[6] Bakari formed Kuumba Productions with Menelik Shabazz and Henry Martin, and was a founder member of Ceddo Film and Video Workshop,[7] an outlet for new young, primarily black, talent.

He then made Street Warriors in 1985, and The Mark of the Hand in 1986 for the Arts Council of Great Britain on the work of Caribbean artist Aubrey Williams.

[8] The latter "was a pioneering work and to this day, sympathetic and sensitive documentary film studies of Black British artists, such as Mark of the Hand, remain a rarity.

During the 1970s, he worked at the Keskidee Arts Centre, where his performances included the lead role in the first production of Alem Mezgebe's Pulse in 1977, directed by Rufus Collins.

In 1985, Bakari worked on Compound Images, Coming Up for Air, and The Balmyard in 1986 with Don Kinch's Staunch Poets and Players.

[20] He has also published the collections of poetry Sounds & Echoes (Karnak House, 1981),[21] Secret Lives (Bogle-L'Ouverture Publications, 1986),[22] and Without Passport or Apology (Smokestack Books, 2017).