On Dec. 5, 2024, the ground-floor NAC Ballroom at City College held an electric event of joy and inspiration for one of Harlem’s favorite sons: James Baldwin. The event was more than a celebration of the author’s canon of work — his inspirational essays, innovative novels, a Broadway play. It was a homecoming: Baldwin attended City College in 1948, but elected to head to Paris before graduation. A century after his birth, the institute welcomed him home as a son of literature and letters.
The day was filled with music and readings provided by the City College Music Department, as well as students from Baldwin’s alma mater, DeWitt Clinton High School, creative luminaries, noted writers, CCNY faculty, and students, alongside community members who love Baldwin’s work.
Herb Boyd, former professor of Black studies at City College and author of “Baldwin’s Harlem: A Biography of James Baldwin” (2008), led a keynote panel that provided an intimate discussion of Baldwin’s relationship to the community. Boyd and Trevor Baldwin, nephew of the writer and founder of the Baldwin United Fund, praised Baldwin for being “raised in the crucible of racism” yet allowing his “talent and purpose to make his world view.”
Readings by Baldwin Writing Contest winners from the Harlem Renaissance High School followed, including Baldwin’s own “A Letter to My Nephew,” delivered by 12th grader Ahlanna Williams of Dewitt Clinton High School. Written in 1962, Baldwin’s words of wisdom and support are as relevant today as they were more than 60 years ago. The essay closed with: “… But you come from sturdy peasant stock, men who picked cotton, dammed rivers, built railroads, and in the teeth of the most terrifying odds, achieved an unassailable and monumental dignity. You come from a long line of great poets, some of the greatest poets since Homer. One of them said, ‘The very time I thought I was lost, my dungeon shook and my chains fell off.’”
A soul-soothing, jazzy rendition of “Go Tell it on the Mountain,” delivered by City College music department students, followed the readings, paired with a luncheon prepared by Jacob Soul Food, which made the perfect introduction to a special screening.
The event “newly brought back to life” Baldwin’s 1978 Langston Hughes Festival address, “The Artist in an Alien Culture,” recently discovered in the basement of a City College building, according to Emily Raboteau, professor of Black studies at CCNY. She described how the archival film, never seen before today,” was restored and renewed. The 40-minute black-and-white film delivered a rare treat: a new vision of Baldwin being Baldwin, fresh and inspirational. Audience members applauded and cheered at sections of the speech as if they were witnessing the events in real-time.
The afternoon concluded with two writer panels. “Baldwin in Harlem, Our Hometown Giant” featured Maurice Wallace, Kima Jones, Manan Ahmed Asif, and Boukary Sawadogo. Moderated by Emily Raboteau, the panel shared reflections on Baldwin through their favorite quotes from his works and how those words still sustain them today.
Moderator Kedon Willis held a discussion with Farah Jasmine Griffin, Rich Blint, and Soraya Palmer that provided a broader examination of “Baldwin in the World: His Trans-Atlantic Legacy,” focusing on Baldwin’s self-imposed exile in Turkey, Paris, and Switzerland.
This visionary afternoon — the brainchild of CCNY Baldwin scholar Professor Gordon Thompson, along with Raboteau, Michelle Valladares, William Gibbons, Shamecca Harris, Megan Skelly, Kedon Willis, Jerry Carlson, and Janee Moses — was yet another “great day in Harlem.” As thank you’s were warmly delivered and the audience slipped back into their coats, the afterglow remained in the room and the hallways of City College.
Please join us in Accra Ghana to celebrate the 157th birthday of Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois on 23rd February 2025.