By Mei Su Bailey | This year, Beacon Press is taking part in the nationwide celebration of James Baldwin’s hundredth birthday with the release of the James Baldwin Centennial Series! Originally published in “Notes of a Native Son,” these essay collections commemorate Baldwin’s legacy as an artist, an activist, a social critic, and a gifted writer. Read more →
11 posts categorized "Jimmy's Blues"
No, I don’t feel death coming. I feel death going: having thrown up his hands, for the moment. I feel like I know him better than I did. Read more →
2016 is a year that speaks for itself. It’s been a rough and tumultuous one, culminating in a divisive presidential election that has many people afraid of what’s in store for the country once the new administration takes office on January 20. When we’re in need of wisdom and guidance during troubling and unpredictable times ahead, we turn to our authors, who continue to offer their time and insights to give us perspective and commentary on the condition of our world. Our blog, the Broadside, wouldn’t be what it is without them. As always, we’re so grateful to them. We’ll need their thought-provoking essays as we head into 2017. Before the year comes to a close, we would like to share a collection of some of the Broadside’s most-read posts. Happy New Year! Read more →
A Q&A with Rich Blint | Baldwin’s consistent and insistent interrogation of how the mythology of race, class, and power operates in America to blind and divide us is singular in its analytical depth, sweep, and emotional power. His work reads as a kind of prophecy simply because he was clear about how profoundly dangerous it has always been for Americans not to confront the truth about the violent racial history of the country. His work must be read as testimony, as, yes, a secular witnessing to the serious perils of indulging in the American fiction of “whiteness” and its purported superiority. Read more →
Q&A with Helene Atwan Photo credit: Bob Kosturko What has been Beacon’s relationship with poetry? For the past decade or more, Beacon’s poetry program, such as it was, focused largely on two key poets we have published over many years,... Read more →
Beacon Broadside: A Year in Review
December 31, 2014
As 2014 comes to a close, we look back at some top Beacon Broadside posts, as well as a few overlooked gems. Read more →
What Would James Baldwin Say About Ferguson?
December 22, 2014
“Staggerlee wonders” is a poem that could have been written for the current moment, a poem imbued with the spirit of #BlackLivesMatter, with the heartbreak and the anger of #ICantBreathe. Read more →
For the 90th anniversary of his birth, we remember the miracle and the conundrum of James Baldwin: the teen preacher turned humanist; the resolutely American expatriate; the voice of rationality for a generation on the edge of revolt; a probing intelligence, unsatisfied by facile or convenient truths. Baldwin was never easy to place in a box, which is exactly why he remains so important to us today. Read more →
Bob Kosturko, creative director for Beacon Press, shares his process for designing the iconic new jacket for James Baldwin's 'Jimmy's Blues.' Read more →
A young Mexican immigrant discovers a new and profound sense of self, identity, and understanding in James Baldwin's classic text 'Notes of a Native Son.' Read more →
A publicity assistant at Beacon Press rediscovers the gift of James Baldwin's words and poetry. Read more →