Amiri Baraka Quotes

American music culture is black culture.

Jazz came to America three hundred years ago in chains.

The music [of America] must be founded upon what are called the negro melodies …. These beautiful and varied themes are the product of the soil. They are American.

As a child, I experienced black culture as many people did in America: on the TV, radio, and stages.

Jazz is known all over the world as an American musical art form and that's it. No America, no jazz. I've seen people try to connect it to other countries, for instance to Africa, but it doesn't have a damn thing to do with Africa.

All black art is always judged to illuminate our experience and prove that our stories and our history and our lives matter. And that goes back to Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston - take your pick.

Black History Month is a poignant time for the entire country, but particularly the African American community.

Slaves and the descendants of slaves created world pop culture. Let's keep it real and be very respectful about that.

The Afro-American experience is the only real culture that America has. Basically, every American tries to walk, talk, dress and behave like African Americans.

What we call soul has been around a long time. It comes out of a particular culture that is African in origin, but influenced by 250 years of slavery, as well as other forms of racial oppression.

As yet, the Negroes themselves do not fully appreciate these old slave songs.

The history of the black man did not begin with slavery.

There is a distinctive African American culture that has roots in Africa and evolved on American soil.

I wanted to explore black culture, and I wanted that culture to be a revelation.

My audience went, 'Wait, why is she singing jazz? What's going on?' And then they went, 'Oh, because she can. Because she loves it.' And jazz, a music invented by the African-American community, is the greatest art form, I believe, to have ever come out of this country.

You have Vampire Weekend who have more African references musically than most African-American artists.

Black youth, in general, have no understanding of our past. Young black people who don't know who Martin Luther King Jr. was, don't know nothin'.

You can't just say in one sentence what is blackness or what is black culture or what makes you who you are.

We know nothing about Africa, although our roots are there in terms of our forbearers. But I mean as far as the average Negro today, he knows nothing about Africa. And I think he's got to face the fact that he is an American, his culture is basically American, and one becomes adjusted to this when he realizes what, what he is.

When we say Afro American, we include everyone in the Western Hemisphere of African descent. South America is America. Central America is America. South America has many people in it of African descent.

As Africans Americans we often think about the tragic stories associated with our lineage, but there are a lot of triumphs. Traveling helps you learn about other aspects of our history, like the story of Christ the Redeemer. It's empowering and inspiring.

You've got to appreciate the things that come from the art of the Negro and from the heart of the man farthest down.

I'd be happy if people said that I did a little bit to raise the dignity and recognition of the greatness of African-American music.

In a typical history book, black Americans are mentioned in the context of slavery or civil rights. There's so much more to the story.

I do consider myself part of black history.