IU Press Journals - Transition. 114, Gay Nigeria.

Transition was founded in 1961 in
Uganda by the late Rajat Neogy and quickly
established itself as a leading forum for
intellectual debate. The first series of issues
developed a reputation for tough-minded, far
reaching criticism, both cultural and political,
and this series carries on the tradition.

AN INTERNATIONAL REVIEW

Publishers
Kwame Anthony Appiah
Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

When Baraka died in January, the news was full of controversy-laced obituaries, penned by people who mostly never knew him. Transition remembers this important artist with reflections from those who may have known Baraka better than anyone.

Molefi Kete Asante, who included Baraka in his 100 Greatest African Americans, reflects on why he considers him to be one of the greatest American poets

Deborah Willis interviews Barakas daughter Kellie Jones about her fathers impact on her scholarship and curatorial work, including her recent exhibition, Witness: Art and Civil Rights in the Sixties

Throughout sub-Saharan Africa, there has been a sudden spike in anti-gay legislation. Transition looks closely at the circumstances surrounding the recent passage of Nigerias Same-Sex Marriage Prohibition Act, and what it means for the countrys most vulnerable citizens.

Transition interviews Nigerian gay rights activist Davis Mac-Iyalla about his work in the Anglican Church and the grave dangers of being out in Nigeria

Poetry

Poetry

Fiction
byChigozie Obioma

Fiction
by Gholahan Adeola

Cover: Dogon Couple II. Oil on canvas. 72 72 in.
2013 Kehinde Wiley. Courtesy of the artist and Sean Kelly, New York, NY. Used by permission.

AMIRI BARAKA WAS never one to shy away from public controversy. And, predictably, controversy has dominated his memorialization, in many cases overwhelming acknowledgement of his important roles as artist, thinker, educator, and activist. Among his many achievements, one must include that he was a founder of the Black Arts Repertory Theatre/School, a distinguished and prolific poet, a leading figure and theoretician in the Black Arts Movement, the author of the pathbreaking study of African American music Blues People, an early proponent for and practitioner of Black Studies, an Obie-winning playwright, and a community organizer central to the revitalization of Newark, NJ. Variously and persistently accused of being a racist, a misogynist, a homophobe, an anti-Semite, and an anarchist, this chorus of criticisms, though sometimes having merit, risks losing sight of Barakas outstanding artistic contributions, obscuring his steadfast commitment to fight for social justice and black liberation, and underappreciating his often principled changes of mind and heart.

To fully honor the man, then, requires giving space to examining these complexities. In the following essays and interview, we offer four quite different reflections on the person and impact of Amiri Baraka. In the first, Komozi Woodard, Barakas leading biographer, reviews some of the key facts of the artists life, in particular noting some that are often reported incorrectly. In the second essay, the famed novelist Ishmael Reed delves into his personal history with Baraka, alongside whom he grew up as an artist and with whom he enjoyed a long and contentious relationship as frenemies. In the third essay, Molefi Kete Asante, the leading authority on Afrocentric thought, discusses why he selected Amiri Baraka for his list of the one hundred most important African Americans, and why he feels that Baraka was one of the greatest American poets to ever live. We conclude with an interview of Kellie Jones, Barakas daughter, in which she talks about the influence of her family on her scholarship and work as an art curator.

Artwork appearing in this cluster is part of the exhibit Witness: Art and Civil Rights in the Sixties (March 7July 6, 2014) at the Brooklyn Museum. Organized by Teresa A. Carbone, Andrew W. Mellon Curator of American Art, Brooklyn Museum, and Kellie Jones, Associate Professor, Department of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University, the exhibit offers a focused look at painting, sculpture, graphics, and photography from a decade defined by social protest and American race relations. In observance of the fiftieth anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, this exhibition considers how sixty-six of the decades artists, including African Americans and some of their white, Latino, Asian American, Native American, and Caribbean contemporaries, used wide-ranging aesthetic approaches to address the struggle for racial justice