AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT: Naropa Lectures

August 1985. Manuscript. Left margins a little ragged from being torn from a tablet; last page detached from staple. Near Fine. A handwritten ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT titled "Naropa Lectures" by Baraka consisting of 21 pages on both sides of eleven 7-1/4" x 11-3/4" lined sheets stapled in the upper left corner. Baraka's notes for his lectures at Naropa where he taught at Naropa’s Jack Kerouac School during the late 1970s through the 1980s, introducing students to the Black Arts Movement, radical political poetry, and the importance of cultural inclusivity in literature and encouraging students to explore writing that was rooted in activism and cultural critique. These notes cover a wide expanse of Baraka's views on image, metaphor, rhythm, critical realism, the oral tradition, slavery, the Harlem Renaissance, American culture, African-American art and music, and more. Nearly all of the entries are short bursts of thought and not worked out in great detail, likely so that he could remind himself of topics to discuss while lecturing. The last line of the notes is telling: "Defeat Reagan, Preserve the Future!"