If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin

My readings for the NEH program that I attended this summer really started me on the road to frantically reading trying to understand race and racism.....

On my return home from my summer travels, I read Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, and this book was the first of many that I have read lately that has me really thinking and rethinking my thoughts on race. Reading up on Coates, I found out that he is a student of Baldwin, and I began to think that I need to give Baldwin some of my time. A few books after Between the World and Me, I read Losing My Cool, by Thomas Williams, and he also makes reference to James Baldwin in his book.

So, I called my professor of African American history friend to talk about Baldwin, and he gave me lots of insight, and he told me to study Baldwin for myself. My friend, Trinia, a fellow NEH scholar, suggested that I read some of Baldwin’s essays, and another friend, Rob, suggested that I read The Last Interview and Other Conversations. 

So, I decided to read the interviews first to get to know Baldwin better, then I read his essays where he eloquently expounds upon some of the issues in American as he saw them, and he even offered some hope. Finally, If Beale Street Could Talk, a fiction piece, was highly recommended by my friend, Julia, and so I spent one of the most beautiful days sitting at my favorite market frantically reading If Beale Street Could Talk.

If Beale Street Could Talk is told from the perspective of a nineteen year old lady, Tish, who is madly in love with twenty-two year old, Fonny. Tish’s voice is so clear and honest, and she tells about the love between she and Fonny in a manner that would make even the love doubter want to fall in love. 

However, Fonny is in jail for rape, and Tish and her entire family are doing all that they can to get her love out of jail and home to her and his baby that she is carrying. However, being that this is a James Baldwin story, it just ain’t that simple when a person is Black and living in America.

I was enthralled by this story and was believing for a happy ending, but I am coming to the realization that sometimes the happy ending just does not come, and it didn’t in If Beale Street Could Talk.

This story is short and intense and it shows the complexity of race and racism in American, and I Oh how I wish that the details of this story did not ring true today. But, sadly they do.

My people, I finished this book with an extremely heavy heart, mainly because I am a sucker for happy endings, but really because I thought of the pain that writing this book must have caused James Baldwin.

This is a book that needs to be read and discussed, and read again and discussed, and then read again and discussed...

James Baldwin is someone whom we all should read, and I almost never use the word should, but should is an appropriate word when it comes to reading James Baldwin.

So, my people, for awhile, I must escape this intense world of reading that has completely engulfed me in order to give my heart and brain a little break. So, I will be reading The House Girl by Tara Conklin. I sure hope that it offers the relief that I need...

The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin

So, today at the beach I read The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin....

The Fire Next Time is autobiographical, and its starts when Baldwin is around fourteen years old when he and his peers start to change: “And there seem to be no way whatever to remove this cloud that stood between them and the sun, between them and love and life and power, between them and whatever it is they wanted.”

My people, this book gave me much to think about, and I will be thinking about the ideas in this book for quite a long time. In the racial charged times in which we are living, this is a book that can generate great discussions on race, and at the same time, offer some solutions. I am beginning to believe, like Baldwin that “color is not a human or a personal reality; it is a political reality.” Why can’t we all just be American????

I’ll leave you with the words of Baldwin on how we can heal this country or burn: “If we - and now I mean the relatively conscious Whites and the relatively conscious Blacks, who must, like lovers, insist on, or create, the consciousness of the others - do not falter in our duty now, we may be able, handful that we are, to end the racial nightmare, and achieve our country, and change the history of the world. If we do not dare everything, the fulfillment of the prophecy, re-created from the Bible in song by a slave, is upon us: God gave Noah the rainbow sign, No more water, the fire next time."

My People, read this timely classic, and let’s talk.......

I am going to read one more book by Baldwin that was recommended to me by a friend: If Beale Street Could Talk.

You MUST experience Baldwin for yourself......

Nobody Knows My Name by James Baldwin

I spent the day in one of my favorite places, Rehoboth Beach, and I finished Nobody Knows My Name by James Baldwin. Not necessarily a beach read but....

You know, reading James Baldwin’s thoughts are so liberating. This man was a thinker, and he had no trouble speaking his truth. (I totally admire his courage!)

In this collection of essays that was published in 1961, we get to read many of Baldwins’s candid thoughts on what it means to be an American, the American South and North at that time, inner cities, William Faulkner, and Richard Wright. Many of the essays made me read and reread and ponder.

If nothing else, these essays show how important it is to be a critical thinker and to know that once we write our thoughts and share them, we have no control over how they will be received or percieved. (Pay close attention to the chapters on Richard Wright.)

Here is an article from 1961 on Nobody Knows My Name that basically sums up this entire collection of essays.

I’m not through with James Baldwin yet, and as I soak up the sun tomorrow, I will be reading The Fire Next Time.....

I just love me some James Baldwin!

Happy Holiday Weekend, My People.......

One Love???????

Quite a few of my friends and I are in our early 40's. I received a text from my dear friend T. Smith, and he wanted to let me know that he and a few of our other friends are turning forty and are having a birthday party in June in Chicago, and I responded, "I will be there...welcome to the 40 club. It's so awesome." T. Smith, being T. Smith, asked: "Better sex?," and I responded "Everything is better."

I can't speak for all people in their forties, but in my forties, I feel everything more intensely. I really see and love trees deeply; when I see and talk to my mom, I feel so much love for her until it is mind blowing; when I get pictures of my nieces and nephews, I look and think about how much I love them; when I am with people, I listen intensely, because I want to hear and feel what they are telling me; I can't even began to explain how I feel about my students once I really get to know them and their parents and their ideas.... and it goes on and on and on..... I cry all of the time, and it's not always because I'm sad, I cry mostly because I feel things so intensely, and one of my responses is to cry. I just can't help it.....

Yesterday, I was talking to a teacher about the the last four years with an African American President and this recent Presidential campaign, and I started to tear up. This racism that seems to be ruling this country makes me so sad, and being an action person, I want to get on TV, and say "Lets get together and feel alright," but I know that it is just not that simple.

This Presidential election has made me think about being raised in Alabama and now living in Northern Virginia and how much my life has changed. Many of my friends in college can not believe how open and accepting I have become, and I am still a work in progress. Growing up, I do not remember having any person of a different race that I would call friend, but today I do. What expanded my circle is doing things that I love to do with people who like to do the same things, and my circle expanded more than I could have ever imagined. I show up for all types of group activites and classes expecting to meet great people, and I do most of the time. However, I know when people do not want to be bothered, and I respect their decision, pray for them, and move on to people who do want to be bothered.

So, the teacher whom I was talking to yesterday, happens to be a mid-aged White lady from California whom I have been working with for about five years. We speak to each other, but we really have not had much interaction. However, at the beginning of the year, not sure how it came up, she told me about the book that I am currently reading titled Cutting for Stone. I absolutely love this book so far and guess what we were talking about in the hallway this morning? This book, where she and I were raised, race issues in this country and on and on and on...Who would have known that two people from two different worlds could have something in common that could possibly spark the beginning of a friendship?

It seems so simple for us to just spend time with people who have common interest, respect and try to understand people who like totally different things than us, and then go into complete acceptance, and maybe we could "just get along" as stated by Rodney King. But, I know that it is just not that simple.

I can't change the world, but I can change my response to it and maybe influence a few people, and pray.........

Those intense feelings can be overwhelming sometimes, but I am beginning to believe that it comes with the territory of being in the 40s, and I wouldn't change that for nothing...

James Baldwin wrote that "Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced."