James Baldwin – Podcasts

James Baldwin (1924-1987) was a novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, and social critic.

In this series of six podcasts, created for the Festival by Kirklees Local TV to commemorate the centenary of Baldwin’s birth, we will explore his life, writing, social activism and legacy, through a range of discussions and interviews.

James Baldwin was born in Harlem on 2 August 1924, the eldest of nine children. He began writing in the final years of racial segregation in the US, as the civil rights movement gained momentum and moved to Paris in 1948. His first novel Go Tell It on the Mountain appeared in 1953 to excellent reviews. This was followed by bestselling essay collections such as Nobody Knows My Name, Notes of a Native Son and The Fire Next Time, which  made him an influential figure in the growing civil rights movement. His plays also engaged with themes of racism, and, as a gay man, Baldwin became more and more outspoken about discrimination against homosexuals, in his life and work. Baldwin spent much of his life in France, where he died in 1987, a year after being made a Commander of the French Legion of Honor.