Black Art.” Selected Poetry of Amiri Baraka/LeRoi Jones. William Morrow and Company, 1979). Amiri says that poetry should be grounded in reality and humanity. He uses images of red-colored things like flesh and blood to convey how he wants a “Black Poem” that is alive and energetic and speaks to people’s real experiences. He does this so that

Black people understand

that they are the lovers and the sons

of warriors and sons

of warriors Are poems (“Black Art”).

He wants to write a “Black poem” full of humanity and liveliness that reminds Black Americans of their strength, beauty, and artistry. The narrator confirms that Amiri takes the word “Black” and makes it “sound like it could be red” (40), which shows that Amiri succeeded at the project that he proposes in “Black Art.”

On the following page, three illustrations help explain how Amiri can “make the word BLACK echo into the future and way back into the past” (41). The first illustration shows two outstretched arms, open handed and palm down. Each arm is made with the stylized word “Black” in a dark brown color. The word “Black” making up the skin of someone’s arms shows how the word is used to describe people with melanated skin, either Black Americans, people in the global Black or African diasporas, African people, or multi-racial people with Black ancestry. This application of the word “Black” is descriptive. The next illustration shows the same arms, with the dark brown letters spelling “Black” making up their skin. But now, the palms are clenched into fists, facing up, and their wrists are manacled and chained.

These illustrations symbolize two things. The first is the era of mass chattel enslavement of African peoples across the world, but especially in the United States, where Amiri is writing. Second, the upraised, clenched first with dark skin is a symbol that presents Black power and the fight against racism. This single image shows the “past” painful history of enslavement in Black life but also the present and “future” of power and resilience in Black communities. The final illustration shows a dark-skinned Black man dressed as a king. The word “Black” is written in yellow-gold and makes up his robes. This image also invokes the “future” mentioned by the narrator. Though this image could symbolize many things, one image that it invokes is a future in which Black people in the United States have fully realized equity and respect in American society.

The character of Amiri thus contributes to the theme of ​​Learning About Cultural History and Heritage since Amiri was politically active in the Black Arts movement and significantly influenced by thinkers such as Langston Hughes and Malcolm X. Amiri’s character also acknowledges the themes of Artistic Inspiration and Its Influence Across Generations, since he has come to the party to “offer his rickety radio heart to Langston” (42), as well as The Importance of Black Joy, as he goes “boogie boogie wiggling wild” in his dance with Maya (49).