Amiri Baraka (1934-2014), co-founder of the Black Arts Movement, was remembered at a wake Friday, January 17 at Metropolitan Baptist Church and at a homegoing service Saturday, January 18 at Newark Symphony Hall, both in his hometown of Newark, NJ. More than 1,000 mourners, including many artists of worldwide fame, attended his memorials. Baraka passed January 9, 2014 in his native Newark, N.J., at the age of 79. Baraka was honored at his homegoing by a number of artists and activists from St. Louis, including jazz composer and saxophonist Oliver Lake, Nation of Islam official Akbar Muhammad, and the poets Quincy Troupe and Eugene B. Redmond. Redmond, who is also a widely published photographer, documented the services for The American. Baraka was a longtime and active trustee of the Eugene B. Redmond Writers Club, which will honor the departed legend with a tribute 6 p.m. Tuesday, February 18 at the Sunshine Cultural Arts Center, 630 N. 59
th
St. in East St. Louis.
For more information on the February 18 celebration of Amiri Baraka in East St. Louis, call 618-650-3991 or email eredmon@siue.edu.
