August 4, 2024

August 2, 2024 marks the one-hundredth anniversary of James Baldwin’s birth in New York City in 1924. Provocative and controversial during his own time and beyond, Baldwin is being remembered in tributes highlighting his artistry, influences, and the relevance of his work to today’s world.

The BBC released several broadcasts in this vein last month. Among them is the “Front Row” podcast of July 29, 2024, which hosted Colm Tóibín, author of On James Baldwin (Brandeis University Press, 2024). Tóibín noted that Baldwin was a careful reader, a masterful writer, and one who drew upon the ritual of religion to craft soaring and serious prose. Another contributor, Bonnie Greer, noted that Baldwin’s rhythmic sensibility had roots in the craft of Harlem Renaissance poet Countee Cullen, one of Baldwin’s at DeWitt High School.

Closer to home, WNYC interviewed Eddie Glaude, Jr. in its broadcast, “100 Years of 100 Things: James Baldwin.” Glaude spoke about the losses of major civil rights figures in 1968 as having deeply affected Baldwin’s voice of protest. Glaude hears in Baldwin a “poet of the moment” who embodies “grief, betrayal, and possibility all at once”.

The National Museum of African American History & Culture’s program, “Celebrating James Baldwin’s 100th Birthday: His Legacy and Influence on Literature, Film, and Theater,” offers personal reminiscences and observations on Baldwin’s legacy by Suzan-Lori Parks, Robert Jones Jr., and NMAAHC Museum Specialist Tulani Salahu-Din. The speakers are gifted with a light touch as well as a deep enthusiasm for their subject.

To conclude, we recall a most powerful remembrance published upon his death, “James Baldwin: His Voice Remembered; Life in His Language,” by Toni Morrison (New York Times, December 20, 1987, p. 27). It is a beautiful tribute by his friend and ally.

–Mary Beth Clack, Mary Blocher, Cindy Coldren, Pat Krol, Liz Levin
–Published in This Week @Emmanuel Church August 7, 2024