All Things James Baldwin.

crudamoral: absolutely exquisite photographs of james baldwin...

greydotmatters — Wed, 15 May 2013 14:25:00 -0400

absolutely exquisite photographs of james baldwin in turkey taken from yes magazine’s spread. inspiring, indeed. what spirited and brilliant soul wants to be my travel buddy and muse? let’s live.

Kerry Washington on discovering James Baldwin’s “middle...

greydotmatters — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 21:18:00 -0500

Kerry Washington on discovering James Baldwin’s “middle road”.

Take your time. James Baldwin wouldn't have rushed good work.

greydotmatters — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 20:35:10 -0500

^_^

he was all about the work.

dude why did you stop, keep going!

greydotmatters — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 20:28:21 -0500

haven’t stopped,
just busy. plus it is my mission to only post text, images and the like that can be sourced and cited. that mission can
be a bit time consuming at times, but i’ll be back to posting regularly soon.

25th Anniversary Year of James Baldwin's Transition from the Human Realm

greydotmatters — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 16:17:21 -0500

afrolez:

Today (December 1, 2012) is the 25th Anniversary Year of the physical transition of James Baldwin who (if you don’t know) was a radical Black Gay Human Rights Activist & Literary Giant.

“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”

James Baldwin (August 4, 1924 - December 1, 1987)

knowledgeequalsblackpower: nedahoyin: I don’t know what most...

greydotmatters — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 19:22:55 -0500

knowledgeequalsblackpower:

nedahoyin:

I don’t know what most white people in this country feel but I can only include what they feel from the state of their institutions. James Baldwin on The Dick Cavett Show [X]

—giving the system a fiercely bloody read..

Which I have never seen!!!

grey[dot]matters.: In my experience—and this is a very awkward way to put it, since I...

greydotmatters — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 21:03:09 -0500

grey[dot]matters.: In my experience—and this is a very awkward way to put it, since I...:

In my experience—and this is a very awkward way to put it, since I don’t really know what the word experience means—the strangest people in one’s life are the people one has known and loved, still know and will always love. Here, both I and the vocabulary are in trouble, for strangest does not imply stranger. A stranger is a stranger is a stranger, simply, and you watch the stranger to anticipate his next move. But the people who elicit from you a depth of attention and wonder which we helplessly call love are perpetually making moves which cannot possibly be anticipated. Eventually, you realise that it never occurred to you to anticipate their next move, not only because you couldn’t but because you didn’t have to: it was not a question of moving on to the next move, but simply, of being present. Danger, true, you try to anticipate and you prepare yourself, without knowing it, to stand in the way of death. For the strangest people in the world are those people recognised, beneath one’s senses, by one’s soul—the people utterly indispensable for one’s journey.

James Baldwin
“Just Above My Head”
pp. 376 - 377

sonofbaldwin: “Bearing Witness from Another Place: James...

greydotmatters — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 23:14:01 -0500

sonofbaldwin:

“Bearing Witness from Another Place: James Baldwin in Turkey”

Photograph by Sedat Pakay

organization: Guy Le QuerrecJames Baldwin in his residence,...

greydotmatters — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 18:54:13 -0400

organization:

Guy Le Querrec
James Baldwin in his residence, France 1970

thegang: James Baldwin in Istanbul by Sedat Pakay

greydotmatters — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 09:25:18 -0400

thegang:

James Baldwin in Istanbul by Sedat Pakay

greydotmatters: richard avedon + uncle jimmy....

greydotmatters — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 21:27:02 -0400

greydotmatters:

richard avedon + uncle jimmy. #usedbookstorefinds (Taken with Instagram)

vintageblackglamour: Cicely Tyson, James Baldwin, Arthur...

greydotmatters — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 07:09:58 -0400

vintageblackglamour:

Cicely Tyson, James Baldwin, Arthur Mitchell (dancer and founder,Dance Theatre of Harlem) and Harry Belafonte attend the “To Be Young, Gifted And Black” gala on January 2, 1969 at the Cherry Lane Theater in New York City. Photo by Ron Galella, Ltd./WireImage.

"The paradox of education is precisely this - that as one begins to become conscious one begins to..."

greydotmatters — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 12:15:17 -0400

“The paradox of education is precisely this - that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated. The purpose of education, finally, is to create in a person the ability to look at the world for himself, to make his own decisions, to say to himself this is black or this is white, to decide for himself whether there is a God in heaven or not. To ask questions of the universe, and then learn to live with those questions, is the way he achieves his own identity. But no society is really anxious to have that kind of person around. What societies really, ideally, want is a citizenry which will simply obey the rules of society. If a society succeeds in this, that society is about to perish. The obligation of anyone who thinks of himself as responsible is to examine society and try to change it and to fight it – at no matter what risk. This is the only hope society has. This is the only way societies change.”

- Baldwin’s speech, ” A Talk to Teachers” http://richgibson.com/talktoteachers.htm (via jonubian)

sonofbaldwin: Today in 1924, James Baldwin, father of swag, was...

greydotmatters — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 08:51:42 -0400

sonofbaldwin:

Today in 1924, James Baldwin, father of swag, was born. He would have been 88 years old this year. Happy birthday, Father Baldwin!

INTERVIEW: JAMES BALDWIN Looking Towards the Eighties

greydotmatters — Thu, 17 May 2012 08:09:23 -0400

INTERVIEW: JAMES BALDWIN Looking Towards the Eighties:

James Baldwin, like an Old Testament prophet whose insistent voice refuses to fall silent, has been one of this country’s most persistent witnesses. He is a witness in that he testifies to everything he thinks and feels as we move through the minefields of love/hate, Black/white, rich/poor relationships in twentieth century America.

His complex prose style has often been favorably compared to the King James Version of the Bible (primarily the fire and brimstone old testament). Although books such as The Fire Next Time have earned Baldwin a reputation for being a harsh critic, James Baldwin is actually most concerned with the problems and possibilities of finding and holding love.

While he has not found it easy to live and work in this country, Baldwin continues to prolifically produce novels and essays. Most often he writes from a small town in France, but on occasions he has sent work to us from Turkey. The important thing is that he is not running away but rather searching out a rock, a desk, a stone tablet from which he can find the needed moments of silence and rest out of which will come rushing full force another letter, or a new nerve- jangling essay, or perhaps a huge and rich novel (such as his latest Just Above My Head which some critics think is his best since his first novel Go Tell It On The Mountain).

Having crossed the half-century mark, he is no longer an angry young man: he is an elder. He is a seer who has seen much. There is much we can learn from the visions he has, visions which have been tempered by a long time coming.

James Baldwin, a witness, a writer, a Black survivor: listen, he speaks and it is life-song he is singing.

auntada: If I’d been born in Mississippi, I might have come to...

greydotmatters — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 17:58:40 -0400

auntada:

If I’d been born in Mississippi, I might have come to New York. But, being born in New York, there’s no place you can go. You have to go out. Out of the country. And I went out of the country and I never intended to come back here. Ever. Ever.

—James Baldwin

Baldwin lived in Paris for eight years. Away from America, he was free to explore, through his experiences and his writing, what it meant to be American.

Photo: portrait of James Baldwin as he delivered an address during a West coast tour to benefit of CORE, May, 13, 1963. Photo by Jeff Goldwater, Los Angeles Public Library, Hollywood Citizen News/Valley Times Collection

leahx: My first completed piece of artwork in 2012; a portrait...

greydotmatters — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 21:01:27 -0500

leahx:

My first completed piece of artwork in 2012; a portrait of James Baldwin. No. 2/Colored Pencil and Gold Leaf on Paper.

greydotmatters — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 12:43:37 -0500

James Baldwin having a drink with his brother, David Baldwin, at...

greydotmatters — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 17:41:18 -0500

(image credit: Bob Adelman)

James Baldwin, left, and Paul A. Greenberg helped with the 1963...

greydotmatters — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 17:19:46 -0500

James Baldwin, left, and Paul A. Greenberg helped with the 1963 Salute to Freedom benefit concert near Birmingham, Alabama.

(image credit: Robert Adamenko)