Born LeRoi Jones in Newark, New Jersey, Amiri Baraka (1934–2014) published his first major poetry collection, Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note (Totem Press, 1961). His 1964 play Dutchman won the Obie Award for best Off-Broadway American play. He founded the Black Arts Repertory Theatre and School in Harlem in 1965 and served as Poet Laureate of New Jersey from 2002 to 2003. He received the PEN Open Book Award in 2008.
