Newark-base Audible Inc. announced Thursday that it will release The Book of Baraka on Feb. 24, a memoir co-written and narrated by the mayor
, a native son of Brick City, published poet and poet’s son, has authored and narrated an audible memoir to be released next month by Audible Inc, one of the city’s best known businesses., available Feb. 24, will chronicle the 51-year life of the spoken-word recording artist, former high school principal, and, since 2014, mayor of New Jersey’s largest city, his publisher announced on Thursday.
The mayor is the son of the poet Amiri Baraka and his wife and fellow activist Amini Baraka, central figures in Newark literary and political circles and“This is me having a conversation about navigating spaces and trying to transform them at the same time,” he added. “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.
Baraka, who attended Newark public schools and earned a political science degree from Howard University and a master’s in education supervision from Rutgers, is chiefly known as an educator and elected official, having served as principal of Central High School, followed by a stint on the Newark City Council, before being elected mayor in 2014. He was re-elected in 2018, and will be up for a third four-year term in May.