James Baldwin
Adrian Lester reads from the novels and essays of Black American writer and activist, James Baldwin set alongside music and archive recordings of Baldwin.
Adrian Lester reads from the novels and essays of the Black American writer, James Baldwin; set alongside Music and Archive recordings of Baldwin. This programme contains some strong discriminatory language.
Writer and civil rights activist James Baldwin was born in Harlem, New York on August 2, 1924, the eldest of nine children.
To be a black person in America, Baldwin once said, was to be 鈥渋n a state of rage almost all of the time.鈥� The racial injustices he witnessed and endured were compounded by his experiences as a gay man, and his writing is deeply embedded in the nuances of racial and sexual identity.
Baldwin鈥檚 first collection of essays, Notes of a Native Son, includes a haunting memoir of the life and death of his stepfather, an evangelical preacher, with whom he had a fraught relationship. During the summer of his fourteenth birthday, Baldwin underwent a dramatic religious conversion and served as a junior minister for three years in a small Pentecostal church, a period he wrote about in his semi-autobiographical first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain. His second collection of essays The Fire Next Time is told in the form of two intensely personal 'letters', one of which is addressed to his 15-year-old nephew, James.
We鈥檒l hear an extract from Giovanni鈥檚 Room 鈥� the novel he published in 1956 which follows a young American man in Paris and explores bi-sexuality, power balances and social isolation, and he became a public figure, taking part in debates and TV shows and publishing books which have been turned into Oscar nominated films, documentaries and have inspired many later activists and writers.
Although Baldwin would claim that he didn't 鈥榢now anything about music鈥�, the prose of his novel Another Country attempts to emulate the sound of jazz musicians, and his fiction and non-fiction is punctuated with references to the blues, gospel and jazz and today鈥檚 Words and Music includes performances by Bessie Smith, John Coltrane and Nina Simone. We also hear classical work by Florence Price, George Walker, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and Margaret Bonds and an extract from an artwork by Tavares Strachan called There is a Light in Darkness Blue neon, yellow neon and synchronised audio art installation courtesy of Marian Goodman Gallery and the Artist, 2024. This is currently on show in the Hayward Gallery exhibition of Tavares Strachan's work which runs until Sept 1st.
Producer: Cecile Wright
Readings:
archive of James Baldwin
excerpts from Giovanni鈥檚 Room
No Name in the Street
Another Country
Go Tell it On the Mountain
The Fire Next Time
Baldwin archive
Notes of a Native Son*
Another Country
Sonny鈥檚 Blues
Letter to my nephew
*permission was granted by Beacon Press, Boston, Massachusetts
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Music Played
Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes
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James Baldwin
archive interview with James Baldwin
![]()
00:00Duke Ellington
Paris Blues
Performer: Duke Ellington and His Orchestra.- Master Classics Records.
- 1.
James Baldwin
Giovanni鈥檚 Room, read by Adrian Lester
![]()
00:05George Walker
Prelude and Caprice
Performer: Alexandre Dossin.- Naxos.
- 1.
James Baldwin
from No Name in the Street: 鈥楾ake Me to the Water鈥� read by Adrian Lester
![]()
00:08George Walker
Prelude and Caprice
Performer: Alexandre Dossin.- Naxos.
- 1.
James Baldwin
Another Country read by Adrian Lester
![]()
00:12John Coltrane
A Love Supreme
Performer: John Coltrane.- Black Sheep Music.
- 1.
![]()
00:13Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
Deep River arr. for violin, cello and piano
Performer: Braimah Kanneh-Mason. Performer: Sheku Kanneh鈥怣ason. Performer: Isata Kanneh鈥怣ason.- Decca Music Group.
- 1.
James Baldwin
Go Tell It on the Mountain, read by Adrian Lester
![]()
00:17William Grant Still
Symphony No. 1, "Afro-American": I. Longing. Moderato assai
Orchestra: Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Conductor: Kellen Gray.- Linn Records.
- 1.
James Baldwin
The Fire Next Time: 鈥楧own at the Cross Letter from a Region in My Mind鈥� read by Adrian Lester
![]()
00:23Meshell Ndegeocello
Hatred
Performer: Meshell Ndegeocello.- Blue Note.
- 13.
James Baldwin
archive interview with James Baldwin
![]()
00:32Margaret Bonds
The Negro Speaks of Rivers
Performer: Robert Honeysucker.- Watch and Pray: Spirituals and Art Songs by African-American Women Composers.
- Koch International Classics.
James Baldwin
from Notes of A Native Son:鈥� Notes of a Native Son鈥� read by Adrian Lester
![]()
00:34George Walker
Response from Nine Songs for Voice & Piano
Singer: Phyllis Bryn鈥怞ulson. Performer: George Walker. Performer: Gregory Walker.- NEW WORLD.
- 10.
James Baldwin
from Notes of A Native Son: 鈥楴otes of a Native Son鈥� read by Adrian Lester
![]()
00:42Miles Davis
Blue in Green
Performer: Miles Davis. Featured Artist: John Coltrane & Bill Evans.- Kind Of Blue (Legacy Edition).
- Columbia/Legacy.
James Baldwin
Another Country read by Adrian Lester
![]()
00:48Bessie Smith
Back Water Blues
Performer: James P. Johnson.- Legacy Recordings.
- 1.
![]()
00:49Florence Price
The Mississippi River: Adante- Allegretto- Allegro
Performer: Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra.- Naxos.
- 1.
James Baldwin
Go Tell It on the Mountain read by Adrian Lester
![]()
00:57Mahalia Jackson
Go tell it on the Mountain
- Joy to the World - A Gospel Christmas.
- Intermusic S.A..
- 8.
James Baldwin
from Going to Meet the Man: 鈥楽onny鈥檚 Blues鈥� read by Adrian Lester
![]()
01:03Oscar Peterson
Oscar's Blues
Performer: Oscar Peterson.- : Documents 2.
- 1.
Tavares Strachan
There is a Light in Darkness Blue neon, yellow neon and synchronised audio art installation
James Baldwin
from The Fire Next Time 鈥楳y Dungeon Shook: Letter to my Nephew on the One Hundreth Anniversary of the Emancipation鈥�, read by Adrian Lester
![]()
01:12Nina Simone
To Be Young, Gifted And Black
Composer: Weldon Jonathan Irvine Jr.. Performer: Nina Simone.- Forever Young, Gifted And Black: Songs Of Freedom And Spirit.
- RCA/Legacy.
Broadcast
- Sun 4 Aug 2024 17:30蜜芽传媒 Radio 3
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