James Baldwin was an African American essayist, novelist and playwright, who focused on race in America. This made him an important voice in African American Literature and history. Baldwin has created many works throughout his lifetime and interviewed many historical activists in the 60’s and 70’s. Some of his work includes “ If Beale street could talk”  and I am not your Negro. The first work is a play that has turned into a movie, which you can find on Hulu or HBOmax, it uncovers  a love story set in Harlem in the early 1970s. The title is a reference to the 1916 W.C. Handy blues song “Beale Street Blues”, named after Beale Street in Downtown Memphis, Tennessee.Beale Street is the first Baldwin novel to focus exclusively on a black love story; it is also the only novel in his corpus narrated by a woman. Published at the tail end of the Black Arts Movement, it explores love within black life, centering on the emotional bonds holding two African American families together.

It was adapted as a film of the same name, written and directed by Barry Jenkins, and it garnered an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Regina King. The film was released theatrically on December 14, 2018.

The second work is a book that has turned into a documentary which can be found on Netflix. This Documentary is based on James Baldwin’s unfinished work called Remember this house. The film explores the history of racism in the United States through Baldwin’s memories of the civil rights leaders.  Many of these leaders have inspired Baldwin’s work throughout his life. Baldwin also discovered his sexuality as a queer black man, this is embodied in many of his works in the earlier stages of his life.