Karen Ponzio Photos
Baldwin books available at Possible Futures.
Hosts Lauren Anderson and IfeMichelle Gardin spreading that "book joy" on kick-off night.
The vibe at Possible Futures was lit Thursday night — more specifically Kulturally Lit, as the literary-focused arts organization’s 100 Years of Baldwin Book Club had its inaugural meeting exploring the works of author, playwright, thinker, and civil rights icon James Baldwin.
Celebrated in his lifetime and only revered more with each passing year, James Baldwin has emerged as one of the most important American writers of the 20th century and one of the most incisive, excoriating, and illuminating thinkers about race in America. His novels — among them Go Tell It on the Mountain, Giovanni’s Room, and If Beale Street Could Talk — are already American classics, exploring the Black experience at home and abroad from multifacted, complex angles. He was also a prolific essayist, publishing steadily from 1949 until his death in 1987. His longform piece The Fire Next Time, published in 1963, remains one of the most powerful accounts around about racial tension and the possibility for violence and revolution in the United States.
If that were not enough, Baldwin was also a truly brilliant interview subject, his command of language as powerful when he spoke as when he wrote. In conversations, he usually danced circles around everyone else in the room. It was easy to see why he was so prolific as a writer. Seemingly every sentence that fell from his mouth was a gem. Few people could think so fast, and so deep, as he did. Thanks to his novels, essays, and interviews, he has become one of the architects of our understanding of the dynamics and construction of race and racism in America. The conversation about all of that today, whether people know it or not, is infused with his astonishing insight and intellect, his passion, his anger, and his despair, but also his determination, his beauty, and his hope.
Slated to meet every third Thursday at the bookstore and gathering space on Edgewood Avenue, the 100 Years of Baldwin Book Club is one of many events scheduled in 2024 by Kulturally Lit to celebrate The Year of Baldwin, in which they plan to “engage the power of Black history and culture through the lens of James Baldwin.”
I Am Not Your Negro, the book that was the focus of Thursday night’s book club, is the companion book to the documentary of the same name directed by Raoul Peck. Both the book and the film include published and unpublished pieces from books, essays, letters, interviews and notes Baldwin took for a book he had planned on writing called Remembering the House, which focused on three civil rights icons and friends of his who were all assassinated: Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King, Jr. The movie is being screened at Mitchell Library on Monday, Jan. 29, with a talkback afterwards with Kulturally Lit’s founder and director IfeMichelle Gardin and ConnCORP CEO Eric Clemens.
On this chilly night, under the glow of candlelight and the smiling face of Baldwin on one of the storefront windows, around 30 people gathered to discuss the book, the film, and the man himself.
“What a joy,” said Possible Future’s Lauren Anderson as she welcomed everyone to the space that she called both a bookstore and a “community reading room.” She explained how the book club would go mostly chronologically through 11 more of Baldwin’s books once a month over the entire year.
Gardin then welcomed everyone and explained that Kulturally Lit was an arts organization in its fifth year that presented events focusing on the literary arts, including the annual Elm City Lit Fest. She expressed her excitement over celebrating a whole year of Baldwin, who would have been 100 years old this August.
“His body of work is so timeless,” she said, adding that he was “forward thinking” and “impactful.”
Gardin and Anderson both outlined what the book was about and how the night would progress, with Gardin adding about the discussion, “we got to get into it.”
And get into it they did, starting with participants introducing themselves and saying why they were there. Many had read Baldwin’s works before, but there were just as many who had not and were more familiar with his interviews, or had only read smaller bites of his work. A couple of participants noted that they had read Baldwin when they were younger, and his work “hit different” as they had aged. Others who had not read any of his books noted their excitement at doing so with community and “learning in the spirit of conversation.”
Gardin expressed her joy after the introductions, saying she was “so full” and “in tears” at the opportunity to do such an event, noting that events such as these are “key” in a time when books are being banned by people who don’t read.
“What an opportunity to move forward,” Anderson added. She noted that they were hoping for “organic conversations” about Baldwin and the book throughout the next hour. Babz Rawls Ivy, who was also in attendance, added that she wanted people to feel “safe in the space” regarding their participation.
“No matter how you came to him, there is equal footing here with sharing and speaking,” she said. “Listen with open hearts and open minds,” noting that “real authentic conversation and camaraderie” is “how we build community.”
The conversation then began with Rawls Ivy saying she thought the title of the book was “provocative” and that she was interested in what spoke to others about it. This led to a discussion about Baldwin’s famous decision to leave the United States to go to Paris, and his decision to return.
There was also discussion of how he was recognized in his time. Gardin — noting the “layers” in his work — mentioned how his plays have been performed in Black theaters for years. She noted that Kulturally Lit would be presenting a reading of one of his plays at the Beinecke Library in conjunction with Collective Consciousness Theater later this year. (No date is set yet.)
Some participants had taken notes or highlighted quotes from the book, and those were discussed. There was also a discussion about the film and how its visuals changed the impact of the words for some who had already seen it.
Everyone seemed to agree that in 2024, Baldwin and his words were still “relevant and pertinent” and in some ways, prescient. The discussion went over the allotted hour mark, but it felt like there was so much more to talk about. Fortunately, there will be 11 more opportunities to discuss 11 more books over the next year, and Anderson and Gardin noted that if someone either couldn’t make it to the group or wanted to dig in even further, there was most likely “always someone here” at the space who would be into talking about it, or they were welcome to set up a smaller meet up to chat further.
“The goal is to read the work, engage with the work, and discuss it,” Anderson added.
For someone (like this reporter) who thrives off of the discussion of books, films — any art really — the environment created by Anderson and Gardin as well as the rest of the participants could not have been warmer or more inviting. People lingered after to chat further, to buy more Baldwin books, and to simply be in the company of like-minded individuals. And there was so much more Baldwin, and “book joy,” to come.
For more information about the The Year of Baldwin and/or the 100 Years of Baldwin Book Club please visit the Kulturally Lit website and/or social media pages. You can also find out more via Possible Futures.