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LeRoi Jones, Larry Neal, and The Cricket: jazz and poets' Black Fire

African American Review, Summer-Fall, 2003 by Christopher Funkhouser

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Ultimately, The Cricket might be criticized for the same reasons other aspects of Nationalism or the Black Arts Movement have been: dimensions of chauvinism and "hero-worshipping" (Autobiography 323-27). Moreover, the magazine's polemical force ("unity form") may have been too narrow in scope (Cricket 4: 40). Baraka has critiqued and moved away from these tendencies himself in subsequent years. Importantly, beyond simply casting The Cricket as "Black Nationalist," one must acknowledge that powerful insight and discussion are contained within its pages; its contents are extremely informative. People looking to practice or realize how "real" connections are made and understood between parallel arts communities and social groups can benefit from the example of this magazine. Baraka expands his theory on this need in "Notes on Lou Donaldson & Andrew Hill," in the final issue of The Cricket:

   What is necessary is constant effort at
   achieving a total. At achieving something
   New. Make it New is attributed
   to Ezra Pound is Eastern. It is the
   African (and Sufi) explanation of why
   life, even though contained by an endless
   cycle, or not contained, is an endless
   cycle, can be, is worthwhile, i.e.
   make it new and lo and behold
   KARMA (digit???). (46)

To animate human issues, to make them alive through publications and gatherings, is essential. Thought and inspiration, in the best cases, lead to action. Action is always essential. Baraka's work in this sphere continues to this day; he repeatedly stresses his view that there are places now just like Newark was in 1967. Creative people everywhere can and need to make progress by responding to their own surroundings on their own terms. Presently, Baraka and various associates produce the Unity and Struggle newspaper. He and his wife Amina host various activist meetings and arts events at their home. Ras Baraka, their son, is a political leader as well as an editor and poet who co-hosts programs at a poetry cafe in Newark. These nonstop efforts by the Barakas are completely vital for regional arts and cultural awareness.

The Cricket may be, as Nathaniel Mackey recently told me, "a blink of an eye" in Baraka's career (meaning it is not widely known because of its brief existence). Yet it is, finally, a valuable moment. The Cricket inspired black artists to express themselves using jazz's informal yet expansive methods in language. The magazine provided an outlet for their voices, enabling innovations and freedoms in written form. At points, musicians themselves take on language as vehicle. For awhile, the poets and musicians were trippin" together, living "Black Music in Evolution." The Cricket helped to promote innovative projections of art in sync with a revolutionary movement. The magazine made advances by trumpeting poetic articulations and shifting cultural formulations. If enough people were to share a common extra-poetic inspiration, this type of collaboration today--in any location where arts and culture are thriving, and people share passionate beliefs ... and/or online--would be a worthwhile endeavor. Since so many poets are combining forces with musicians in performance, why aren't more people working together on inter-arts magazines, pooling resources to co-create visionary publications?

LeRoi Jones, Larry Neal, and The Cricket: jazz and poets' Black Fire

African American Review, Summer-Fall, 2003 by Christopher Funkhouser

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