It's not all that often that poetry gets me all excited. Sure, I memorized "
" in college and one of my favorite books is a
poem but for the most part, eh, I'm ambivilent to the form. Good poetry is great, bad poetry is terrible and most poetry I just zone out when it comes around. But about 10 years ago I ran across a beat up copy of
The LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka Reader
, opened it to a random page and read "Afrikan Revolution," a scathing criticism of colonialism. Best $1 I've ever spent on a used book of poetry, that's for sure.
So while lining up for a poetry reading is about the last thing on my normal list of things to do I've got a sticky note to remind me to buy a ticket to see Amiri Baraka, who comes to Santa Fe courtesy of the
. Tickets go on sale this Saturday at noon (make sure you save me one or I'll just have to sneak in, and I don't want to have to do that) and the Baraka speaks March 11.