Amiri Baraka is known for his drama, poetry, and founding of the Black Arts Movement. His works Dutchman and The Slave are considered companion pieces in Black America’s “consciousness epic.” At the time of their staging and publication, Baraka was still known as LeRoi Jones and had yet to publish his revolutionary and artistic credos and manifestos.
Baraka wrote Dutchman in less than twenty-four hours and first staged it in 1964 in New York City at the Cherry Lane Theatre. It flummoxed mainstream critics, with Newsweek saying, “while Dutchman is indeed powerful and violent, so is an aircraft carrier, which is not by those tokens a work of art.” The New York Times mused, “If this is the...
