ZGram - 11/12/2002 - "More on the NJ 'poet laureate'"

[irimland@zundelsite.org]

ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny

November 12, 2002

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

Remember that idiotic "poem" that turned a New Jersey man into a 
"poet laureate", believe it or not, courtesy of Political 
Correctness?  The poem itself was atrociously bad, but the recipient 
was a Black, and the person who helped nominate him was a Jew.  What 
did that yield?  I can't think of a euphemism.

Now read what happened next:

[START]

Poet regrets naming Baraka N.J. laureate

Sunday, November 10, 2002

By KRYSTAL KNAPP

Anti-Semite.

Liar.

Ignorant.

D-plus poet.

The man who helped select contentious New Jersey poet laureate Amiri Baraka
as his successor now uses those words to describe him.

Gerald Stern says he regrets that he recommended Baraka for the honor of
poet laureate, but he's not sure the title should be taken away from him,
as some are demanding.

"I made a mistake," Stern said. "I'm sorry I appointed him. There were many
other poets we could have appointed. We did it out of good will. We thought
it was important to select a prominent New Jersey figure who represents the
black community."

Baraka, an ex-Black Panther formerly known as LeRoi Jones, was selected as
poet laureate last spring before controversy ignited over his poem,
"Somebody Blew Up America."

The controversial lines read: "Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna
get bombed/Who told 4,000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers to stay home
that day/Why did Sharon stay away?"

Baraka has been accused of anti-Semitism because his poem implies that
Israel had prior knowledge of the Sept. 11 attacks, and Gov. James E.
McGreevey has called for his resignation. But Baraka has refused to step
down and has repeatedly denied he is anti-Semitic.

"He claims he is not an anti-Semite, but of course that is bull," said
Stern, who is Jewish. "He is such a liar to say he is not anti-Semitic.
There is such ignorance and lying in his whole posture."

The poets who nominated Baraka said they had not read the poem when they
nominated him. They acknowledge now that they should have read his more
recent work.

The poem was written in October 2001 and circulated on the Internet. The
only media attention Baraka received before he read it at the Geraldine R.
Dodge Festival, where he was booed, was an article in the Daily
Princetonian, the Princeton University student newspaper.

Stern said the stanza referring to Jews who did not go to work that day
perpetuates a conspiracy theory that was started in the Middle East.

-- -- --

In interviews, Baraka has said the more than 60-stanza poem is supposed to
be about power, domestic terrorism against blacks and the legacy of
slavery.

Baraka said other lines in the poem show sympathy for Jews, such as:

"Who put the Jews in ovens, and who helped them do it/ Who said `America
First' and OK'd the yellow stars."

But he has stood by his belief that 4,000 Israelis who worked in the towers
were told to stay home. He defended the stanza to say he is being critical
of the state of Israel and not Jews.

But Stern and others do not accept his rationale.

"Israeli is a code word for Jew, and he knows that," Stern said. "Who the
hell thinks there were 8,000 Israelis working in the towers? There were
probably eight. And what about the hundreds of Jews who died in the towers?
Who notified them? Bush? He's not even that smart.

"He's full of (expletive) and he's an evil son of a (expletive) for
starting that myth here. I think he is an (expletive). The poem is not even
good. I give it a D-plus or a C-minus grade as a poem. In terms of its
truth, I give it an F-minus."

Previous poems by Baraka have been considered anti-Semitic, but the poetry
community was under the impression Baraka had repented.

Baraka once was married to a Jewish woman, Hettie Cohen, but he divorced
her after he embraced black nationalism. In a 1980 essay in the Village
Voice called "Confessions of a Former Anti-Semite" he apologized for a poem
that read: "I got the extermination blues, jewboys/so come for the rent,
jewboys."

"Did he write anti-Semitic things at one time? Yes. He wrote poems about
sticking the knife in the belly of the Jew owner and twisting it," Stern
said. "He wrote that a long time ago, though, and he apologized profusely.
We were led to believe he had changed his ways."

Stern said he doubts Baraka would support a poet who wrote verses of poetry
interpreted as attacking black people.

-- -- --

The controversy over "Somebody Blew Up America" has led several groups to
call for Baraka's removal. Invitations for him to speak have divided
campuses, such as Rider University, where he is scheduled to read his
poetry Dec. 6. Stern said controversy only encourages Baraka.

"He thrives on stirring things up," Stern said. "He loves the drama of it.

"He is a pain in the ass, and I'm sorry we selected him."

Attempts to locate Baraka for a response to Stern's remarks were unsuccessful.

Stern, a Lambertville resident, was appointed by former Gov. Christie
Whitman as the state's first poet laureate in 2000 after a committee of
poets nominated him. The two-year term carries a $10,000 stipend.

If he could find a way of revoking Baraka's nomination, Stern would, but
he's not sure it should be done after the fact.

"I'm nervous about censorship," he said. "But I'm not going to be the first
person in line to defend his right to free speech. I'll let people who
worry about the First Amendment do that."

A pending bill would give the state Council for the Humanities authority to
remove the laureate. Stern thinks rescinding the appointment retroactively
would manipulate the selection process.

"Gov. McGreevey said he couldn't fire Baraka because there is no provision
for that," Stern said. "But of course there is none. Who thinks of such a
notion? It is unheard of. It is a symbolic position.

"I see it as a bad sign. I've heard other things, that in the future the
governor will make his or her choice for the appointment. There is already
a fear, hatred and indifference of poetry. The blandest of people would be
chosen. The governor doesn't know anything about poetry. Who would advise
him?"

Stern offered no solution, except to say that poets should still have a say
in the selection process, and Baraka should be ignored as much as possible
instead of giving him the attention he desires.

"I don't know how to remove Baraka justly," he said. "Maybe we have to put
up with him."

[END]

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