Historic [Audio] from WNYC Radio of the late Activist, Poet and Playwright Amiri Baraka

Today, playwright, critic, activist, and one of the most prominent and controversial African American voices in the world of American letters, Amiri Baraka, passed away after weeks of failing health at the age of 79.

He was known as LeRoi Jones at the time of this recording.

On February 17, 1965 Baraka read his essay “The Revolutionary Theater” at the Overseas Press Club, following the release of his Obie Award-winning The Dutchman and just four days before the assassination of Malcolm X.

WNYC has the audio of the speech that catapulted Baraka from charismatic Greenwich Village maverick into a radicalized black nationalist in Harlem in a pivitol time for the country at large:

An explosive reading and question & answer segment when put into the context of 1965! [AUDIO] http://www.wnyc.org/story/188902-amiri-baraka/.

Check out The Roots and Questlove's collaboration with Amiri Baraka below.

i had the pleasu---pardon me i had the honor of working with Amiri Baraka on our 5th album Phrenology. http://t.co/az099IW13x Rest In Power.
— Questlove Jenkins (@questlove) January 9, 2014

Interview posted January 2013