It was an act of solidarity and defiance that seemed to make no sense: the Newark School Board last month voted unanimously to name Amiri Baraka as the district's official poet laureate. The move coincides with the New Jersey legislature's efforts to force Baraka out as the state's poet laureate -- even if it means abolishing the post -- after his September 20th performance of a poem called "Somebody Blew Up America" in which Baraka rehashes the imbecilic rumor that Jews were forewarned of the World Trade Center attack. Why would the nine-member school board, funded by the state, intentionally...
