Chinua Achebe: “The Day I Finally Met Baldwin”
You should have seen his severe countenance crumble instantly into boyish happiness…With typical hyperbole, Baldwin called me his buddy, a brother he had not seen in 400 years. More
Hilton Als on James Baldwin
I had wanted to dislike him more than I do in order to have some distance from his influence, but it is an influence I have absorbed. More
Nikki Giovanni: Making James Baldwin
Never deny what your heart knows is the truth. Never turn your back on what your mind knows is right. Never refuse to hear the cry of the angry… More
Nikki Giovanni: Making James Baldwin
"Never refuse to hear the cry of the anguished, or the laughter in the blues." Nikki Giovanni pays tribute to James Baldwin. Listen to this week's #PENpodcast in honor of… More
Amiri Baraka: Our Man Jimmy
This excerpt is part of the Twentieth-Century Masters Tribute to James Baldwin, sponsored by PEN American Center and Lincoln Center, with The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture… More
Grand Tour
In America I’m not really a private person. No, I’m a public person. And a public person cannot write. More
Family Secrets
One of the conditions of being a writer is that all those authors you have loved and learned from, and by necessity have taught yourself to forget, the better… More
With Fire and Bare Hands
How do we speak to you who is our voice and still now. Too patient to laugh at us but smiling yes yes and the glass in your hand your steepled knee that elegant rag of… More
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