Q: How did you get to know Amiri Baraka and/or his work? AA: I was a weird kid. I encountered System of Dante’s Hell, Tales, and Blues People as a teenager, and I never stopped reading him. This would have been 1969, 1970, 1971, those years. I can’t remember when I first actually saw him read or met him. I know I saw some plays in the 1970s and I believe I also heard him read somewhere in that period. But I was close to people who had been close to him: Gilbert Sorrentino, for example, who was a teacher of mine, and then a good friend. By hearing Gil talk about “Roi,” I felt like I knew him before I got to know him, it felt legendary! I certainly got a feeling for his unparalleled sense of humor, which I got to know first-hand later.