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Dutchman & The Slave: Two Plays by LeRoi Jones
" Dutchman is designed to shock—its basic idea, its language and its murderous rage." — New York Times Centered squarely on the Negro-white conflict, both Dutchman and The Slave are shocking plays—in ideas, in language, in honest anger. They illuminate as with a flash of lightning a deadly serious problem—and they bring an eloquent and exceptionally powerful voice to the American theatre. Dutchman opened in New York City on March 24, 1964, to perhaps the most excited acclaim ever accorded an off-Broadway production and shortly thereafter received the Village Voice's Obie Award. The Slave, which was produced off-Broadway the following fall, continues to be the subject of heated critical controversy.
88 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1964
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About the author
Amiri Baraka
154 books396 followersPoems and plays, such as
Dutchman
(1964), of American writer Amiri Baraka originally Everett LeRoi Jones focus on racial conflict.
He attended Barringer high school. Coyt Leverette Jones, his father, worked as a postal supervisor and lift operator. Anna Lois Russ Jones, his mother, worked as a social worker.
He studied at Rutgers, Columbia, and Howard universities but left without a degree and attended the new school for social research. He won a scholarship to Rutgers in 1951, but a continuing sense of cultural dislocation prompted him to transfer in 1952 to Howard. He studied philosophy and religion, major fields. Jones also served three years in the air force as a gunner. Jones continued his studies of comparative literature at Columbia University. An anonymous letter accused him as a Communist to his commanding officer and led to the discovery of Soviet literature; afterward, people put Jones on gardening duty and gave him a dishonorable discharge for violation of his oath of duty.
In the same year, he moved to Greenwich Village and worked initially in a warehouse for music records. His interest in jazz began in this period. At the same time, he came into contact with Beat Generation, black mountain college, and New York School. In 1958, he married Hettie Cohen and founded Totem Press, which published such Beat Generation icons as Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg.
Jones in July 1960 visited with a delegation of Cuba committee and reported his impressions in his essay Cuba libre . He began a politically active art. In 1961, he published Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note , a first book. In 1963, Blues People: Negro Music in White America of the most influential volumes of criticism, especially in regard to the then beginning free jazz movement, followed. His acclaimed controversy premiered and received an Obie Award in the same year.
After the assassination of Malcolm X (1965), Jones left his wife and their two children and moved to Harlem. His controversial revolutionary and then antisemitic.
In 1966, Jones married Sylvia Robinson, his second wife, who later adopted the name Amina Baraka. In 1967, he lectured at San Francisco State University. In 1967, he adopted the African name Imamu Amear Baraka, which he later changed to Amiri Baraka.
In 1968, he was arrested in Newark for allegedly carrying an illegal weapon and resisting arrest during the riots of the previous year, and people subsequently sentenced him to three years in prison; shortly afterward, Raymond A. Brown, his defense attorney, convinced an appeals court to reverse the sentence. In that same year, Black Music, his second book of jazz criticism, collected previously published music journalism, including the seminal Apple Cores columns from Down Beat magazine. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Baraka penned some similar strongly anti-Jewish articles to the stance at that time of the Nation of Islam to court controversy.
Around 1974, Baraka himself from Black nationalism as a Marxist and a supporter of third-world liberation movements. In 1979, he lectured at Africana studies department of State University of New York at Stony Brook. In 1980, he denounced his former anti-Semitic utterances, declaring himself an anti-Zionist.
In 1984, Baraka served as a full professor at Rutgers University, but was subsequently denied tenure. In 1989, he won a book award for his works as well as a Langston Hughes award.
In 1990, he co-authored the autobiography of Quincy Jones, and 1998 , he served as supporting actor in Bulworth, film of Warren Beatty. In 1996, the red hot organization produced Offbeat: A Red Hot Soundtrip, and Baraka contributed to this acquired immune def
He attended Barringer high school. Coyt Leverette Jones, his father, worked as a postal supervisor and lift operator. Anna Lois Russ Jones, his mother, worked as a social worker.
He studied at Rutgers, Columbia, and Howard universities but left without a degree and attended the new school for social research. He won a scholarship to Rutgers in 1951, but a continuing sense of cultural dislocation prompted him to transfer in 1952 to Howard. He studied philosophy and religion, major fields. Jones also served three years in the air force as a gunner. Jones continued his studies of comparative literature at Columbia University. An anonymous letter accused him as a Communist to his commanding officer and led to the discovery of Soviet literature; afterward, people put Jones on gardening duty and gave him a dishonorable discharge for violation of his oath of duty.
In the same year, he moved to Greenwich Village and worked initially in a warehouse for music records. His interest in jazz began in this period. At the same time, he came into contact with Beat Generation, black mountain college, and New York School. In 1958, he married Hettie Cohen and founded Totem Press, which published such Beat Generation icons as Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg.
Jones in July 1960 visited with a delegation of Cuba committee and reported his impressions in his essay Cuba libre . He began a politically active art. In 1961, he published Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note , a first book. In 1963, Blues People: Negro Music in White America of the most influential volumes of criticism, especially in regard to the then beginning free jazz movement, followed. His acclaimed controversy premiered and received an Obie Award in the same year.
After the assassination of Malcolm X (1965), Jones left his wife and their two children and moved to Harlem. His controversial revolutionary and then antisemitic.
In 1966, Jones married Sylvia Robinson, his second wife, who later adopted the name Amina Baraka. In 1967, he lectured at San Francisco State University. In 1967, he adopted the African name Imamu Amear Baraka, which he later changed to Amiri Baraka.
In 1968, he was arrested in Newark for allegedly carrying an illegal weapon and resisting arrest during the riots of the previous year, and people subsequently sentenced him to three years in prison; shortly afterward, Raymond A. Brown, his defense attorney, convinced an appeals court to reverse the sentence. In that same year, Black Music, his second book of jazz criticism, collected previously published music journalism, including the seminal Apple Cores columns from Down Beat magazine. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Baraka penned some similar strongly anti-Jewish articles to the stance at that time of the Nation of Islam to court controversy.
Around 1974, Baraka himself from Black nationalism as a Marxist and a supporter of third-world liberation movements. In 1979, he lectured at Africana studies department of State University of New York at Stony Brook. In 1980, he denounced his former anti-Semitic utterances, declaring himself an anti-Zionist.
In 1984, Baraka served as a full professor at Rutgers University, but was subsequently denied tenure. In 1989, he won a book award for his works as well as a Langston Hughes award.
In 1990, he co-authored the autobiography of Quincy Jones, and 1998 , he served as supporting actor in Bulworth, film of Warren Beatty. In 1996, the red hot organization produced Offbeat: A Red Hot Soundtrip, and Baraka contributed to this acquired immune def
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 159 reviews
February 27, 2017
Baraka’s Dutchman first presented itself to me as lacking a purpose. By that I mean that I could not understand the point of Lula and Clay’s discussion. Why is Lula such a tease? Why is Clay accepting this discourse and then rejecting it so strongly? However, after reading Malcom X The Ballot or the Bullet, I could see that there was something I had not understood through my first reading: Dutchman is an allegory re-enacting African-American’s history in the United States of America.
Through the relationship of Lula and Clay in her play, Amiri Baraka reveals the social and political relationship of White Americans and African-Americans in the context of the Black Power movements. Lula represents white Americans and Clay, Afro-Americans who know they deserve equal rights. When Lula enters the bus, she sits near him and starts a conversation. Early in their discussion, she mentions that she entered this bus because she saw Clay looking at her in a way that she describes as sexual. Even though Clay says it was not the case, that he looked at her only because she was staring first, Lula still claims that it was the other way around. This moment in the play reminded me of the plantations. White plantation holders were describing African-Americans as sexual beasts who were teasing them when in fact, the white men were the ones taking advantage of the African-Americans. The misrepresentations and racial tensions are embodied by Lula and Clay’s conversation in the bus and their relationship.
Moreover, Lula also represents the white political class who teases African-Americans with promises of equality, and with false hope of desegregation. When Lula starts to tease Clay, he believes her attraction is genuine and falls right into her trap. Unfortunately for him, he was not aware of the rules of the game. He could not have known that the moment he would not follow her rules, she would demonize him and even kill him. Clay, representing African-Americans who believed in the political promises, is disappointed and frustrated to have been played once more. He is angry, like the African-American population is angry. He is louder and Lula does not accept that he takes control of the conversation. Therefore, when Clay threatens her, she kills him. As this is an allegory for the social and political climate of the time, the death of Clay is the death, or incarceration in prison, of all those who stood up to the unjust laws, and attempted to be in control of the conversation as much as any white Americans could be.
The relationship between Lula and Clay serves as an allegory for the larger issue of racial discrimination in the United States. Their discussion and the way they treat each other through the play reveals an African-American perspective of the conflict. It depicts the desire to be known as equals, but also the betrayal felt by the African-American population of the United States of America following broken promises. Dutchman may seem violent and rude, but it truly unveils the sad, unjust, undeserved prejudices towards African-Americans.
Through the relationship of Lula and Clay in her play, Amiri Baraka reveals the social and political relationship of White Americans and African-Americans in the context of the Black Power movements. Lula represents white Americans and Clay, Afro-Americans who know they deserve equal rights. When Lula enters the bus, she sits near him and starts a conversation. Early in their discussion, she mentions that she entered this bus because she saw Clay looking at her in a way that she describes as sexual. Even though Clay says it was not the case, that he looked at her only because she was staring first, Lula still claims that it was the other way around. This moment in the play reminded me of the plantations. White plantation holders were describing African-Americans as sexual beasts who were teasing them when in fact, the white men were the ones taking advantage of the African-Americans. The misrepresentations and racial tensions are embodied by Lula and Clay’s conversation in the bus and their relationship.
Moreover, Lula also represents the white political class who teases African-Americans with promises of equality, and with false hope of desegregation. When Lula starts to tease Clay, he believes her attraction is genuine and falls right into her trap. Unfortunately for him, he was not aware of the rules of the game. He could not have known that the moment he would not follow her rules, she would demonize him and even kill him. Clay, representing African-Americans who believed in the political promises, is disappointed and frustrated to have been played once more. He is angry, like the African-American population is angry. He is louder and Lula does not accept that he takes control of the conversation. Therefore, when Clay threatens her, she kills him. As this is an allegory for the social and political climate of the time, the death of Clay is the death, or incarceration in prison, of all those who stood up to the unjust laws, and attempted to be in control of the conversation as much as any white Americans could be.
The relationship between Lula and Clay serves as an allegory for the larger issue of racial discrimination in the United States. Their discussion and the way they treat each other through the play reveals an African-American perspective of the conflict. It depicts the desire to be known as equals, but also the betrayal felt by the African-American population of the United States of America following broken promises. Dutchman may seem violent and rude, but it truly unveils the sad, unjust, undeserved prejudices towards African-Americans.
October 21, 2018
Quintessential moment in the transition from the early to the mid-late Sixties, particularly the public emergence of Black Power. The play was written by Leroi Jones before he changed his name to Amiri Baraka and does quite a bit to explain why Baraka's writing is, at least for a while, much less complex and nuanced than Jones's.
Incredibly powerful in performance. I'd put Dutchman somewhere, probably in the top half, of the ten most important American plays.
Incredibly powerful in performance. I'd put Dutchman somewhere, probably in the top half, of the ten most important American plays.
September 7, 2023
I love these works. Very unexpected. Very dark. Very dramatic
February 4, 2018
When I first read this play in college it hit me like a thunderclap. No other work of art ever has had the effect on me that this play had. It turned everything upside down, or rather right side up. DUTCHMAN came out a good quarter of a century before NWA came out with "Fuck tha Police". Martin Luther King had just or was about to win the Nobel Peace Prize. The idea was in the air (still is) that black people would be happy just to be able to participate. That there might be anger--even rage-- at 400 years of mistreatment underlying Black consciousness was a concept that was anathema to white America and frankly, to a large portion of black America too. And yet, here it was, on stage no less, with all of its symbolic and actual power. What Baraka (then LeRoi Jones) did was scare the pants off everybody. He shook people loose of their complacency. He attempted to take back by sheer force of language what the dominant cultural paradigm had taken from his people. It's a stunning piece of work. Seeing as how race has been and is a central conflict of American society from day one to now and seeing how this play deals with that conflict in as brutal and unflinching terms as has ever been seen or read, I think it makes a strong claim to be one of the Great American Plays.
If all this, why only four stars? One, THE SLAVE is not as good by a long shot and becomes more dated by the second. Second, the lofty status I ascribe to DUTCHMAN will be put seriously to the test in the next century. It doesn't mean that what the play asserts is wrong or even misguided but it is a fixed point in an ever changing universe. The world has changed much. The anger was necessary to get to even this point of relative equality but here we are. Everything isn't better but it is different. When this play came out, a black president was science fiction, if not an out and out impossibility. In 2013 a black president, love him or hate him, is serving his second term.
Third, the world grows smaller every day and as ever, the way it changes can not always be anticipated. The sexism in Baraka's work can not, should not and will not be ignored in the days, months and years to come. Any major social or political force ignores or discounts women at its own peril.
In the not too distant future, the battlefields of the various civil rights struggles will not look the same, nor the weapons used. DUTCHMAN is still at a place where it has relevance and may even prove prophetic or iconic or it may fade away as so many works of art have, not because it wasn't great but because the work it had to do has been done and it is now time to move on.
If all this, why only four stars? One, THE SLAVE is not as good by a long shot and becomes more dated by the second. Second, the lofty status I ascribe to DUTCHMAN will be put seriously to the test in the next century. It doesn't mean that what the play asserts is wrong or even misguided but it is a fixed point in an ever changing universe. The world has changed much. The anger was necessary to get to even this point of relative equality but here we are. Everything isn't better but it is different. When this play came out, a black president was science fiction, if not an out and out impossibility. In 2013 a black president, love him or hate him, is serving his second term.
Third, the world grows smaller every day and as ever, the way it changes can not always be anticipated. The sexism in Baraka's work can not, should not and will not be ignored in the days, months and years to come. Any major social or political force ignores or discounts women at its own peril.
In the not too distant future, the battlefields of the various civil rights struggles will not look the same, nor the weapons used. DUTCHMAN is still at a place where it has relevance and may even prove prophetic or iconic or it may fade away as so many works of art have, not because it wasn't great but because the work it had to do has been done and it is now time to move on.
June 11, 2019
Dutchman 2.5 stars
The Slave 3.5 stars
I wish there was more to say. The first play was an Edward Albee encounter, one which barrels towards ultimatums as civility and taboo finds the quarters a bit cramped. No one mentioned whether the compartment smelled like urine. I was put in the mind of the Ten Minutes Older film featuring Jean-Luc Nancy rattling on about the stranger. While a black man looks on from across the train.
The second play occurs during the great race war. My blemished, blasé life has always heard echoes of this foretold event but no one until now offered details. I think I'll stay home instead and watch Game of Thrones.
There are some terrific lines crackling here but too much is simply under-developed. The academic antagonist to the revolutionary refers to ritual drama, which one is tempted to apply to this play itself.
The Slave 3.5 stars
I wish there was more to say. The first play was an Edward Albee encounter, one which barrels towards ultimatums as civility and taboo finds the quarters a bit cramped. No one mentioned whether the compartment smelled like urine. I was put in the mind of the Ten Minutes Older film featuring Jean-Luc Nancy rattling on about the stranger. While a black man looks on from across the train.
The second play occurs during the great race war. My blemished, blasé life has always heard echoes of this foretold event but no one until now offered details. I think I'll stay home instead and watch Game of Thrones.
There are some terrific lines crackling here but too much is simply under-developed. The academic antagonist to the revolutionary refers to ritual drama, which one is tempted to apply to this play itself.
March 14, 2017
INCLUDES SPOILERS.
When I was finished reading this play, I was angered by it because I hadn't really understood what the author was trying to do with the lesson. It wasn't until I got to class and the teacher discussed it more with us that I began thinking about something specifically relating to Baldwin. It was something Baldwin said when he was on a television show talking about protest and black civil rights. Baldwin discussed the difference between a white man asking for his liberties and rights in society versus a black man asking for his liberties and rights. And the difference included a white man being praised whereas a black man is labeled tyrant and a nigger. This is what this play reminded me of, specifically the scene in Act II were Clay switches places with Lula and he becomes the enemy at the hands of a white woman. A white woman or person can get away with acting out and outrageous and never suffering for it at all. This is even evident in contemporary society with how cases are handled when whites massacre people of color but don't get labeled terrorist or seen badly but people of color do. As soon as Clay speaks out against Lula's outrageous behavior, he is killed and kicked off the train without any thought or consequence to Lula.
When I was finished reading this play, I was angered by it because I hadn't really understood what the author was trying to do with the lesson. It wasn't until I got to class and the teacher discussed it more with us that I began thinking about something specifically relating to Baldwin. It was something Baldwin said when he was on a television show talking about protest and black civil rights. Baldwin discussed the difference between a white man asking for his liberties and rights in society versus a black man asking for his liberties and rights. And the difference included a white man being praised whereas a black man is labeled tyrant and a nigger. This is what this play reminded me of, specifically the scene in Act II were Clay switches places with Lula and he becomes the enemy at the hands of a white woman. A white woman or person can get away with acting out and outrageous and never suffering for it at all. This is even evident in contemporary society with how cases are handled when whites massacre people of color but don't get labeled terrorist or seen badly but people of color do. As soon as Clay speaks out against Lula's outrageous behavior, he is killed and kicked off the train without any thought or consequence to Lula.
May 22, 2019
We read this the same night we read ZOO STORY, and the plan would be for the two plays to be performed on the same night. Amiri Baraka's play THE DUTCHMAN, fills so many of the themes we hope to explore that illuminate the "Spirit of 1969". We plan to also do talk backs after because this play will still resonate strongly with many of our students at SUNY Sullivan. It's sad that the issues that are examined in this play, still persist today.
February 28, 2018
While these plays are explosive today, just howling off the page, it's impossible (if you weren't there) to imagine their effect at the time. While Baraka's writing in both plays is clearly didactic, it never comes off as preachy. Rather it's in the same historical theater tradition of pitting opposing views, opposing lives, on the stage and fighting the ideas, back and forth.
July 12, 2018
I meaaaaaan i’ve only read Dutchman, and we’re doing it for Camden Fringe so is gonna be awesome af, cuz daaang this play hits me every time
May 2, 2024
THAT'S WHY HE THE GOAT!!!
June 22, 2020
Powerful isn't a strong enough word.
July 14, 2020
Read this a while back for my Heart of the City class and forgot to review. Obviously brilliant. I have nothing interesting to add to the narrative surrounding this classic.
April 14, 2022
This is a book of two plays. Both stories are written extremely well. Very intense dialogue and fast paced. Both stories will stay with you while you work through them in your head.
October 20, 2024
Actually really felt this one crap! I just finished “the slave” and I am so riled up!
November 29, 2024
Whit women will read this and say it makes them wildly uncomfortable
January 22, 2023
I imagine these plays would have been shocking back in the day &, even updated for today's audience, they still hold the power to shock (imo). I found them interesting & thought-provoking.
January 29, 2018
i read dutchman. it was very good. yt people are scary.
"Don't make the mistake, through some irresponsible surge of Christian charity, of talking too much about the advantages of Western rationalism, or the great intellectual legacy of the white man, or maybe they'll begin to listen. And then, maybe one day, you'll find they actual do understand exactly what you are talking about, all the fantasy people. All these blues people. And on that day, as sure as shit, when you really believe you can 'accept' them into your fold, as half-white trusties late of the subject peoples. With no more blues...all of those ex-coons will be stand-up Western men, with eyes for clean hard useful lives, sober, pious and sane, and they'll murder you. They'll murder you, and have very rational explanations. Very much like your own."
to be clear, this play is highly critical of the liberal, assimilationist perspective but also unfolds through the eyes of a middle-class black man. it's LeRoi Jones on the brink of becoming Amiri Baraka (so the author that Goodreads lists is technically contextually incorrect).
a potent examination of power and how it manifests via the neurosis of the white american psyche. we see racial dynamics in the form of psychological drama. the baiting-and-switching and gas lighting are wild. however, i have a problem w/ the gendering of races + the undertones of homophobia.
"Don't make the mistake, through some irresponsible surge of Christian charity, of talking too much about the advantages of Western rationalism, or the great intellectual legacy of the white man, or maybe they'll begin to listen. And then, maybe one day, you'll find they actual do understand exactly what you are talking about, all the fantasy people. All these blues people. And on that day, as sure as shit, when you really believe you can 'accept' them into your fold, as half-white trusties late of the subject peoples. With no more blues...all of those ex-coons will be stand-up Western men, with eyes for clean hard useful lives, sober, pious and sane, and they'll murder you. They'll murder you, and have very rational explanations. Very much like your own."
to be clear, this play is highly critical of the liberal, assimilationist perspective but also unfolds through the eyes of a middle-class black man. it's LeRoi Jones on the brink of becoming Amiri Baraka (so the author that Goodreads lists is technically contextually incorrect).
a potent examination of power and how it manifests via the neurosis of the white american psyche. we see racial dynamics in the form of psychological drama. the baiting-and-switching and gas lighting are wild. however, i have a problem w/ the gendering of races + the undertones of homophobia.
November 23, 2021
This book is heavily postmodern, and that’s just not my vibe… but that’s a me problem, not a book problem.
There are small parts that I didn’t love, mostly regarding the lack of explanation behind Lula’s actions in the Dutchman (I feel like too much was left up to interpretation and it was hard to figure out what the author actually meant).
There are small parts that I didn’t love, mostly regarding the lack of explanation behind Lula’s actions in the Dutchman (I feel like too much was left up to interpretation and it was hard to figure out what the author actually meant).
March 28, 2017
The Dutchman and the Slave are two plays by Leroi Jones (Amiri Baraka) from 1964. Both plays deal with black/white relations, specifically slave heritage and oppressor heritage respectively. Also, both make the point that sexual relations across racial lines does not increase understanding, nor should it contribute to any sense of authority about the life of the other.
In the Dutchman, we witness a subway ride with Clay, a early-20s middle class black man, and Lula, a closer to 30, provocative white woman. Throughout the play Lula teases Clay, hints towards the prospect of sex, claims to know about his "type", then later moves towards insults and "Uncle Tom" derisions, escalating the scene significantly. Basically, at its core, Clay is representative of black assimilationists, and Lula could be any white liberal who claims to know how black people are and how they should be, and Amiri Baraka ultimately seems to have no patience for either one of them.
If the Dutchman is full of hatred, the Slave takes that theme to a whole different level. In this play, we have 3 characters Grace and Easley, a white liberal couple; and Walker a black man that we are first introduced to as drunk with a gun, but later find out that he is the ex-husband of Grace. In the background explosions indicate a present or future war between blacks and whites. Walker is the leader of a violent radical black liberation movement whose ultimate goal seems to be to kill all white people. We learn that Grace had left Walker years before for the very simple reason that if his goal was to kill all white people, and she happened to be white, then she couldn't consider herself safe. Even though Walker is a murderer, he is still clearly a victim in this play, since the need for violent racial war could only arise out of decades of oppression without relief. The vitriol builds in this play in such a way that there is only one inevitable conclusion.
These are shocking, angry plays, but especially for the time, gestures such as these were probably the only things that could wake up some people.
In the Dutchman, we witness a subway ride with Clay, a early-20s middle class black man, and Lula, a closer to 30, provocative white woman. Throughout the play Lula teases Clay, hints towards the prospect of sex, claims to know about his "type", then later moves towards insults and "Uncle Tom" derisions, escalating the scene significantly. Basically, at its core, Clay is representative of black assimilationists, and Lula could be any white liberal who claims to know how black people are and how they should be, and Amiri Baraka ultimately seems to have no patience for either one of them.
If the Dutchman is full of hatred, the Slave takes that theme to a whole different level. In this play, we have 3 characters Grace and Easley, a white liberal couple; and Walker a black man that we are first introduced to as drunk with a gun, but later find out that he is the ex-husband of Grace. In the background explosions indicate a present or future war between blacks and whites. Walker is the leader of a violent radical black liberation movement whose ultimate goal seems to be to kill all white people. We learn that Grace had left Walker years before for the very simple reason that if his goal was to kill all white people, and she happened to be white, then she couldn't consider herself safe. Even though Walker is a murderer, he is still clearly a victim in this play, since the need for violent racial war could only arise out of decades of oppression without relief. The vitriol builds in this play in such a way that there is only one inevitable conclusion.
These are shocking, angry plays, but especially for the time, gestures such as these were probably the only things that could wake up some people.
August 10, 2015
Review of The Slave
Once more, I feel as if this play would be very powerful if I saw it performed live, but just reading it leaves a lot to be desired. Furthermore, I believe that the whole idea of a militant black war lord hellbent on starting a race war against whites was done much better in Sam Greenlee's book, The Spook Who Sat By the Door.
After reading both Dutchman & The Slave, I have to say that Amiri Baraka's work makes me feel like I'm being dropped into the middle of his writing and getting surrounded by chaos without knowing how the conflicts started. I only fully understand and "get" the plots AFTER I've researched the plays' historical impact. I think I'd prefer to study Baraka's work as a part of a curriculum so that I can be sort of safeguarded through it.
Once more, I feel as if this play would be very powerful if I saw it performed live, but just reading it leaves a lot to be desired. Furthermore, I believe that the whole idea of a militant black war lord hellbent on starting a race war against whites was done much better in Sam Greenlee's book, The Spook Who Sat By the Door.
After reading both Dutchman & The Slave, I have to say that Amiri Baraka's work makes me feel like I'm being dropped into the middle of his writing and getting surrounded by chaos without knowing how the conflicts started. I only fully understand and "get" the plots AFTER I've researched the plays' historical impact. I think I'd prefer to study Baraka's work as a part of a curriculum so that I can be sort of safeguarded through it.
July 31, 2017
I've been looking for plays to pair with a study of Othello and I thought Baraka seemed a perfect fit. Dutchman is a little too difficult for my 10th graders to navigate and hard to dramatize but I am definitely advocating for The Slave to be on our reading list for the fall. For a shorter play it is really intense and there will be a lot for students to work through. As well, the overt nod to Othello in the play is a great starting point for comparison. While the play is violent and disturbing, the content is an excellent source for discussion about race and gender.
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September 5, 2024Sean Keith gifted me a copy of this book and it was already falling apart when it got to me. Now none of the pages stay together and I have to recycle it.
December 4, 2023
A novel that talks about racism towards blacks, a shocking novel that aims to shed light on concepts such as the bourgeoisie, white-collar people, and the residents of the poor neighborhood of Harlem, and the psychological conflict of the hero between his belonging to American society and his sense of loss of identity because he has colored skin.
The writer of the novel, who converted to the Islamic religion in an attempt to search for a lifeline from the racism that has taken root in Western societies, a religion that emphasizes one concept: that there is no superiority for a white person over a black person except through the fear of God, and that human beings of all colors are equal before God.
The writer of the novel, who converted to the Islamic religion in an attempt to search for a lifeline from the racism that has taken root in Western societies, a religion that emphasizes one concept: that there is no superiority for a white person over a black person except through the fear of God, and that human beings of all colors are equal before God.
June 17, 2025
Serve (?)
Read for a class
Read for a class
Read
June 17, 2012Maybe you know Dutchman? So The Slave is a science fiction play that takes place in the middle of the race war everyone in the 70s was afraid would happen. Given the damage of the war (everyone), this is the, oddly, more optimistic of the plays in that it’s a cautionary tale. It takes place in the future. There’s still time.
And it makes sense that Dutchman is paired with this. In fact, it almost seems necessary to read them together. In one Hettie Jones (basically) kills LeRoi Jones in a present day public space. In another Amiri Baraka kills Hettie Jones and her academic husband in a domestic space in the future. In one the white passengers in the train are complicit in the murder. In the other, it is Baraka’s black army. In Dutchman it’s Lula/Hettie who is drunk on the power of wielding definitions. In The Slave, it is Walker/Baraka. Who is also literally drunk. Etc etc etc. If you want to figure out what Baraka is saying, you’ve got to take the narrow road defined by these two. Boy I sure wish I knew what he was saying.
"You don't know anything except what's there for you to see" (Clay)
And it makes sense that Dutchman is paired with this. In fact, it almost seems necessary to read them together. In one Hettie Jones (basically) kills LeRoi Jones in a present day public space. In another Amiri Baraka kills Hettie Jones and her academic husband in a domestic space in the future. In one the white passengers in the train are complicit in the murder. In the other, it is Baraka’s black army. In Dutchman it’s Lula/Hettie who is drunk on the power of wielding definitions. In The Slave, it is Walker/Baraka. Who is also literally drunk. Etc etc etc. If you want to figure out what Baraka is saying, you’ve got to take the narrow road defined by these two. Boy I sure wish I knew what he was saying.
"You don't know anything except what's there for you to see" (Clay)
August 7, 2024
This review is for Dutchman. Some plays translate well being read alone and silently, while others need to be voiced in community. Dutchman thrives in the latter. A friend and I decided to make this the "book" we'd read together. So I read it, and it annoyed me because my background and biases couldn't handle holding it alone. On the day we decided to gather and discuss it, my friend flipped the script and suggested that we read the play aloud, with me as the female character and him as the male. Then he invited another friend to create a live in the moment soundscape to the dialogue. It's what I needed to appreciate, "hear," see, and better understand the work with my identities getting in the way. My suggestion is to read this with your irrelevant and creative self glasses on.
August 24, 2023
Reasonable short set of plays by LeRoi Jones/ amiri baraka. Can’t say I am confident that I got close to 100% out of them but I definitely can see some messages hat could be valuable hidden away in the very good dialogue. Didn’t know he did plays, thought just short stories(which I guess these could be categorized as too but idk) so nice to read something different too. Not that impactful to me so lower rating but not bad at all.
Good in fact
Good in fact
October 26, 2022
*3.5 stars*
*read for school*
Both stories were great, but I think I liked The Slave more; I really liked the pacing of the play and the way tension is built between the characters throughout the story.
*read for school*
Both stories were great, but I think I liked The Slave more; I really liked the pacing of the play and the way tension is built between the characters throughout the story.
April 24, 2022
Read for class, a lot to analyze, perhaps too much
March 22, 2023
I know that Baraka was a very intelligent man and one who greatly influenced the Black Arts movement, however his brilliance and fight against racism are clouded by his own prejudices. I have read four of his works, including these two plays, and they are all littered with rampant anti-semitism, misogyny, and homophobia. It almost distracts the reader completely from the point of the work. Additionally, his works are often very convoluted and busy and while I know the purpose of the style it does not always work in his plays and almost comes off as pretentious where you have to dig deep to see what he is even saying. The plays do have important things to say about anti-blackness and the black experience but these factors of his work I could not ignore, it made them unenjoyable for me.
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