About the Author

LeRoi Jones, later known as Amiri Baraka, was an American writer of poetry, drama, essays, fiction and criticism. Known for his involvement in the Beat movement and the Black Arts movement, his writing forms some of the defining texts for African-American culture. He served as Poet Laureate for New Jersey and was awarded numerous awards including a PEN award and the Langston Hughes Award. He received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts, and was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Reviews

A must for all who would more knowledgeably appreciate and better comprehend America's most popular music
*LANGSTON HUGHES*

A panoramic sociocultural history of African-American music . . . the first major book of its kind by a black author
*NPR*

So essential and, for many of today's music fans, so under-examined . . . Precise, probing and academic
* * The Current * *

Blues People is not only a fresh, incisively instructive reinterpretation of negro music in America, but it is also crucially relevant to negro-white relationships today
*NAT HENTOFF*