An Interview with Ammiel Alcalay
Abstract
Q: How did you get to know Amiri Baraka and/or his work?
AA: I was a weird kid. I encountered System of Dante’s Hell,
Tales, and Blues People as a teenager, and I never stopped reading him.
This would have been 1969, 1970, 1971, those years. I can’t remember
when I first actually saw him read or met him. I know I saw some plays
in the 1970s and I believe I also heard him read somewhere in that
period. But I was close to people who had been close to him: Gilbert
Sorrentino, for example, who was a teacher of mine, and then a good
friend. By hearing Gil talk about “Roi,” I felt like I knew him before
I got to know him, it felt legendary! I certainly got a feeling for his
unparalleled sense of humor, which I got to know first-hand later.
Keywords
Amiri Baraka, Ammiel Alcalay, American Literature, American Culture and Literature, American Culture, Cultural Studies
References
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