with the Baraka Equation, as long the poem was being read to a small, local audience, it
was not a problem. Once it reached the publication phase and a larger audience,
however, it became a problem. Unfortunately, the powers that be never see dialogue
and discussion as the solution to the “problem.” Instead, they retaliate with censorship
and litigation.
Baraka faced a similar situation except that he was never vindicated or cleared in
court. “In Postscript: No Black Ink in Fax” he says that on October 1, 2001 he wrote the
poem and circulated it on the Internet (52). In April 2002, he was named Poet Laureate
in New Jersey and thereafter read at the Dodge Poetry Festival in September (5