Trouble man: Amiri Baraka has been under siege recently for his poem "Somebody Blew Up America." But long before the latest firestorm, this literary legend has made controversy a way of life - includes selected bibliography

at 69, Amiri Baraka, poet, playwright and political leader, is no stranger to controversy. But his latest excursion into mayhem and media scrutiny has a different tone from his past scuffles. After reading his poem "Somebody Blew Up America" last September 19 at a poetry festival in Stanhope, New Jersey, Baraka endured harsh public reaction, triggering outrage from the conservative press and Jewish organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League. Photos of Baraka--his face contorted with anger and contempt--appeared in articles that were highly critical, calling for the former '60s radical and New Jersey's poet laureate to resign and apologize for "his blatant anti-Semitism." Even the state's first poet laureate, Gerald Stern, a National Book Award winner, blasted the poet and the message of his poem. Stern said that he was shocked by the "stupidity" of it, calling Baraka "a liar," adding that he regretted having recommended him for the post, which comes with a two-year term and a $10,000 stipend.

The most offensive stanza, according to Baraka's critics, is the one that they say hints at a Jewish link to the World Trade Center tragedy. The poet's supporters counter that the words only strike a chord because of their dead-on imagery and symbolism:

   Who knew the World Trade Center
   was gonna get bombed
   Who told 4,000 Israeli workers
   at the Twin Towers
   To stay home that day
   Why did Sharon stay away?

In the white-hot glare of negative publicity, Democratic Governor James McGreevey rebuked Baraka and called for him to resign his laureate post, knowing that the legislation enacted by former Gov. Christie Whitman that established the post stipulates that even government pressure can't compel Baraka to quit. Legislation was introduced last October to amend the law to permit the governor to oust Baraka, thus putting an end to the controversy. A spokesperson for the governor said the bill had the support of both parties and that it was being put on the fast track to expedite its passage. The governor also froze funds for the stipend, further punishing the maverick black writer.

Since the furor broke last fall, the pressure on Baraka remains high, with the Jewish Defense League and popular Jewish newspapers, such as The Jewish World Review, labeling the patriarch of modern black poetry "New Jersey's bigot laureate." Ten months after the reading, Baraka remains adamant that he will not resign and that he is fighting for the rights of poets and the First Amendment. Ten separate bills are pending in the state legislature to abolish Baraka's post with a vote expected in February.

When I recently caught up with Baraka at his Newark home after a rousing tribute in Manhattan and other rallies in his support, the poet was quick to dismiss the fuss as much ado about nothing. "I was surprised by the total assault led by the Anti-Defamation League," Baraka says. "Their narrow focus, dismissing the whole poem to obsess on four lines, citing the mere mention of Israel as anti-Semitic, made me understand they are 0shielding Israeli terror, disguising them as `victims' and the Palestinians as the terrorists."

On the matter of the bills coming up for a vote in the state legislature, Baraka does not bite his tongue. "The New Jersey legislature cannot `end' my tenure nor withhold the honorarium," he notes. "That's why there is so much noise being made from them. The recent vote of 21 to 0 with 20 abstentions was to eliminate the poet laureate post. But there is no legislation that can remove me. There are 10 bills in the New Jersey senate concerning me and the poem, but it is very doubtful that any of them will pass."

Beyond the tabloid headlines, the bickering and the brouhaha over the poem, the legacy of Baraka and his accomplishments as a major American literary figure have been overlooked and maligned.

Born Everett Leroy Jones (he changed his name later to LeRoi) in Newark, New Jersey, in 1934, to a middle-class family, Baraka attended the city's local schools. After his high school graduation in 1951, he enrolled at the Newark campus of Rutgers University with a science scholarship. A year later, he transferred to Howard University and focused on English literature, taking classes with noted sociologist E. Franklin Frazier (Black Bourgeoisie, The Negro Family in the United States). Soon thereafter, Baraka became disenchanted with the "bourgeois conservative" atmosphere of the school and dropped out in 1954.

Then came a stint in the Air Force, where Baraka was charged with being "a Communist influence"--a major concern during McCarthyism of the 1950s--and discharged from the service. After his return to civilian life, he moved to Manhattan's bohemian Lower East Side and became part of the Beat movement that included writers like Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Frank O' Hara, Gregory Corso and Diane Di Prima. He also married Hettie Cohen, a union that would last several years and produce two daughters.

The end of his marriage in 1965 marked Baraka's move uptown and his embrace of black cultural nationalism as the driving force in his ever-growing number of important works. While the assassination of Malcolm X and widespread riots were rocking America, Baraka was positioning himself as the spokesman for a new Black Power movement in the arts by creating works such as The System of Dante's Hell (1965), Tales (1967) and Black Fire (1968), an influential collection of black writing co-edited by Baraka and Larry Neal. Sometime in the mid-1960s, he changed his name from LeRoi Jones to Amiri Baraka, which means "blessed prince."