I finished The Fire Next Time on a plane to Greenville, South Carolina. I am here to give a talk tonight about the legacy of the Civil War. I probably should not have read Baldwin before coming into the backyard of John Calhoun and Pitchfork Ben Tillman. I’m all on fire and resolved to bring
A notable contender this awards season, Barry Jenkins’s film If Beale Street Could Talk is an exquisite adaptation of James Baldwin’s novel about black intimacy against the backdrop of white racism. The movie also offers viewers a chance to reflect on the work of an author who is as indispensable today as he was in
During the Harlem Renaissance, which took place roughly from the 1920s to the mid-’30s, many black artists flourished as public interest in their work took off. One of the Renaissance’s leading lights was poet and author Langston Hughes. Hughes not only made his mark in this artistic movement by breaking boundaries with his poetry, he