The 40th mayor of Newark, New Jersey, Ras J Baraka, is paying homage to Black women with a poem on his forthcoming Audible memoir.
On the Audible exclusive, The Book of Baraka, that will be made available to public on February 24th, Baraka will share his journey from a spoken word artist to school principle, to mayor of New Jersey’s largest city.
In a poem entitled “God Must Be A Black Woman”, he pays homage to his mother in celebration of Black women and their importance not only to culture, but the world and society as a whole whole.
“It was my mama who made all the miracles happen in our house. She saved lives for a living, breathed air in our lungs, raised four Black boys in world that tried to suffocate them…” – excerpt from God Must Be A Black Woman
“I am both humbled and grateful to have the opportunity to share my stories of growing up in Newark, being shaped by art and politics in a family that constantly challenged tradition, the world, and itself,” said Mayor Ras J. Baraka. “This is me having a conversation about navigating spaces and trying to transform them at the same time. In one sense it is a regular story of coming of age as a Black Boy in one of America’s cities pushed out into the world. But then again it’s about doing that as the son of Amiri and Amina Baraka who built one of the largest cultural nationalist organizations in this country, helped to organize the largest Black Political conventions in this nation, and created the force that led to the election of Ken Gibson. It shows how their personal and political changes affected me but more importantly it’s about how this music and song was given to me and how I found my own voice trying to sing it.”
