The president of James Madison University's Jewish student organization is objecting to the appearance of controversial poet Amiri Baraka at a campus conference next month.

Hillel President Daniel Teweles, in a letter he wrote to JMU President Linwood Rose, asked that Baraka not be given a forum on campus.

"A university, especially an institution such as JMU, should do everything in its power to promote understanding, unity, and education, and not to encourage hatred, anti-Semitism, misinformation, and disharmony…We request that you uphold the principles and values for which JMU is known and respected."

Baraka is scheduled to appear at the conference, "Furious Flower: Regenerating the Black Poetic Tradition" on Sept. 22-25.

"He's coming, and there's nothing we can do," Teweles said after meeting Thursday with JMU Vice President for Academic Affairs Douglas Brownand JMU English professor Joanne Gabbin, the conference's organizer.

"I feel our voices have been heard," said Teweles, a 20-year-old from Grand Rapids, Mich.

Controversial Views

Baraka, according to Jack Marmorstein, 35, an adviser to Hillel, has a long track record of including anti-Semitic, homophobic and sexist language in his poems.

"He is a shock jock of African-American poetry," said Marmorstein, who is the director of Rosetta Stone in Harrisonburg. "There is no reason to bring the level of poetry down to that level," he said, referring to Furious Flower as a world-class conference that Baraka will be attending.

Among Baraka's offenses, Marmorstein said, is the poem, "Somebody Blew Up America," which asks why 4,000 Israelis did not show up for work at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.

The poem also asks what Israel's prime minister knew before the attacks, because of a canceled appearance in New York City.

According to the Jewish Anti-Defamation League Web site, Baraka, who converted to the Muslim faith, wrote the poem in response to the terrorist attacks. The poem, according to the league, repeats an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory that blames Jews and Israel for the attacks.

Earlier, Gabbin, a poetry critic, said the charge of anti-Semitism is way off.

Reaction

The poem generated immediate reaction.

New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey signed into law a bill abolishing the New Jersey poet laureate position, which Baraka held at the time. The action stripped him of poet laureate status.

But Baraka, who couldn't be reached to comment on this story, refused to give up the title.

In a speech in October 2002 following publication of the poem, Baraka said the Anti-Defamation League was trying to defame him. "The trashy propaganda," he said on his Web site, "is characteristic of right-wing zealots who are interested only in slander and character assassination of independent thinkers everywhere."

The underlying theme of the poem, he said, is how blacks have suffered from "domestic terrorism" in the United States. He offered to publicly debate the poem, line by line.

Social Activist

Controversy is not new for Baraka, who was born in Newark, N.J., and became a major literary figure.

Baraka received critical acclaim for his book of poetry, "Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note" in 1961, according to a Web site devoted to Baraka. A year later, he wrote two plays that reflected hostility and mistrust of whites.

Gabbin considers Baraka to be one of the architects of the black arts movement.

Poetry is a way of telling society to deal with oppression, and Baraka's poetry, Gabbin said, has been controversial but has also raised consciousness. "That's what poets do," she has said in response to earlier criticism of Baraka's appearance at the conference.

Stamp of Approval

Baraka's appearance, Teweles said in his letter to Rose, undermines JMU's long-standing tradition of upholding the "highest standards of intellectual rigor and honesty in academic scholarship and discussion."

Teweles and Marmorstein said Baraka had a right to his opinions and to express them. But Baraka's appearance at JMU is not a guaranteed right.

"By inviting him," Marmorstein said, "we are stamping him with a certain authority. JMU has invited him to a celebrated poetry festival, and we are questioning that."

Contact Jeff Mellott at 574-6290 or jmellott@dnronline.com

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