James Baldwin and Black Power

Born in Harlem in 1924, James Baldwin was a novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, and one of the most influential writers to be associated with the Civil Rights Movement in the US. As part of this year’s celebration of the centennial of his birth, this film programme will feature three short documentaries. All three take place after the height of the Civil Rights era, during the ascendancy of Black Power—a period in which Baldwin’s place within the larger movement underwent a profound and often painful transformation. Interestingly, each work also provides view of the writer abroad: Sadat Pakay’s From Another Place (1970) is a portrait of Baldwin in Istanbul (where he lived, on and off, for a decade); Horace Ové’s Baldwin’s N*****(1969) captures him addressing radical West Indian students in London; and Terence Dixon’s Meeting the Man: James Baldwin in Paris (1971) is a tense, problematic attempt by a British film crew to interview the author in the French capital.

After the screening, there will be a discussion with René Aguigah, the author of the recent book James Baldwin: Der Zeuge (2024).

René Aguigah is head of the literature department at the radio stations Deutschlandfunk and Deutschlandfunk Kultur. He studied history, philosophy, and journalism in Bochum and Dortmund and worked as an editor for WDR radio and later for the journal Literaturen. He served as a member of the jury for the Leipzig Book Fair Prize from 2013-2015 and was a fellow at Thomas Mann House in Los Angeles in 2023. He is the author of James Baldwin. Der Zeuge (C. H. Beck, 2024). 

Tobi Haslett is a writer living in Berlin. Currently a fellow at the ICI Berlin, he has published work in n+1, Harper’s, and elsewhere.

Claudia Peppel is in charge of Academic Coordination and Communication at the ICI Berlin and has co-organized various events.

In English

With

René Aguigah
Tobi Haslett
Claudia Peppel

Organized by

Tobi Haslett and Claudia Peppel

How to Attend

At the venue (registration required): Registration opens on 13 November 2024.

Image credit © Still from the film ‘Meeting the Man: James Baldwin in Paris’ (Terence Dixon, 1971)