August 2, 2024, marked the 100th birthday of writer James Baldwin.
For Dr. Neal Lester, the director of Arizona State University’s Project Humanities, Baldwin’s voice in the American conversation has never felt more relevant. Which is why he recently threw Baldwin a birthday party.
On a warm Tuesday evening, Lester invited anyone who wanted to celebrate Baldwin’s 100th birthday to Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe.
“So because this is a birthday party — James Baldwin’s birthday was actually early August, but we’re going to treat it like the whole month,” Lester said to the attendees. “So we’re going to sing ‘Happy Birthday.’ And the ‘Happy Birthday’ is not the Stevie Wonder version, because I never know when that stops.”
(Crowd sings along to “Happy Birthday”)
The back of the store was packed, which Lester didn’t take lightly.
“And I do want to say this, though, because I know that there’s something really big happening in Chicago right now. And, the fact that you are here and maybe recording it at home means a lot,” he said.
Seventeen hundred miles away at the United Center in Chicago, the Democratic Party was holding a roll-call vote to celebrate the nomination of Kamala Harris, the first Black woman to become a major party presidential nominee. Meanwhile, two weeks earlier in Utah, the Republican state Legislature had instituted a statewide ban on books by Margaret Atwood and Judy Blume.
“James Baldwin is probably one of those authors that would be banned right now,” Lester said.
Two Changing Hands staffers set up microphones at the front of the crowd, and Lester explained how this party was going to work. Anyone there was welcome to take a turn behind the mic for two to three minutes, to share either a favorite passage from Baldwin’s writing or just offer their own personal experience of how Baldwin’s work has impacted their lives.
“Sort of like an open mic, but not so formal,” Lester said. “We just want you to share. There’s a way in which you can still experience James Baldwin without having read all of James Baldwin. And there’s a certain way in which James Baldwin brings about a vibe. All you got to do is hear a speech or read a passage, and it sort of stays with you.”
It was possible, Lester admitted, that the evening might not feel as festive as a birthday party.
“This feels a little like a eulogy, doesn’t it?” Lester said. “We can just share the words because the words speak.”
The first speaker told the story of starting a Black men’s book club and reading Baldwin’s 1956 novel “Giovanni’s Room.”
“I thought the main character was Black, and when I prepared for the book club, I discovered he wasn’t because the story he wanted to tell wasn’t a Black and white story. It was a gay story, and it was about being gay and the issues you had to deal with in the 1950s. The book hit me so hard, and it meant so much to me, because I have an openly gay son who lives his best life,” the speaker said.
“He lives his best life as a gay Black man, and he is able to do that because people like Baldwin, when he wrote that book and began a process of people understanding that gay people are people, too, and to have lives and experiences, ups and downs. And that that book meant so much to me. He made my son’s life better, and I always loved James Baldwin, and I will shut up now.”
A woman approached the mic holding a binder full of papers. She told the crowd that she felt inspired not only by Baldwin’s writing, but by his decision to live and work as an expatriate in Paris.
“I grew up in Arizona, in Phoenix, and it was not the best experience,” she said. “So I left, just like Baldwin left America. I went to San Francisco, and I worked in the data network industry with all ex-military white men. And so this is a piece I wrote called ‘Crawl Out of the Graveyard,’ and it’s advice to my younger self.
“Just quit. You’ll never be white, which means at B of A you’ll never be right. Quit this damn job. Crawl up from under the dark. Leave this place and never come back. They’ll replace you with another token to check off the box, Black. Get clear of these people, even though you need a job. Each time you go in there, those white men rob you of your peace of mind.”
A young man spoke about his favorite part of “The Fire Next Time,” where Baldwin writes a letter to his 15-year-old nephew about what it’s going to be like to grow up as a Black man.
“He doesn’t only just say what you’re going to go through, and it’s going to look like this and it’s going to be hard. He infuses it with love and hope and how his nephew can get through it. And then right after that, I read ‘Go Tell It on the Mountain.’ I’d never seen myself so fully in a book before.
“I just saw my whole life. I saw the church I went to. I saw my mom. I saw my aunts, I saw my uncles. I saw just the language I grew up hearing. I could see that literature had a place for me, I guess, and inspired me to want to write about these kind of things, just really inspires me.”
Another woman took a deep breath before she spoke.
“I didn’t know I was going to cry. …. To me, it’s this giant love letter to life, and I’m so happy. James Baldwin brought the passion of life. So I’m not here just to say thank you, James Baldwin.”
Eventually, Lester returned to the podium to offer a story of his own.
“I want to show you something that I received,” he said.
Lester reached into his bag and pulled out a letter. He received it not long after Disney announced plans to rebrand Splash Mountain, one of its theme park rides. The original design of Splash Mountain celebrated the racist tropes of the 1946 film “Song of the South.” But in 2020, Disney said they were planning to unveil a new version of the ride, inspired by the 2009 film “The Princess and the Frog,” which portrayed the titular princess as a Black woman.
When the news broke, an Associated Press reporter reached out to Lester for a comment. Lester told them representation matters. And then he got the letter that he just pulled out of his bag.
“‘The first line says there are no problematic racial depictions or stereotypes in Disney movies. It’s just how it was in the past. Disney movies most certainly do not have anything to do with George Floyd and all the looters, killers and vandals from the 2020 protests who should have been arrested and brought to justice! All stereotypes were and are meant to be funny. Grow a thick skin. Sticks and stones.’ That’s the first paragraph. That’s the first paragraph.”
The letter continues, “‘There is no systemic racism in America, and there is no white privilege.’ And then there’s this random thing at the end that says everyone must stop transgender and question it as mental illness. That is a real letter. If you don’t believe it, I’ll pass it around. This is why we need Baldwin.”
Lester reached into his bag again and pulled out a dog-eared collection of Baldwin’s writing with dozens of bookmarks sticking out of it. He flipped through it and read us one of his favorite passages.
“‘The Story of the Negro in America is the story of America. It is not a pretty story.’ He says, ‘I still believe that we can do with this country something that has never been done before. To look around the United States today is enough to make prophets and angels weep.’ Now, that could sound anti-American. But what that really, through my reading of Baldwin, is to encourage us to do better, to be better.”
At the end of the event, I noticed a woman standing towards the back in a Kamala Harris T-shirt. I asked if she was sad she’d missed the DNC broadcast. Not at all, she said. She’d set her DVR to record it. She couldn’t wait to get home and watch.
