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PEOPLE'S ORGANIZATION FOR PROGRESS SUPPORTS DECISION OF NEWARK SCHOOL BOARD TO HONOR AMIRI BARAKA AND OPPOSES LEGISLATION TO ABOLISH POET LAUREATE POST
(Statement by Lawrence Hamm, Chairman, People's Organization For Progress (POP), at a press conference held at the WISOMMM headquarters in Newark, New Jersey on January 2, 2003.)
The People's Organization For Progress (POP) joins with other organizations, community leaders and people of conscience to support poet/playwright and activist Amiri Baraka in his struggle to exercise his freedom of speech rights and retain the post of Poet Laureate of the State of New Jersey. Amiri Baraka is the people's poet laureate. He is not alone in this struggle, we are with him, and he has our unqualified support.
Recently, the Newark school district appointed Amiri Baraka as poet laureate for the city's public schools. The People's Organization For Progress and many in our community applaud and salute the school board and the superintendent for this decision. All we can say regarding this is that its about time.
Amiri Baraka is fully deserving of this honor as he is worthy of being the state's poet laureate. Mr. Baraka is a stellar product of the Newark public schools. He is a world renown literary figure with a significant body of literary works who has received awards and accolades at home and abroad.
He has made significant contributions to the life of this city and demonstrated again and again his commitment to its people and to the education of its children. Mr. Baraka is considered a founding father of the contemporary black cultural arts movement. He has been a political leader, social critic and civil rights activist. Most of all he has been an ardent opponent of black oppression.
After achieving all of this he chose to make the city from whence he came his home. Unlike others who have become great Amiri Baraka never forgot where he came from. He never forgot his people. The Newark school district could not have found a better example of a poet laureate for its children.
We support this decision by the school district without hesitation or equivocation. The board and the superintendent, Marion Bolden, did the right thing. In fact, the People's Organization For Progress would like to see other school districts and municipalities make Mr. Baraka their poet laureate.
Finally, the People's Organization For Progress opposes all the bills that have been introduced to either remove Mr. Baraka from the position of poet laureate or abolish the post. We believe that these attempts to silence him are an abrogation of his freedom of speech rights. We ask everyone to write and call their state legislators and urge them to oppose these bills.
We also urge everyone outraged by the persecution of Mr. Baraka to get on the bus to Trenton on Monday, January 6, departing 8:00 a.m. from the WISOMMM Mansion, 53 Lincoln Park in Newark. We are going to Trenton to meet with legislators and urge them to vote against these bills.
These efforts to penalize Mr. Baraka are an overreaction that amount to political overkill. It sends a chilling message not only to other poets but to all of us that cherish civil liberties and civil rights.
By abolishing the post of poet laureate are we engaging in a kind of collective punishment? Must we now beware of a cultural police? To many of us this episode has a McCarthyesque flavor. However, whatever the outcome Amiri Baraka will always be the people's poet laureate.
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The People's Organization For Progress is a grassroots Newark based community group working for racial, social, and economic justice.
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"If there is No Struggle, There is No Progress," Frederick Douglass