Amiri Baraka (1934-2014) was the founder and editor of the literary journals Yugen and Kulchur. An outspoken public intellectual, he was the author of poetry, plays, novels, and essays. The collection consists of poetry manuscripts and correspondence submitted to Baraka while editor of Yugen. Some material relates to Kulchur.

Amiri Baraka was born Everett LeRoi Jones on October 7, 1934 in Newark, New Jersey. He attended Rutgers University and graduated from Howard University. After some graduate study in New York City, he joined the U.S. Air Force. Upon his discharge he returned to New York and took up writing poetry in earnest. To distribute the work of other poets as well, he and his wife, Hettie Cohen, founded Totem Press and the literary journal Yugen. With the poet Diana di Prima, he also founded the journal Kulchur. Always politically active, throughout the 1960s, he became more radical and embraced Black nationalism. Later, he distanced himself from Black nationalism to adopt a more globalistic Communism. For the rest of his life, he would be known as much for his controversial political views as for his poetry. Baraka died on January 9, 2014 in the city of his birth.

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