Hettie Jones

Hettie Jones (June 15, 1934 – August 13, 2024) moved from a sheltered upbringing to Greenwich Village bohemia. While at jazz record magazine, The Record Changer, she met LeRoi Jones (later named Amiri Baraka) and married at a time when biracial couples were infrequent. Together they edited and published Yugen, a magazine, and the Totem Press. These featured the Beat Generation, the New York School poets, and Black Mountain writers. This era in her life is described in her seminal memoir, How I Became Hettie Jones. Hettie wrote many books of poetry, children’s books, edited and worked with incarcerated writers.