Hettie was the spirit of the scene, the mayor of the block, the spark plug (4’ 10 1/2”) that charged the battery that energized the whole Howl! community. Her astonishing, loving, painful autobiography, How I Became Hettie Jones, tells the untold story: what it was like to be a woman in the Beat generation.
—Bob Holman
We are saddened by the passing of Hettie Jones, poet, teacher, human-rights activist, and preservationist, whose tireless creativity and work made her a local hero. A longtime resident of the East Village and close friend to many in the Howl! Community, Jones died at age 90 on Tuesday, August 13, at a care facility in Philadelphia. A native New Yorker who grew up in Queens, she wrote 23 books: three volumes of poetry and a memoir of the Beat Generation, along with publications for children and young adults. The Trees Stand Shining and Big Star Fallin’ Mama: Five Women in Black Music are among her standout books.
One of the most prominent women of the Beat Generation, Hettie lived for over 60 years at 27 Cooper Square, writing, raising a family, and being a social-justice activist who always found time to help others. She even saved her building from being demolished during the development of what is now the Standard Hotel on the Bowery.
In the 1950s, she married the poet LeRoi Jones, who dedicated his first collection of poetry to her, and would later change his name to Amiri Baraka and become prominent in the Black Power movement. Hettie Jones spoke and wrote about the bigotry and antisemitism she faced at that time, both as a Jewish woman and a white woman married to a Black man. They had two daughters: Kellie Jones, a professor of art, archaeology, and African American studies, and Lisa Jones Brown, who co-wrote books with Spike Lee, along with Bulletproof Diva; selections from her Village Voice column.
Hettie and LeRoi (Amiri Baraka) founded a literary magazine, Yugen in 1957, and also the Totem Press, publishing works by Diane di Prima, Gary Snyder, Frank O’Hara, Charles Olsen and legendary Beat writers, including Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and Williams S. Burroughs. Hettie taught poetry and writing at New York University, The New School, Parsons School of Design, and the 92nd Street Y Poetry Center. She was a longtime member of the writers’ organization PEN America, chaired its Prison Writing Committee, and for 13 years led a writing workshop at the women’s maximum-security prison at Bedford Hills, NY.
At Howl! Happening, Hettie Jones taught writing workshops and participated in our annual Allen Ginsberg birthday celebration, where dozens of poets and writers recited his opus, Howl.
From the Howl! Arts Archive:
August 6, 2009
Allen’s soul has left for heaven
and his mortal remains are
divided on earth. One third west,
another east, another in the middle.
Now at last he gives himself
to everyone at once; what can’t be
done in life is easily done
in death. Rest easy, friend, in
all your new locations. Parted
self from self you still are one.
—Hettie Jones
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Nomination of Hettie Jones for a 2019 Village Preservation Award (full statement below):
Poet, memoirist, writing teacher, longtime activist on women’s rights, civil rights, and prisoner’s rights, and a proud mother of two, Hettie Jones has been a powerful force in Greenwich Village and the Lower East Side since the 1950s. One of the most prominent women of the Beat Generation, she co-founded the literary magazine Yugen with her then husband, writer LeRoi Jones (later Amiri Baraka). Their apartments at Morton Street, 14th Street, and 27 Cooper Square were—by her own account—“the scene of notorious parties,” at which one could have met jazz musician Cecil Taylor, artist Larry Rivers, filmmaker Jonas Mekas, and writers Allen Ginsberg, Frank O’Hara, and Jack Kerouac. This artistic ferment was especially powerful at 27 Cooper Square, which helped nurture the influential Black Arts Movement.
Hettie’s acclaimed memoir, How I Became Hettie Jones, vividly describes this artistic whirlwind, her challenges as a wife and mother in a biracial family during Civil Rights Era, the tensions with her Jewish family, and the challenge to find her own way as a poet and writer in a literary scene dominated by men.
Hettie worked for years on the staff of the Partisan Review, and from 1989 to 2002 she conducted a writing workshop at the NY State Correctional Facility for Women at Bedford Hills, including publication of the collection, Aliens at the Border. She is a former chair of the PEN Prison Writing Committee, and serves on PEN’s Advisory Council. She teaches a graduate course in creative writing at the New School, and her writing workshop for mothers at the Lower East Side Girls Club resulted in publication of the collection, I Can Help You with That. In addition to her memoir, Hettie Jones has written well-received books of poetry and several books for children.
In 2007, when a hotel developer announced plans to build the 22-story Cooper Square Hotel, it looked like the 1844 Greek Revival house at 27 Cooper Square would be demolished. Given Hettie’s petite size, it would be easy to call her successful effort to save the structure a David vs. Goliath triumph, but that would diminish her accomplishment. Remarkably, her gentle but persuasive stress on the building’s age and artistic heritage convinced the hotel’s owners, who opted to spare the building and simply utilize the structure’s lower two floors for corporate headquarters. [Hettie also convinced the hotel to reinstall the vintage stained-glass window above the entrance door, which had been removed long before.]
A talented writer, a loving mother and grandmother, a forceful activist, a nurturing teacher, and a friendly neighbor and preservationist, Hettie Jones is the stuff of which neighborhood dreams are made.
Showing no signs of slowing down at 84, she is easily one of the earth mothers of our community.
Prepared by
David Mulkins, President
Sally Young, Secretary
Bowery Alliance of Neighbors
We will miss her dearly.
