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Allen Ginsberg recites: 'which of the masks is cool?' It is always the mask of the committed. LeRoi Jones became known as a beat poet. The Cuban Revolution was an important stimulus to his political activism. He adopted another name (Amiri Baraka) and propagated consciousness in Harlem when he still believed in culturnal nationalism. During the shooting of this perfect portrait he was under threat of a 90-day sentence for resisting arrest when he was having a row with his wife in the car. We follow Baraka in the two weeks before the court case. He gives a press conference, recites phenomenal political poems: 'Whalers', 'Weimar 2', 'Running Dogs'. There are painful fragments from the black and white film version of his play 'Dutchman', in which a young black poet rants and raves at white subway riders; after his playful performance the result is only a painful surprise for himself. It isn't fiction, as also becomes clear from the verdict in the current case.
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