Amiri Baraka

Jun 10, 2024 | poetryfoundation.org | Amiri Baraka |Wanda Coleman

I was grateful to devise and facilitate a workshop called “Standing Outside Myself: The Black Ecstatic.” I began by drawing on ecstasy’s etymology as a framework for our thinking—the idea of “standing outside oneself” or “displacement from the proper place” became a guiding thrust as we explored ecstasy in the black tradition with a three-pronged approach: ecstasy and spirituality, ecstasy and sex/love, and ecstasy and nature.